DISTANCE LEARNING: THE WAY FORWARD?
Distance Learning technologies are growing rapidly. Most often, instructional designers and curriculum developers have placed more emphasis on the latest technologies without dealing with the basics of learner characteristics and needs, the influence of media upon the instructional process, equity of access to interactive delivery systems, and the new roles of teacher, site facilitator, and student in the distance learning process.
"Distance education" or "distance learning" has been applied to a great variety of programmes, providers, audiences, and media. It is the separation of teacher and learner in space and/or time, the volitional control of learning by the student rather than the distant instructor, and noncontiguous communication between student and teacher, mediated by print or some form of technology. In other words, distance education is defined as an educational system in which the student is formally enrolled in a school, college or language institution but receives instruction at some remote site.
Today, public interest in distance education is especially high in areas where the student population is widely distributed. Individual institutions have developed their own form of distance education in accordance with local resources, target audience, and philosophy of the organizations which provide the instruction. Many institutions, both public and private, offer courses for self-motivated individuals through independent study programmes. In Yaoundé alone, many distance learning organisations have sprung up like mushrooms lately, including some embassies, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie(AUF), Institut Africain d’Informatique (IAI), Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l’Information et de la Communication(ESSTIC), and many more.
The Pilot Centre and incidentally the Bilingual Training Programme have done the groundwork for distance learning to be effective within the near future. New moves were introduced into our usual operational modes, with an interesting debate on Distance Learning. Not only have the authorities engineered various types of trainings within the framework of staff development, but most importantly they have acquired some of the up-to-date equipment and materials necessary for the project to go operational.
The benefits of such an enduring project are manifold. Advantages of delivering distance learning on the Internet include the following: time and place flexibility; potential to reach a global audience; no concern about compatibility of computer equipment and operating systems; quick development time, compared to videos and CD-ROMs; easy updating of content, as well as archival capabilities. Carefully designed Internet courses can enhance interactivity between instructors and learners and among learners. Equity is often mentioned as a benefit of online learning; the relative anonymity of computer communication has the potential to give voice to those reluctant to speak in face-to-face situations and to allow learner contributions to be judged on their own merit, unaffected by "any obvious visual cultural markers". The medium also supports self-directed learning-computer conferencing and requires learner motivation, self-discipline, and responsibility.
Among the factors which influence success for a learner on the Bilingual Training Programme or any other learner are greater autonomy, student characteristics such as active listening and the ability to work independently in the absence of a live instructor.
Be it on the BTP or elsewhere, implementation of distance education is resource-intensive. Sufficient money and time must be allocated to deliver whatever courseware was promised.
Little happens of any magnitude without administration buy-in, and the best way to achieve that is to succeed on a small level first. Put most of your effort into finding the right people rather than the most exciting technology. Some teachers work well on camera, behind a microphone, or running a computer conference, and others do not. Find teachers who feel comfortable and work well with the media, then give them all of the support you can afford. Their job is to teach, not splice cords together or figure out why their conferencing software is misbehaving. The more transparent the media are to them, the better service they will deliver. This has a financial payoff too: the better a teacher works with media, the less necessary the expensive elements of distance delivery coursework (like graphics and sophisticated editing) become to the creation of a quality product. The BTP has already gone pass this stage and only needs a little push to start delivering the much awaited goods.