Table of Contents
A Guide to Distance Education/Corresponding Courses
Introduction
Distance education or distance learning is the term used for imparting education to students on an individual basis, without their presence in a classroom environment. With the advent of the modern era, this form of education has become increasingly popular in pursuing graduation and post graduation courses after plus two. The average person of today wants to build their career and gain job experience along with pursuing further studies. For this reason Distance education has gained relevance in their lives. A student can very easily do graduation in Computers, science, agriculture, commerce and Business Administration through distance education. Also postgraduate courses like MBA, M.Com, M.Sc, MCA and many more can be undergone through distance learning (http://www.htcampus.com/).
A few top universities which excel in providing distance education courses are Indira Gandhi National Open University, Yashwantrao C. Maharashtra Open University, IMT Distance and Open learning Institute, Sikkim Manipal University, University of Mumbai and many more (http://www.htcampus.com/article/top-20-universities-colleges-distance-learning-ind-611/). Students can expect quality distance learning courses from these universities and in my opinion pursuing distance educational courses from any one of these universities can brighten up a person’s future prospects. Websites such as (http://www.htcampus.com/) can help students find their dream colleges in pursuing distance learning courses. These websites take data regarding student’s requirements and the degree which they want to pursue and recommends them their suitable college accordingly. Students who wish to pursue distance education can opt for recommendations from these sites.
Nowadays, several foreign universities and colleges abroad like University of London, Oxford University etc promote distance learning. If a person wishes to do his distance learning from abroad and gain a foreign degree, he can very well do so by sitting at the comfort from his home (http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/continuing-education/online-and-distance-courses). Nowadays, with the advent of the internet things have become very simple. Now students can get the desired materials mailed to them via email. Also they can access the study materials online from the university’s site. Going abroad requires spending huge amount of money for house rent and food. Now with Distance learning this concept is slowly becoming extinct.
Any aspirant who chooses the mode of distance learning to pursue their further education must consider the advantages and disadvantages as well.
Advantages of Distance Education
- Distance education is flexible and a student can earn as well as study at the same time. Unlike full time courses where it is not permitted to pursue a job along with study, distance education is in fact a boon.
- Commuting from college to home requires a lot of time and energy. Undergoing distance courses doesn’t require travelling to colleges as a result saves a lot of time.
- Students can choose the place of his study. They can study under a tree, in a park or from home whichever place is comfortable for them.
- Study materials can be accessed all the time online from the university’s site. As a result students can study anytime they want.
- Students can pick and choose the study material of their choice. They can opt to study their favorite topics or topics they are comfortable with firs. Later they can choose the tough ones.
- Distance education method is cost saving and convenient than regular education. The courses are comparatively cheaper and commuting cost to college is also saved. Assignments can be submitted via click of a button online or by simply posting them.
Disadvantages of Distance education
- In distance education, the lack of personal interaction with lecturers and faculty members persists. Therefore, reading voluminous books without guidance can be hectic for students.
- Some distance learning institutes provide materials through online only. As a result, this overdependence of learning on the internet sometimes may lead to inconvenience amongst students who don’t have internet access or are uncomfortable with this technology.
- There may be lack of discipline as due to the absence of faculty, there won’t be anybody to remind students to meet deadlines and submit their assignments on time.
- Students may feel detached and lonely sitting and studying from their homes as there is no classroom environment and other students to interact with.
- Some courses can’t be pursued through distance learning like Medicine and Engineering because of the practical classes and experiments cannot be conducted over the internet.
- Also, Distance education has a major disadvantage as some employers prefer candidates who have pursued regular courses rather than candidates who have done distance education, no matter how good their institute or college is.
Conclusion
There are pros and cons in every aspect of life. Sometimes the relevance of a concept is judged by whether it is advantageous or disadvantageous. Regarding the concept of distance education, the advantages certainly outweigh the disadvantages. In simple words, Distance Education is a boon for students who wish to carry out further studies. Distance courses provided by certain universities like Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is by far better and superior to most of the regular classroom courses in terms of study materials that are provided by them (http://www.ignoukolkatarc.com/).
In a country like India, it is a mandate for every student to have a basic graduation degree in order to get a decent job. With the ever-increasing population in this country, the number of aspiring students is more than the number of seats available in colleges. Most of the students fail to get university seats due to the high fees demanded and limited seats available in the colleges in pursuing a regular course. Also, most aspirants want to increase their job experience along with pursuing their educational courses. Thus, distance education has become the choice of many aspirants as it is cost effective and can be done without gaining a university seat for pursuing the course.
