subject: What Are the Future Prospects of Distance Learning? [print this page] The aim of the distance learning is to provide access to education for those students who have no opportunity to attend classes. Among such students are: busy people who need to balance their work and study, people with some disease, people who live far from the university or those who obtain a postgraduate degree. Certainly, the popularity of the distance learning has increased greatly over the last decades. Moreover, this way of obtaining the education does not prevent it from developing and improving. Most people assume that distance learning will be even more popular than a traditional course over some years. Well, some scientists meet this theory with certain skepticism. Actually, there is a fact that confirms their point of view. Distance learning is available for people who have access to the Internet and to a technology that is necessary for such courses. Thus, today the advantages of this course are not available to everyone. Well, what are the future prospects of a distance learning course? 1. Firstly, the recent research shows that the distance learning courses are as efficient as traditional ones. There is no significant difference in professionalism between students who passed the distance course and those who passed a traditional one. However, what about students who need more attention and guidance? Will the distance learning help to decide this problem? 2. Another issue is the problem of access. For this moment, only people who have an access to high technologies can allow to pass a distance course. However, low-income and underrepresented students fall out of the number of distance learning students. 3. Of course, there are some drawbacks of this course, however, the technology becomes more available to different social classes. Let us take a mobile phone, for example. Some decades ago it was a symbol of wealth, however, today it is available to everyone. Let us hope that the same situation will be with distance learning.
What Are the Future Prospects of Distance Learning?
