Yobornwinner: Distance Learning Blog

There is often a confusion between Open Learning (or open education) and Open Educational Resources (OER). Opening learning is much more complex than simply providing open educational resources, or OER. But OER can help because they are resources that are freely available on the Internet – you can download them for free, without having to go through the lengthy and often costly process of asking for permission to use them. TheSAIDE OER policy expresses this as follows: At its core, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) describes educational resources that are freely available for use by educators and learners, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees. A broad spectrum of frameworks is emerging to govern how OER is licensed for use, some of which simply allow copying and others that make provision for users to adapt the resources that they use. The most well known of these are the Creative Commons (CC) licences, which provide legal mechanisms to

Where learners have access to computers and to the Internet, the opportunity for opening access to learning is increased enormously. There are many courses which can be studied completely online – and at your own pace. The existence of Web 2.0 means that more learning may happen informally than through formal accredited courses. But the mere existence of courses and other learning material and information online does not mean that learning will automatically happen. In fact, these learning resources are so various and abundant that they may be much more bewildering or inaccessible than conventional courses. Also, learners not only have to understand the content of what they want to learn, they also have to use new tools for learning. They may be familiar with these tools and have the technology to support the use of these tools. But they may not. Without support, without courses designed with particular learners in mind, access may be closed more firmly than ever before. Supporting

The expansion of access to the Internet over the past decade has opened new possibilities for learning and teaching. The term e-learning incorporates all learning and teaching activities carried out by individuals or groups using electronic information and communication technologies in different modes: Individualized self paced learning online  Individualized self paced learning offline  Group-based learning synchronous, i.e. interactions between participants on the Internet or Intranet occur in real time  Group-based learning asynchronous, i.e. interactions between participants on the Internet or Intranet occur with a time delay. [Commonwealth of Learning, E-Learning Guide Book of Principles, Procedures and Practices, Naidu, S., 2006] Creating stimulating e-learning environments in which students have a high likelihood of success is a curriculum development activity. As with any course and design process it requires a thorough understanding of the course, the context,

Learning materials that enable students to achieve the intended outcomes of a course or programme would probably be considered to be of an acceptable standard or quality. But is learner success the only criteria for establishing the quality of learning materials? In South Africa distance education practitioners have debated issues around quality learning materials, materials development and course design for a number of years. As a way of working towards a common understanding of quality in distance education provision, a set of criteria was developed and published by NADEOSA ( National Association of Distance Education Organizations in South Africa ) in 2005. The criteria specify clearly what the requirements are for quality course materials, online materials and the materials development process. Sloan-C, a Consortium of Institutions and Organizations committed to  Quality Online Education  identifies five pillars of quality online education: student satisfaction, access, learning

A person may be considered an educational psychologist after completing a graduate degree in educational psychology or a closely related field. Universities establish educational psychology graduate programs in either psychology departments or, more commonly, faculties of education. Educational psychologists work in a variety of settings. Some work in university settings where they carry out research on the cognitive and social processes of human development, learning and education. Educational psychologists may also work as consultants in designing and creating educational materials, classroom programs and online courses. Educational psychologists who work in k–12 school settings (closely related are school psychologists in the US and Canada) are trained at the master's and doctoral levels. In addition to conducting assessments, school psychologists provide services such as academic and behavioral intervention, counseling, teacher consultation, and crisis intervention. Howeve

Motivation is an internal state that activates, guides and sustains behavior. Motivation can have several impacting effects on how students learn and how they behave towards subject matter: Provide direction towards goals Enhance cognitive processing abilities and performance Direct behavior toward particular goals Lead to increased effort and energy Increase initiation of and persistence in activities Educational psychology research on motivation is concerned with the volition or will that students bring to a task, their level of interest andintrinsic motivation, the personally held goals that guide their behavior, and their belief about the causes of their success or failure. As intrinsic motivation deals with activities that act as their own rewards, extrinsic motivation deals with motivations that are brought on by consequences or punishments. A form of  attribution theory  developed by  Bernard Weiner    describes how students' beliefs about the causes of academi

Constructivism is a category of learning theory in which emphasis is placed on the agency and prior "knowing" and experience of the learner, and often on the social and cultural determinants of the learning process. Educational psychologists distinguish individual (or psychological) constructivism, identified with  Piaget's theory of cognitive development , from  social constructivism . A dominant influence on the latter type is  Lev Vygotsky 's work on sociocultural learning, describing how interactions with adults, more capable peers, and cognitive tools are internalized to form mental constructs. Elaborating on Vygotsky's theory,  Jerome Bruner  and other educational psychologists developed the important concept of  instructional scaffolding , in which the social or information environment offers supports for learning that are gradually withdrawn as they become internalized

