Communication Technology and Education

Communication Technology and Education

Chapter 4: ICT in Distance Education

Open and Distance Learning

Introduction

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a vital role in open and distance learning (ODL) in order to meet the needs and expectation of the learners’ in large scale (Gupta & Sharma, 2012). The main persistence of ICT in education means employing ICT equipment and tool in learning and teaching process as a media as well as methodology (Gupta & Sharma, 2012). Instead of just focusing on classroom and connections uses, the measures should focus on issues wider as well as addressing literacy and basic educational needs (Chandra, 2003).

    The reason of ICT being applied in education is to make students acquainted with the use and workings of computers generally and also linked social and ethical issues (Gupta & Sharma, 2012). Open and distance learning process is one of the examples of ICT. There are so much successful distance learning including the need for connectivity and interoperability, equipment, properly tailored course content, and technical support. All these are to help students use and get the best out of their network (Chandra, 2003).

    Continued investment in education and in building human capacity is fundamental. Essential training skills from the teacher in ICT are essential, especially in those schools that serving low income communities. This is because the access to home computers is less likely to happen by the students as well as the resources for technological support (Chandra, 2003). Moreover, there is a need for ongoing ICT support and monitoring instead of training only.

What is Open and Distance Learning?

During the last decades ago, distance learning at an open university usually engaged with technology mediated teaching tools and learning environments that have been designed and developed.It has been introduced in 1950s and in developing countries, many universities have provided distance education schemes and provide free courseware content through television, print media, and audio visual contents, specifically for primary and higher education students (Habibur, 2014).

     Whereas unlike the apparently governing social learning pedagogical point of view and the benefits of asynchronous learning platforms, the cognitive perspectives of education and the need for synchronous interaction between the tutor and the students as well as students themselves, is decisive for the quality of attained knowledge (Hadjinicolaou, 2001).

     In order to creates educational opportunities on a wide scale, ICT act as an important role in primary education as it is much needed for those students who are unable to afford traditional classroom teaching module due to cost ineffectiveness, teacher unavailability or other factors (Habibur, 2014). Today, internet has provided a more interactive model of distance learning with new growing social media platforms like Skype and YouTube compare to older times that still using the older methods of communication such as radio, television and print media (Habibur, 2014).

     Besides that, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are also an element of distance learning. It can be explained as a course that involving open and free enrolment, as well as provided video lectures along with electronically assessed assignments and online discussion forum where students can seek and ask their doubts, or clarify and discuss the topic freely. The ability to store large amount of data on student engagement, performances, followed by their analysis and student feedback are being equipped in MOOC platforms (Chandra, 2003). This ability helps in achieving the interaction between the student and the teacher as well as making a better courseware.  Recently, MOOC is a development that entered into the market to assist students in the education aspect.Therefore, they have received and attracted a huge attention along with large capital investment especially from the higher education sectors in nations such as United States and Europe (Chandra, 2003).

Challenges of Open and Distance Learning

Information and communication technologies are playing a vital role in supporting various services in open distance learning in large scale. At the same time, there are many issues and challenges in setup or usage of ICT infrastructure. There are the issues and challenges as below:

1.      High cost

According to Habibur (2014) stated that, every year they received thousands of applications and provide millions of educational content to the students. But program like these affects the face to face interaction skill between a teacher and the student and also offered less opportunity to the students in interacting with the teacher or the fellow students. This low interactive created low completion rated of programs or courses thus adversely affecting the growth of distance education schemes (Habibur, 2014).

2.      Lack of well-developed distance learning infrastructure

Investment in ICT is considered as a “risk taking” playing field which many Information Communication companies avoid to enter due to many under-developing nations such as nations in the sub-Saharan Africa are lacking of well-developed distance learning infrastructure (Habibur, 2014). Moreover, internet access is scarcely available in the region, especially when the students seeking education in poorest areas, receives courseware in any available format, which brings challenge to this issue (Habibur, 2014).

