Distance Education – the Competition of Traditional Schools

A number of 19^th century developments led learning to shift from a classroom-based to a living room setting. One early pioneer was Anna Ticknor, who in 1873 sought to provide women of all social classes educational opportunities from the comfort of their homes, by providing printed materials through mail (Nasseh, 1997). It was only a year later that religion joined the bandwagon, when Chautauqua Lake Sunday school assembly in western New York state inaugurated a distance learning programme for training Sunday school teachers and church workers in 1874.  However, the real reason why distance learning took off was because industries, the military and the state saw a greater opportunity in vocational training (Simonson & Berg, 2016).

Distance education may sell comfort to students as they can study from their homes, thereby reducing the costs of commuting or the need to live relatively close to schools. Moreover, to the extent that it displaces traditional instruction that is restricted to campuses, it reduces or eliminates the need for the construction of classrooms, meaning that land can be allocated to other activities such as agriculture. However, some critics have observed that some distance education providers have tended to exploit students, especially those with low academic results or who couldn’t get admission to their desired university. This problem has arisen from the lack of accreditation of some courses, as well as lower academic standards (although at present there are agencies that are helping to solve this issue).

Meanwhile, some vested interests fear that they have a lot to lose if distance learning really succeeds: what will happen to traditional modes of instructional delivery as the world moves over to internet-based education? Won’t distance learning be cheaper for all concerned? The jury is still out on this question. Today’s distance education looks more affordable for students. Nevertheless, it may be expensive in the long run for supporting universities to maintain due to the cost of keeping up with continuous technological developments, such as upgrading to a 5G network system.

Being able to study from home or some other equally relaxed and comfortable environment may well represent the most convenient way to learn for many people. The way we live, work and study has indeed developed and having come this far, it may be hard to keep up with the data costs.

But it nonetheless looks as though the future is going to be computerized. Hence, distance learning is almost certainly here to stay.