Online Education

Abstract

Online education is considered the latest generation in the practice of distance education. As described by professionals in the field, distance education is a form of teaching and learning characterized by the physical separation of student from teacher and from other students. In distance education, teaching and learning is always mediated by technology. The goal of technology has always been to decrease the distance between learners and teachers and to make education accessible. In online education, distance education teaching and learning is mediated by Internet technology. In its earliest days, distance education was accomplished using the postal system. This paper-based distance education model gave rise to the term “correspondence school.” This was used to describe vocational and technical schools using distance education as their primary means of instruction. Higher education institutions using this mode of instruction were designated “open universities.” As technology changed over the years, so did the means of instruction in distance education. Newer technologies were employed to bridge the physical distance. Increased use of television, radio, audio and video cassettes and video conferencing for instruction were some of the major technological shifts that changed the way education at a distance was mediated. Instead of completely paper-based instructional materials and communication modes, students could physically see and hear their teachers. In video conferencing, there was also the opportunity for synchronous communication with instructors. More recently, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Internet technology has also radically shifted the way distance education is carried out. Like previous electronic technologies, Internet technology affords opportunities to produce instructional materials in a variety of multimedia formats. Unlike previous electronic technologies, Internet technology allows this development to occur at significantly reduced costs, making the production of multimedia instructional materials more prevalent in distance education. It also promotes the sharing of these materials at much faster speeds. In addition, Internet technology has had a wide-ranging impact on the communication patterns that defined distance education. One of the well-documented limitations of distance education was the difficulty in supporting synchronous communication between teachers and students and among students themselves. Internet technology has removed this limitation by affording easy and affordable access to synchronous communication tools. Internet technology has not only changed the content delivery and communication models in distance education, it has also changed the way instruction is viewed and designed. Although online education is recognized as the latest generation of distance education, it remain true that distance education represents the larger field of theoretical study, With a deep foundation of research literature, distance education encompasses not only online education, but also every other form of mediated instruction.