Distance education: challenges and changes

'Dual mode' universities offer regular educational programs on campus and some proportion of their available courses through distance format. The demands of new technology, changing markets for higher education, and dynamic political and economic conditions, have generated changes in distance education as in conventional education. This article examines the challenges confronting dual mode universities as distance education rapidly expands in most major universities. These challenges include: the ability to support a centralised distance education department with responsibility for course development and delivery; the move to online learning and increasing competition from private sector organisations; the growing importance of lifelong learning and the need to respond to a new group of learners requiring new programs, qualifications and means of delivery; the development of new technologies with the potential to enhance the teaching and learning process; and, barriers to change within institutions such as teachers' attitudes towards using technology for teaching.

'Dual mode' universities offer regular educational programs on campus and some proportion of their available courses through distance format. The demands of new technology, changing markets for higher education, and dynamic political and economic conditions, have generated changes in distance education as in conventional education. This article examines the challenges confronting dual mode universities as distance education rapidly expands in most major universities. These challenges include: the ability to support a centralised distance education department with ...  [+] Show more