The Impact of Media and Educational Communication in Distance Learning
Various factors inform the reasons why a learner registers for a distance learning program
. For instance, this may be as a result of the fact that an adult has missed out, or was not provided with an opportunity to complete his initial educational program for social, economic or political reasons. This could also be motivated by the desire of a fully trained adult to further upgrade, diversify or expand his educational background for personal interest and/or purposes. Finally, the absence of training facilities or social professional constraints preventing from travelling away of home countries may make it more convenient to study by distance means.
Whatever the reasons, a growing number of adults in Africa engage today in distance learning and choose among a wide spectrum of subject matters.
Available opportunities range from primary to secondary and postgraduate courses. In addition to traditional training programs, many distant learners also engage in a whole range of liberal arts, community development and vocational education programs.
Generally, vocational education programs in distance learning are designed for individual learners. However, some collective training programs are also tailored to meet the needs of group workers in companies.
Distance learning provides several conveniences and advantages among which are the following: participants do not have to be absent from work or to leave their homes, the employer no longer bears the cost of sending employees away on training courses, teaching or learning while communicating become complementary activities. In effect, both the trainer and the learner sustain their daily activities while entertaining educational acts which therefore may effectively appear as communicative acts.
Communication theories entered the field of educational science at the end of the 60s when the concept of educational technology was developed. This concept was defined as a complex and integrated process implying the participation of people, techniques, ideas, setting and organisation in designing, implementing, analysing, evaluating and managing a number of issues related to human learning processes. With the advent of the audio-visual, the techniques and machines progressively turned into auxiliary services helping and facilitating the learning process. The conception prevailing today is that these machines and techniques are the source and the means of learning. In other words, it is not only possible now to learn with media but also from the media.
Distance education has widely contributed to the development of educational communication because it typically involves teaching through the use of telecommunications technologies to transmit and receive various materials per voice, video and data. Almost over the past decade, a new interest for educational communication has appeared since the development of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and virtual communication settings such as the Virtual Textual Reality (VTR). Moreover, an important literature is now being published directly on the Internet and made available throughout the World Wide Web.
Fifteen institutions located in English-speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa deliver training via distance learning means. These institutions are the African Virtual University, the Africa Growth Network, the Institution of Distance Education (Swaziland), Allenby In-Home Study (South Africa), the College of Education for Further Training (Roggebaai, South Africa), the Department of Adult and Community Education (University of Natal, South Africa), INTEC College (Cape Town, South Africa), Lyceum College (South Africa), Potchefstroom University (South Africa), South African Local Support Office for USQ, Technikon SA, Technisa (South Africa), Tuis (South Africa), Vista University Distance Education Campus (South Africa), and the University of South Africa (UNISA) which is the largest university in South Africa and one of the largest distance education institutions in the world, offering internationally recognised certificate, diploma and degree courses up to doctoral level.
In Sub-Saharan French-speaking countries, distance education is not as well established as in English-speaking countries (South Africa for a large part, and Swaziland at a lesser extent). Adults or students in French speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are distance education learners but the majority of them register in institutions elsewhere such as Educatel, Centre National d'Enseignement Distance (CNED), le Conservatoire National des Arts et Mtiers (CNAM), la Fdration Interuniversitaire d'Enseignement Distance (FIED) in France, and la Tl Universit du Qubec (TELUQ) in Canada.
In other words, various distance institutions located in English-speaking countries attract learners in French-speaking countries who, for diverse reasons, prefer registering in schools out of their homelands. Whatever the case, media and educational communication are necessarily used.
The Impact of Media and Educational Communication in Distance Learning
By: Drissa Cisse
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