    Thus expanding the educational content should be addressed comprehensively through various support mechanisms.  As it is not just a technical resolution, it is actually affecting the people in some poorest nations socially and economically, where cost of education is higher than cost of living. As a word of caution, the online educational technologies have provided easy access but at the same time also they are creating a new challenge in the development (Habibur, 2014).

      Another example, the digital divide through the distance mode presents a significant challenge to educator in developing country such like Philippines (Bandalaria, 2007). Most of the Philippines’ citizens are lack of knowledge and skills in using ICT and financial constraints due to digital divide that not considered a priority compared to basic needs such as foods, clothing and shelter for those Philippines’ citizens (Bandalaria, 2007).

3.      Quality of a teacher

According to Robinson (2008) stated that, the quality of a teacher is difficult to determined and achieved in many countries especially in rural areas. Teacher quality plays a key determinant of students’ participation rates and achievement levels. Furthermore, it also affects the attainment of social justice in terms of equity in educational quality for students (Robinson, 2008). Professional development contributed to the quality of a teacher though limits on its availability and quality create inequity for many teachers (Robinson, 2008). To be able to meet new challenges in our fast changing world, teachers must be engaged in life-long learning process. In order to improve a quality of a teacher, distance education is also one of the methods (Robinson, 2008).

4.      Application/service compatibility with respect to the computer hardware and software

Technology is kept on changing very frequently, but every time it is difficult to develop application software for various services using such technology (Murali& Indira, 2010). It is a challenging task to choose ideal hardware and software that have compatibility with existing application software although the new technology has flexible features that are needed in ODL system to meet the demands of the learners in large scale (Murali& Indira, 2010).By placing platform independent infrastructure (the hardware, software and application), application compatibility with respect to hardware and software can be achieved.

5.      Policy updates

There will be frequent adjustment in admission and evaluation criteria and even in learning procedure and policies to be adopted accordingly due to the flexibility in open distance learning system. It is a tough task to update the policies every time as there is a frequent change in policies but only if policy updating has not been done in time (Murali& Indira, 2010). It may leads to many other operational problems and by introducing dynamic policy updating and enforcement approach in open distance learning system, this issue can be addressed and solved (Murali& Indira, 2010).

Conclusion

Last but not least, education is the elementary right of human being for the development of a person both professionally and personally. With the emergence of technology especially in the field of open and distance education have open a new horizon for distance learners even though open and distance education still has its own challenges (Elets, 2009). However, information and communication technologies (ICT) are potentially powerful enabling tools for educational change and reform (Elets, 2009).

References

Bandalaria, M. P. (2007). Impact of ICTs on open and distance learning in a developing country setting: The  Philippine experience. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 8 (1).

Chandra, R. (2003). Information technology in 21^st century. Cyberspace as Public Domain: The Role of Civil society, 9 (2), 130-133.

Elets, N. N. (2009). Effectiveness of ICT in open and distance learning: A case study. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2009/12/effectiveness-of-ict-in-open-and-distance-learning-a-case-study-2/

Habibur, R. (2014). The role of ICT in open and distance education.Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 15 (4), 162-170.

Hadjinicolaou, M. (2001).Reconstruction and cognitive flexibility, fundamental objectives of an OSS for mathematics.In Proceedings of the 1st Open and Distance learning Conference, 25-27.

Gupta, S., & Sharma, S. (2012). The virtual classroom: The role of ICT in open and distance learning. IJCCET International Journal of Computer, Communication and Emerging Technology, 1 (1), 8-12.

Murali, M. R., & Indira, G. (2010). ICT in open distance learning: Issues and challenges. Retrieved from http://wikieducator.org/images/4/49/A._Murali_M_Rao.pdf

Robinson, B. (2008). Using distance education and ICT to improve access, equity and the quality n rural teachers’ professional development in western China. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9 (1).