Distance Learning: Is it really effective? (no spam, please)

[Maharlika]

HLD mentioned Distance Learning in my thread regarding the seemingly diminished appreciation for books (printed text).

Is distance learning truly effective? Does it really meet its goals?

I think that distance learning is only good for higher education (i.e., post grad studies), but is not effective for the primary and secondary levels. The tertiary level (bachelor's degree) could go either way, depending perhaps on the course taken.

Your thoughts? You may present the pros and cons if you want.

[dragon wench]

I think it depends on one's personality...... and also on the nature of what is being studied. Areas to which debate and discussion are inherent....such as literature or philosophy might be less fulfilling if conducted via distance learning.

On the other hand...I would imagine that courses in things like statistics, for example, would not generally suffer if learned from a distance.

Just my two cents anyway

[Scayde]

When I was growing up, we lived in Texas, My Mom's business was in Florida, and My Dads businesses were in NY, Nashville, and New Orleans. I was registered in school in Texas, but traveled a lot, spending at least 1/2 of the time keeping up by "remote studies" as it was called then...I graduated in the top 5% of my class, so yes, I do think it can be effective...

[Mr Flibble]

I agree with DW.

I think it also depends very much on what you consider learning to be. Primary and secondary distance education is not so good, as part of that education involves social interaction that the child would otherwise miss out on.

Tertiary education depends on what is being studied. It would be impossible to study theatre and acting, or literature on one's own, whereas with programming or mathematics it wouldn't really make much difference.

[HighLordDave]

In the mid-90s, there was a tremendous push in the state of Florida to set up a "virtual university". The high schools were bursting at the seams with students and they were going to hit the 4-year universities and community colleges in massive numbers. This was in the fledgling days of the internet, and educators wanted to be on the cutting edge of this new technology. Administrators also wanted to use distance learning as a tool so as not to build new facilities and maintain them. As it turns out, none of the distance learning projects got off the ground or saw any real application.

I see two main reasons why distance learning won't work on a large scale. First of all, it depends heavily upon the self-discipline of the student, and let's face it, most traditional college freshmen generally do not have that discipline. It is my opinion that most young college students need to wake up and go to a scheduled class in a scheduled building and interact with a flesh and blood professor. I had all of those and I still skipped a lot of class. Distance learning is essentially an independent study and for the most part, first and second year college students are not able to handle independent studies.

Secondly, as a graduate student, I found that most of the fun was in sitting in a classroom with other graduate students and arguing over a topic or reviewing each other's writing, something which cannot be done in a virtual setting. Do graduate students need classrooms? Mostly, no; most graduate students, at least in the liberal arts disciplines, probably take an independent study or two anyway, and it doesn't matter if the professor lives across the street or on the other side of the world for those. However, I believe that the interaction between students to be the most important part of a graduate-level education.

It is my opinion that distance learning will never replace a traditional college campus. Lately, though, I've seen a bunch of ads for the Univeristy of Phoenix (online) and I wonder how successful they are and I would also be interested in looking at some of their student's demographic data. Without anything to back this up, I'd say that the majority of their online students are non-traditional (older), employed full-time and probably either improving their existing credentials or pursuing a second career. It is these folks I believe will benefit the most from distance learning, those with the self-discipline necessary to see the program through, but I do not believe that it is the best thing for most people or a replacement for traditional universities.

[Gruntboy]

Post graduate I beleive distance learning is highly effective - when the student realises their undergrad days of messing around are gone.

Work experience helps - I don't have any bother with my postgrad online learning given work deadlines are 10 times more ominous.