Social cognitive theory is a highly influential fusion of behavioral, cognitive and social elements that was initially developed by educational psychologist Albert Bandura. In its earlier, neo-behavioral incarnation called  social learning theory , Bandura emphasized the process ofobservational learning in which a learner's behavior changes as a result of observing others' behavior and its consequences. The theory identified several factors that determine whether observing a model will affect behavioral or cognitive change. These factors include the learner's developmental status, the perceived prestige and competence of the model, the consequences received by the model, the relevance of the model's behaviors and consequences to the learner's goals, and the learner's self-efficacy. The concept of self-efficacy, which played an important role in later developments of the theory, refers to the learner's belief in his or her ability to perform the modeled beha

Developmental psychology, and especially the psychology of cognitive development, opens a special perspective for educational psychology. This is so because education and the psychology of cognitive development converge on a number of crucial assumptions. First, the psychology of cognitive development defines human cognitive competence at successive phases of development. Education aims to help students acquire knowledge and develop skills which are compatible with their understanding and problem-solving capabilities at different ages. Thus, knowing the students' level on a developmental sequence provides information on the kind and level of knowledge they can assimilate, which, in turn, can be used as a frame for organizing the subject matter to be taught at different school grades. This is the reason why Piaget's theory of cognitive development was so influential for education, especially mathematics and science education.   In the same direction, the  neo-Piagetian theories

Among current educational psychologists, the cognitive perspective is more widely held than the behavioral perspective, perhaps because it admits causally related mental constructs such as traits, beliefs, memories, motivations and emotions. Cognitive theories claim that memory structures determine how information is perceived, processed, stored, retrieved and forgotten. Among the memory structures theorized by cognitive psychologists are separate but linked visual and verbal systems described by Allan Paivio's dual coding theory. Educational psychologists have used dual coding theory and cognitive load theory to explain how people learn from multimediapresentations. Three experiments reported by Krug, Davis and Glover    demonstrated the advantage of delaying a 2nd reading of a text passage by one week (distributed) compared with no delay between readings (massed). The spaced learning effect, a cognitive phenomenon strongly supported by psychological research, has br

Applied behavior analysis , a set of techniques based on the behavioral principles of  operant conditioning , is effective in a range of educational settings.    For example, teachers can alter student behavior by systematically rewarding students who follow classroom rules with praise, stars, or tokens exchangeable for sundry items.   Despite the demonstrated efficacy of awards in changing behavior, their use in education has been criticized by proponents of  self-determination theory , who claim that praise and other rewards undermine intrinsic motivation . There is evidence that tangible rewards decrease intrinsic motivation in specific situations, such as when the student already has a high level of intrinsic motivation to perform the goal behavior.   But the results showing detrimental effects are counterbalanced by evidence that, in other situations, such as when rewards are given for attaining a gradually increasing standard of performance, rewards enhance intrinsic motivation.

Two fundamental assumptions that underlie formal education systems are that students (a) retain knowledge and skills they acquire in school, and (b) can apply them in situations outside the classroom. But are these assumptions accurate? Research has found that, even when students report not using the knowledge acquired in school, a considerable portion is retained for many years and long-term retention is strongly dependent on the initial level of mastery.   One study found that university students who took a child development course and attained high grades showed, when tested ten years later, average retention scores of about 30%, whereas those who obtained moderate or lower grades showed average retention scores of about 20%.   There is much less consensus on the crucial question of how much knowledge acquired in school  transfers  to tasks encountered outside formal educational settings, and how such transfer occurs.   Some psychologists claim that research evidence for this type o

Each person has an individual profile of characteristics, abilities, and challenges that result from predisposition, learning, and development. These manifest as individual differences in intelligence, creativity, cognitive style, motivation and the capacity to process information, communicate, and relate to others. The most prevalent disabilities found among school-age children are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability, dyslexia, and speech disorder. Less common disabilities include mental retardation, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and blindness. Although theories of intelligence have been discussed by philosophers since Plato, intelligence testing is an invention of educational psychology and is coincident with the development of that discipline.  Continuing debates about the nature of intelligence revolve on whether intelligence can be characterized by a single factor known as general intelligence,   multiple factors (e.g., Gardn

A child must learn to develop a  sense of seriousness , an ability to distinguish  degrees of seriousness  as it relates to transgressions and expenditure of time; for example, a child must learn to distinguish between levels of seriousness in admonitions such as between "don't fidget" and "don't forget to look both ways when crossing the street," which have the same linguistic and normative structure, but different levels of seriousness

