An Overview of Distance Education

Distance education describes educational activities which interactively link two or more people at two or more locations.

Recent telecommunications developments, particularly integrated voice, video and data systems, as well as satellite and compression technologies, have made distance education a viable alternative to improving access to educational opportunities for learners of all ages, at all levels and in diverse environments.

Distance education is a viable, effective and efficient training medium for a number of reasons:

• Future education and training endeavors will be increasingly knowledge-based. The amount of information available to individuals will continue to explode
• Rapid change will be the rule, not the exception
• Inter-organizational partnerships, resource sharing and networking will improve information access
• Distance education can provide access to many different types of resources, including: professional and educational training opportunities
• Experts working at other locations
• Personnel in remote or dispersed locations with access to primary site personnel, instructional materials and other resources
• Network-dispersed groups

Distance education can be used in any environment where people need improved access to information, have a need to share resources, or where learners, teachers, administrators and subject matter specialists must travel to distant locations in order to communicate with one another. In other words, educational, as well as business, government and private organizations can benefit from distance education. Some of those include:

K-12 schools
Colleges and universities
Vocational and technical schools
Business and industry
Government
Professional development centers
Community resource centers

Delivery of distant education involves a variety of media to transmit instruction. Today, distance education is likely to use a combination of instructional tools and mediums, such as audio, computer and video conferencing, electronic and voice mail, multi-media (computer based and controlled), traditional media which includes audio and video tapes, slides, overheads and handwritten graphics, print support and faxing. The Teletraining Institute uses all these mediums, based on its student needs.

Four Cornerstones Are Building Blocks for Distance Education

Four key elements comprise the essence of distance education:

Instructor Preparation/ Training
Selected Technologies
Program Management
Program Offerings

Each of these four elements are very important to successful distance learning programs. Without careful planning and implementation of each of these, your distance education efforts will be less successful than they should be.