ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DISTANCE LEARNING

The first question to be asked is what is Distance learning? Distance learning, or e-

learning, is recognised today the transferring skills & knowledge, via the internet or other
technology, to deliver learning and training programs. With recent advances in
communication technology methods used include e-mail, skype, video-conferencing, mail or
perhaps a combination of all of these, plus other technology currently being developed. The
numerous recent advances in computer based learning, matched with a growing acceptance
that this type of training, offers many advantages, as well as some potential disadvantages.

We will look at the situation from three viewpoints: teachers, students and employers.

The advantages of Distance Learning are profound.

1. Distance Learning is by far the cheapest method of training available

2. There is no wasted travel time to visit colleges or classrooms
3. There are no wasted travel or clothing costs for the employer or the student
4. The convenience of being able to study when and wherever it is convenient e g when
commuting to work or on Sunday afternoons. This allows the students to fit their study
time around their working hours.
5. The chance to inter-act with group members from different countries or cities.
6. The opportunity to re-visit former lessons recorded and stored on archive to assess
progress and to revise topics
7. The opportunity for the student, teacher and employer to monitor work and progress
from the student’s archive of work and tests
8. Students can work at a pace which suits them – each person learns at a different speed
– some students need to view the material more times than others
9. Different learning styles can be accommodated through different learning techniques.
10. Employers can ensure students in different locations all receive exactly the same
course and can monitor results – This is very useful for the introduction of new
procedures, skills or mandatory professional training.

Many of the disadvantages related to the employer’s inability to monitor effort and
progress because there was no-one who could view a record of the student’s work without
considerable time and effort. The introduction of the archive feature into some Distance
Learning technical systems eliminated this worry. Now teachers, students and employers can
access the work archive to check if work is done and the level of success or effortt hat is put
into i. For employers with students in different locations there is the added advantage of being
able to compare the work and success of different staff members in different geographical
offices against each other.
The problems of the feeling of remoteness or not understanding tasks can now be dealt
with by the use of split-screen video-conferencing. This technology divides the computer
screen into boxes with each student and the teacher being shown live to all the group. The
entire group of students, plus the teacher, meet on-line with everyone able to see, speak, hear
and inter-act with each other. It allows the teacher to deal with individual questions as they
arise from the students as well as being able to use all the facilities of Word, video, audio and
other programmes which his computer contains. The facility also allows students to continue
speaking each other after the lesson finishes to work on team assignments or merely to make
new contacts and develop business relationships with others in the group. The new software
has overcome the lack of ‘hands-on’ training. A student’s computer can now relinquish
control to the trainer in order to complete or assist with tasks on the distant student’s
computer. The best analogy for this is that the trainer is looking over the shoulder of the
student and, where necessary, is joining in to write or complete the task with the student and
correct mistakes as the student makes them.