To understand the characteristics of learners in childhood,adolescence, adulthood, and old age, educational psychology develops and applies theories of humandevelopment. Often represented as stages through which people pass as they mature, developmental theories describe changes in mental abilities (cognition), social roles, moral reasoning, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge. For example, educational psychologists have conducted research on the instructional applicability of Jean Piaget's theory of development, according to which children mature through four stages of cognitive capability. Piaget hypothesized that children are not capable of abstract logical thought until they are older than about 11 years, and therefore younger children need to be taught using concrete objects and examples. Researchers have found that transitions, such as from concrete to abstract logical thought, do not occur at the same time in all domains. A child may be able to think abstractly abou

Educational Psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities. Researchers and theorists are likely to be identified in the US and Canada as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. This distinction is, however, not made in the UK, where the generic term for practitioners is "educational psychologist." Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology, in turn,

While there is a very wide range of media and interfaces available, their effectiveness in terms of educational communication, compatibility with the subject have to be considered. Good domestic facilities in terms of power supply, maintenance, availability of whichever medium is selected, software production and trained personnel are very important to the success of a distance education project. There are, in many minds, questions regarding the pedagogical implication of using distance methods which depend so greatly on the media. Passive learning is still something of a problem in Asia and may be reinforced by excessive dependence on the media. Many countries may need to opt for higher technology in communication out of sheer logistical and geographical problems. These technologies may include satellites and computers. Ways can be found in which they become cost-effective. It is important to familiarize Asian countries with the language of the new

Changes in the types of technologies available for delivering distance education, including changes in the capabilities of networking technology and the rise of the Internet, have played a role in the adoption of distance education by post secondary institutions. The following are the common technologies available for the instructional delivery of distance education courses. Video technologies : Two-way video with two-way audio (also referred to as two-way interactive video). Audio technologies:  Two-way audio transmission Internet-based technologies:  Internet courses using synchronous (i.e. simultaneous or `real time') computer-based instruction (e.g. interactive computer conferencing or Interactive Relay Chat), and Internet course using asynchronous (i.e. not simultaneous) computer-based instruction (e.g. email, list-serves, and most World Wide Web-based courses). Other technologies:  CD-ROM, mixed mode packages (i.e. a mix of technologies t

The concept of distance learning is continually evolving and expanding as new technologies are developed and integrated into the wide spectrum of existing ones. It helps learners meet their educational needs by overcoming barriers of distance and time, by providing remote communities with instant access to resources, and by actively engaging learners in the learning process. For distance learning to be effective, the presenter must know the target audience and select an appropriate technology for the presentation.

In order to assess the impact of distance education on women, their motivation, persistence and success rate in distance education, a sample of 200 women were taken for study from Mother Teresa Women's University, School of Distance Education distributed mostly 70% among social science and 30% among science and computer sciences. A Questionnaire containing various aspects of distance education was sent to this sample of 200 women distance education learners. The following are the impact of Distance Education on women learners drawn from responses of the sample. They gained confidence Improved their career opportunities Attained more degrees for satisfaction Updated their skills Second chance of learning for disadvantaged or compelled dropout Acquisition of knowledge Change in socialization pattern of children Better decision making capacity Respect in family and community More opportunities for networking and

Psychological barriers   includes Limited career aspirations, Low self-esteem / under valuing of their skill, Feeling intimidated by male competitors. Institutional Barriers  includes bias in recruitment and promotion, Limited opportunity for exercising leadership, Women exclusive criteria, Omission of critical materials on and by women in class rooms, Lack of literate or leadership skills for women. Situational Barriers   includes Process of Socialization (Patriarchy),Cultural barriers, Family responsibilities, Lack of support from the family, Not being taken seriously, Campus climate, Lack of network support for coping, Time conflicts, Lack of mobility. Other barriers include   includes curricula that do not fit to the needs of the job, unfriendly learning environment, Fear of sexual harassment, Inadequate gender awareness training for teachers, Discriminatory approach in education, Lack of Technical education and fear about technologies.

. Conventionally, the historical exclusion of women from the respected ranks of the academy is blamed on women. Women are deficient in natural intellectual ability, women are temperamentally unstable, they lack motivation and women's domestic preoccupations preclude public life and so on. Throughout history, women have vigorously challenged the concept of preordained female subservience. Not until the twentieth century, however, have women been able to organize world-wide initiatives toward rectifying the imbalances. The issue of women's lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem is well known through various research studies. The lack of self confidence however is endemic to women and cuts across class, caste and even national boundaries. Coupled with the confidence issue is ` finding their voices' . This is a positive reinforcement and an assurance that women are intelligent and that they are capable of learning. According to a few research studies, it

State-wise enrollment and Teacher in correspondence courses Institutions in India (2001-2002) reveal that for India as a whole, about 11,23,344 have been enrolled of which 4,04,105 are women. Further 1,120 male teachers were involved in Distance Education teaching while female teachers constituted only 241 for the years 2001-2002.

