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Distance Education Goes Global
from: Kyle BesserThe establishment of the Open University in the United Kingdom in 1969 marked the beginning of the use of technology to supplement print based instruction through designed courses. Instructional materials were delivered on a large scale to students in undergraduate, postgraduate and associate program. Course materials were primarily print based, but they were supported and enhanced by a variety of other technologies. No formal educational qualifications have been required to be admitted to the British Open University. Courses are closely monitored and have been successfully delivered to over 100,000 distance learning UK students.
As a direct result the success of the Open University model, their model has been adopted by many countries. Researchers in the United Kingdom continue to be leaders in the field for identifying problems and proposing solutions for distance learning UK. The International Centre for Distance Learning at the Open University maintains the most complete collection of distance learning UK literature in the research and practice of international distance learning. Research studies, evaluation reports, course modules, books, journal articles and other material concerning distance education around the world are available through quarterly accessions lists or online.
The United States was slower to enter the distance education marketplace, but when it did, a unique form of distance education evolved to solve its needs. Teacher shortages in the areas of science, math, and foreign language combined with state mandates to rural schools produced a climate conducive to the rapid growth of commercial courses in the late 1980s. Only a handful of states were promoting distance education in 1987. That number increased to two thirds of the states within a year. By 1989 almost all the states were involved in distance education programs.
One of the most important political documents describing the state of distance education in the United States was the Linking for Learning (Office of Technology Assessment, 1989) report prepared for Congress by the Office of Technology Assessment in 1989. The report gave an overview of distance learning, the role of teachers, and reports of local, state and federal projects.
The report described the state of distance education programs throughout the United States in 1989 and highlighted how technology was being used in the schools. Model state networks and telecommunication delivery systems were outlined and recommendations were given for setting up local and wider area networks. The Panhandle Shared Video Network and the Iowa Educational Telecommunications Network are two examples of operating video networks which were both efficient and cost effective.
In Europe and other Western countries, a global concept was beginning to emerge. In a direct response to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Community, the 12 members of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities proposed a European Open University to begin in 1992. Articles from authors in nine European countries described the use of media and technology in higher education in Europe and reflected upon the need for providing unified educational access in the form of a European Open University to a culturally diverse population.
Telecommunication networks now circle the globe. People from many nations are linked together in novel and exciting ways. As the borders of our global community continue to shrink, we search for new ways to improve communication and access to information on an international scale. Advances in communication and telecommunication technologies provide cost effective solutions to the problems of sharing information and promoting global understanding between people of different nations and cultures. In today's electronic age, it is predicted that the amount of information produced will increase exponentially every year.
In developing world, the population has reached over 5 billion people, most of whom want to be literate and want greater educational opportunities for themselves and their children. The majority of this expanding population is in Asia where there are massive problems of poverty, illiteracy and the spread of disease. In most developing countries, distance education offers the hope of a distance learning system of information distribution through which new ideas, attitudes and understanding for these disadvantaged environments.
Countries such as Pakistan, India and China have drawn upon the distance learning system model of the British Open University and combined modern methods of teaching with emerging technologies to provide cost effective instruction for basic literacy and job training.
By the early 1980s, record numbers of students in developing countries gained access to higher education through distance education programs, but there are problems. Because in many cases, local experts are not available to develop original programs in the native language and culture of the people, the majority of educational programs are either used as presented from the host country or are superficially translated with few adaptations to the local culture.
When done this way, the results are often unsuccessful because the cultural values of the program designer are prominant and not related to the native culture. There are many examples of distance education programs from North America, Australia, Great Britain, and Europe that were purchased but never used in Africa and Asia because the material was not relevant for those countries. The appropriate design of the instructional material is critical to its effectiveness.
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