Merits and Weaknesses with Distance Education (Essay Sample)

THE PROS AND CONS OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
Introduction
The importance of education to society, organizations and individual has never been questioned. This is because of the clear evidence of social, organizational and individual transformations that can be characterized with education. Even though the overall importance of education cannot be questioned, one area that has continuously been debated is the approach to attaining formal education. More specifically, there are several researches that have been conducted to investigate the pros and cons associated with distance education. Distance education has been defined as a mode of engaging students in the formal delivery of education and instructions, without their physical presence in a classroom setting. Distance education can therefore be said to have developed as part of the modern technological drive where tuition takes place through the use of electronic learning, online learning, and other forms of access to learning where learners are separated from instructors.[Charles H. Aydin, "Trends in Distance Education Research: A Content Analysis of Journals 2009-2013," International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 16, no. 1 (2015): 350.]
Merits of distance education
A research was conducted by Thierry on the benefits of open and distance learning for Africa. This study was conducted as a three-year longitudinal research spanning from 2007 to 2010. Through the use of mixed research approach that comprised both survey questionnaire and interview, the researchers collected data from 650 respondents to find how they perceived the pros of open and distance learning. In the study, 75% of respondents reported that the open and distance learning program had given them professional competence. Such respondents added that they would have been denied the professional competence if they were to compete for space in the traditional educational system. This is a result that shows that distance education has the merit of providing accessibility to people who otherwise would have been left out if they were to compete for space in the traditional classroom. The study also found that respondents were happy about the open and distance education because unlike traditional education, they had the opportunity to learn at their own pace. The implication of this result is that distance education caters for different learning needs of people. It is therefore possible for a person to be fully employed and still have chance to enroll in distance education.[Thierry Karsenti, "Open and distance learning: What are the benefits for Africa, and what its future," International Journal of Educational Management 15, no. 2 (2012): 1870.]
Weaknesses with distance education
In another study by Hsiang-yu, the challenges for distance education from a cultural analytic perspective in Sweden were investigated. Using systematic review of literature as the main data collection procedure, the study gathered a number of weaknesses that can be associated with distance education. The first of these was the fact that most students engaged in distance education lacked the sensory experience to make them appreciate their learning outcome as being equal to mainstream students. For most students, their lack of sensory experience came about because of doubts with the credibility of independent learning. Meanwhile where there is no guarantee of independent learning, the outcome of student performance becomes generally questionable. By extension, the effectiveness of student ability, usability and practical implementation of competence can be affected through the lack of sensory experience associated with distance education. The study also found that online communication was a major challenge for most participants in distance education. This means that distance education has a weakness with effectiveness among people who are not well endowed with online communication and other forms of technological communication. By extension, distance education cannot be effective at places where there is low penetration o