Women constitute about fifty percent of the total population, but they form only nine percent of the total productive work force. The main reason for this poor share is low literacy level among women. When this major chunk is educated, no doubt, they can contribute significantly for the development of the country and can there by empower themselves. Women empowerment is a global issue. Empowerment is an active multi-dimensional process which enables women to realize their full identity and powers in all spheres of life. Women form the pivotal point around whom family life and living revolves. When economic level of a family goes down, women are the worst sufferers. The poorer the family the greater is its dependence on women's economic productivity. Also illiteracy among women often leads to a poor self-image, lack of knowledge and self-worth, making them susceptible to being deprived of their rights and playing an active role in the society and restricts their

Development is a process of structural change in the economic, political, social and cultural domains. It starts with people as they are the primary and ultimate focus of all development. It empowers women through Distance Learning in India, historically explores the causes and reasons for long denial of formal education to women. In recent times, Distance Education has emerged as a boon to women of all ages to equip themselves intellectually through acquisition of knowledge, leading them to new radical methods of thinking, and alternative, lateral perspectives on existing information thus rendering them more autonomous and liberated. It reviews aspects of Gender and distance learning, participatory trends of women in distance learning in India, barriers affecting womens advancement in academia, impact of distance learning on women learners, gender technology and distance learning, technologies for improving distance learning, limitations of distance education technologies, the Indi

At the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, OpenLearn, which is the Open University’s project providing free learning resources on the internet, is acknowledged for setting the best precedent for interactive, electronically delivered distance education material. At the event, the judges pointed out: The OpenLearn website of the Open University, UK, is the unanimous winner for this category based on its educational value and learning for development value. The OpenLearn website is one of the most significant contributions to the evolving world of Open Education Resources – the project is a benchmark for the design of asynchronous learning materials. The breadth and scope of the collection of OpenLearn materials is impressive and The Open University has successfully implemented a number of robust and scalable technological innovations. Deserving particular mention is the excellent and creative support of RSS syndication, which puts this project at the forefront of work in

Are you on the prowl for a  nationally accredited  online colleges, then you should consider these facts. Nationally accredited online colleges are those that have been approved by credible legitimate agencies. Such schools have to undergo a rigorous review process in order to determine the quality of the educational programs they offer. When a school is certified by a national accrediting body, then you can feel comfortable that it is legal to operate. Here is a list of the top accreditation institutions which include key accreditation agencies such as the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT), Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), and lastly, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT). Nationally accredited online universities and schools provide ample amount of freedom and education of quality standards. Imagine taking classes w

Three factors could be seen as driving students back in order to long-established public and personal universities, some of which are usually represented by a a small number of big names. For beginners, several institutions have acquired special tuition rates for distance learners that will be not only less high priced than those for on-campus classes, but also considerably cheaper compared to a big for-profit universities. Comparable fees for in-state and out-of-state residents at these big schools turned out to be more commonplace. Next, to get to know rising demand, more traditional universities usually are responding by increasing the plethora online classes and college degree programs. For example, the Cincinnati Post a short while ago reported that enrollment in online-only programs inside the University of Cincinnati might be up 257 percent in the last 4 years. In an alternative recent article, the Tuscaloosa News cited enrollment figures from the University of West Alabama for

Two-year (Full Time) MBA  programs normally take place over two academic years (i.e. approximately 18 months of term time). For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, they often begin in late August/September of year one and continue until May of year two, with a three to four month summer break in between years one and two. Students enter with a reasonable amount of prior real-world work experience and take classes during weekdays like other university students. Accelerated MBA  programs are a variation of the two-year programs. They involve a higher course load with more intense class and examination schedules. They usually have less "down time" during the program and between semesters. For example, there is no three to four month summer break, and between semesters there might be seven to ten days off rather than three to five weeks vacation. Part-time MBA  programs normally hold classes on weekday evenings, after normal working hours, or on weekends. Part-time program

… Distance learning MBA is a boon to many students. Students who are not able to pursue MBA regularly in colleges are pursuing correspondence MBA. Best distance education providing colleges are present all over India. They are spread equally in all four directions. In the north, around 70 colleges provide correspondence MBA courses. The famous college is the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. It is widely known as IGNOU. The best colleges which provide distance courses for MBA in north direction are listed below here: Amity School of Distance Learning,  Amity University, New Delhi. Delhi Jagannath International Management School, New Delhi. Delhi Management Studies Promotion Institute, New Delhi. Modern Institute of Management, New Delhi. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. In the eastern direction, some colleges which provide MBA are: North Orissa University, Baripada, Orissa. CSM