Definitions of Distance Education

Distance teaching and learning, commonly referred to as distance education, has experienced rapid change in the last years. New technologies, especially computer telecommunications via the Internet and World Wide Web, are opening new opportunities for distance education and students who need more flexibility. Streaming and compression technologies combined with improved computer speeds and widespread availability at reduced costs, are making access to interactive multimedia instruction available to the learners.

Lorraine Sherry (1996) defines distance education as situations where the instructor and students are in separate locations or times, where greater control of learning is held by the learner rather than the instructor, and communications are mediated between teacher and student by some kind of technology. She also refers to the changing model of schools from centralised to decentralised where flexible dynamics of learning relationships allow schools come to students rather than the reverse.

Roger Kaufman (1995) goes on to describe distance learning as "the process that delivers interactive valid information and learning opportunities to learners at a time, place, and form appropriate and convenient to them". Distance education serves the student with a tough schedule, family or social commitments, illness, disability or learning preference, rather then the student in the backwoods or desert.

Another definition of distance education was proposed by Keegan (1990):
Distance education is a form of education characterised by:

  • the quasi-permanent separation of teacher and learner throughout the length of the learning process (this distinguishes it from conventional face-to-face education);
  • the influence of an educational organisation both in the planning and preparation of learning materials and in the provision of student support services (this distinguishes it from private study and teach-yourself programs);
  • the use of technical media - print, audio, video or computer - to unite teacher and learner and carry the content of the course;
  • the provision of two-way communication so that the student may benefit from or even initiate dialogue (this distinguishes it from the other uses of technology in education);
  • the quasi-permanent absence of the learning group throughout the length of the learning process so that people are usually taught as individuals and not in groups, with the possibility of occasional meetings for both didactic and socialisation purposes."

Betty Collis introduces term telelearning with following definition "Telelearning is: making connections among persons and resources through communication technologies for learning related purposes".