Distance Learning

The present paper aims to review distance learning in the context of present definitions,
technologies, opportunities, challenges, concepts and contributions as it is fast becoming an essential
part of educational systems in both developed and developing countries. By virtue of new technologies
the ways of teaching and acquiring new knowledge aren’t confined by space and time any more. New
technologies offer great flexibility in when, where and how to distribute teaching and acquiring
knowledge offering flexible learning opportunities to individuals and group learners. Distance learning
is one of the most rapidly growing fields of education and its potential impact on all education
delivery systems has been greatly accentuated through the development of Internet-based information
technologies and in particular the World Wide Web. In order to meet the needs of the changing world
future distance learning must be time flexible, lacking geographical barriers, competitive cost/value,
and learner centred. The chapter is intended for all educational institutions and their academic
personnel.

Modern economic and social achievements at the end of the 20th century initiate the transition of
global economy from old into a new virtual economy. Virtual economy is highly related to
globalization and economy networking. This fact emphasises the importance of knowledge. Today it
has become the fundamental economic resource. For this reason knowledge enriched workers are the
most wanted input and output. Education is necessary to achieve and supplement new knowledge.
Because of geographical distance and level of development, education, in classical sense, is not
available to a large number of world’s population. Worldwide 796 million of people reported not
being able to read and write; 64% of them were women. Adult literacy rates were lowest in Southern
Asia - 62%, Saharan Africa - 63%, Oceania – 66% and Northern Africa – 67% (UNESCO, 2010).
Education has to be considered in its relation to global, economic, social and cultural development. By
increasing the number of educated population global economy can achieve: sustainable GDP growth,
decreasing of global unemployment, better quality of living
As in every other aspect of modern life, the answer to the challenge of education for development will
include the use of information and communication technologies, provided the necessary organizational
and policy changes that can be implemented to make the technologies effective. Rapid development of
information technology contributed to the creation of new methods in education i.e. teaching and
learning. Based on this claim, the ways of teaching and acquiring new knowledge aren’t confined by
space and time any more. There are many technologies that can offer great flexibility in when, where
and how to distribute teaching and acquiring knowledge. In particular, technology-mediated distance
learning is more and more in use. Roughly the used technologies for this purpose can be divided into
four categories including: print, audio (voice), computer (data) and video. Particularly, the expansion
of the World Wide Web, coupled with constant fall in the cost of processing, storing and transmitting
information contributed significant shifts in how distance learning is perceived by educators and how
it is designed, delivered and managed. Distance learning can be summarized as teaching and learning
involving implementation of various technological applications. This term also reflects both the fact
that all or most of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in time and space from the learner.
As a force of contributing to social and economic development distance learning is today one of the
most rapidly growing fields of education and training. The mission of distance learning includes
greater dimensions of openness and flexibility, whether in terms of access, curriculum or other
elements of structure. Therefore this chapter aims to explain the terms and definitions of distance
learning making reference also to its advantages and disadvantages, its accompanying technologies,
methods and implementation. The chapter will also give recommendation and future research
directions, and is intended for all educational institutions delivering distance learning, institutions who
will deliver distance learning in the future, and their academic personnel.
2 The concept and historical development of Distance Learning
Distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim
of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a
traditional educational setting such as a classroom. It has been described as "a process to create and
provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and
distance, or both” (Honeyman & Miller, 1993, p. 68).
Modern distance learning initially relied on the development of postal services in the 19th century and
has been practiced at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in
the 1840s (Moore & Kearsley, 2005, p. 235). The University of London claims to be the first
university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Program in 1858. This program
is now known as the University of London International Programs and includes Postgraduate,
Undergraduate and Diploma degrees created by colleges such as the London School of Economics,
Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths. In the United States William Rainey Harper, first president of the
University of Chicago developed the concept of extended education, whereby the research university
had satellite colleges of education in the wider community, and in 1892 he also encouraged the
concept of correspondence school courses to further promote education, an idea that was put into
practice by Columbia University (Levinson, 2005, p. 69). In Australia, the University of Queensland
established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911 (White, 1982, p. 262). More recently,
Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison is considered significant in promoting
methods other than the postal service to deliver distance education in America. From 1964 to 1968, the
Carnegie Foundation funded Wedemeyer's Articulated Instructional Media Project (AIM) which
brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus
population. According to Moore's recounting, AIM impressed the UK which imported these ideas
when establishing in 1969 The Open University, which initially relied on radio and television
broadcasts for much of its delivery. Germany's Fern Universität in Hagen followed in 1974 and there

are now many similar institutions around the world, often with the name Open University (in English
or in the local language). All "open universities" use distance education technologies as delivery
methodologies and some have grown to become “mega-universities” (Daniel, 1998, p. 15) a term
coined to denote institutions with more than 100,000 students.
Distance learning is used for a wide range of purposes. Today, by virtue of new technologies fast
development and constant cost fall in processing, storing and transmitting data, many private and
public, non-profit and for-profit institutions worldwide offer distance learning from the most basic
instruction trough the highest level of degree.
3 Distance Learning and its significance
The term distance learning represents approaches that focus on opening access to education and
training, freeing learners from the constraints of time and place. It offers flexible learning
opportunities to individual and group learners. This is the most rapidly growing segment of education.
The potential impact of distance learning on all education has been emphasised by the development of
Internet-based technologies, particularly the World Wide Web. It can be described as learning
involving implementation of information, computing and communications technology applications in
more than one location