E-Learning as a Medium for Facilitating Learners’ Support Services Under Open and Distance Learning: An Evaluative Study

Abstract

Education is often said to be the backbone of the society—whether it is imparted at primary, secondary or university level, it always focuses on shaping the students for the future. This is because when everything else fails, it is the education of the student that helps him or her get a firm foothold in the society without fail. Gurukulas which were a type of residential schooling system in ancient India emphasized on all-round development of the students. The present system of education concentrates on the overall holistic development of a learner irrespective of the educational background. Technology has been gradually replacing the conventional method of classroom teaching, whereby the learners or the students interact face-to-face on a daily basis and evaluation is done based on assignments and performance in the examination that is in offline mode. The word ‘technology’ has become synonymous with the education sector. In fact, technological tools and ICT-based teaching methods are used on a wide scale to impart education to the students both in the conventional and distance educational system. Such kind of tools becomes more relevant when the process of communication takes place over long distances and across various countries. As far as open and distance educational system is concerned, it makes use of numerous offline and online teaching methods including study materials, weekend tutorial classes and other web-based services. The growth of open and distance educational system can be attributed to the growing needs of an older, non-traditional student’s population. Very often, students are unable to complete their formal system of education owing to financial problems, family pressure, early marriage (especially for female learners), work pressure, etc. This ultimately leads to student dropout which is one of the glaring problems plaguing the educational sector. So, this group of learners fall back upon the distance education system as it is cost effective and helps them to overcome geographic barriers. The professionals working in different government and non-government sectors are another group of people who enrol in different courses offered by the Open Universities and Distance Educational Institutes. Most of the enrolled courses are for seeking promotional benefits at the workplace. With each passing day, new educational technologies and teaching methods are increasingly being used for teaching–learning purposes in the educational institutions. The different generations of distance education have brought along with them newer methods of educational delivery systems. Right from the correspondence model to the intelligent flexible tele-learning model, distance educational system has come a long way. Different multimedia learning environments have made learning more interactive and informative. E-learning or electronic learning has basically transformed the way communication takes place. This form of learning makes use of the computer and its network, audio–visual materials, online portals, search engines and websites. Not only do the conventional and traditional universities utilize such web-based learning, but also the open universities and distance educational institutions. In the present context, most of the distance educational courses make use of email, the web, video and audio conferencing and of late virtual reality technology. E-learning tools supplement the self-learning materials and counselling sessions that act as the main medium of communication between the learner and the instructor. In this chapter, Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University, which is one of the premier State Open Universities of India has been taken as a case study to analyse how e-learning acts as a medium for facilitating learners’ support services. In other words, it should not be one specific technology that would determine the future of distance education but rather a combination of technology and conventional methods of teaching. Such a blended form of learning is essential keeping in view the present educational environment.