1. Distance Education
and the Internet
TECH4101
Dr. Alaa Sadik
Instructional & Learning Technologies Department
www.alaasadik.net
alaasadik@squ.edu.om

2. Distance Education
and the Internet
TECH4101
Lecture One (Week 2)
Defining
Distance Education
Interactive Presentation

3. Defining Distance Education
Background:
The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century →
Developments in various fields of technology →
Offered new solutions for delivering instruction →
Learners’ interests were enhanced →
Increase in the subject areas offered by distance
education →
Became one of the formal means of education.

4. Defining Distance Education
What is distance education or distance
learning?
Defining the meaning of distance education may provide a good starting point to
recognize its elements.
Use Google to search for:
define: distance education:
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on
teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an
individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational
setting such as a classroom. It has been described as "a process to create and provide
access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time
and distance, or both."[

5. Defining Distance Education
Distance education or distance learning?
Add your own point of view here …
1distance education foucs education method and tech
in classroom or not, but distance learning is used
multimedia in education..
2Education that takes place when the instructor and
student are separated by space and/or time.

6. CONT…
• 3Distance learning is
Use communication To learn and Search for
information.
• 4Distance education is formal learning activity
where students and instructors are separated by
geography, time or both for the majority of the
instructional period.

7. Defining Distance Education
History of distance education and
technology (old technology)
In the years between the World Wars (1918-1946), the federal
government granted radio broadcasting licenses to 202
colleges, universities, and school boards. With all the demands
and popularity of instructional radio, by the year 1940 there
was only one college-level credit course offered by radio and
that course failed to attract any enrollments (Atkins, 1991).

8. Defining Distance Education
History of distance education and
technology
(modern technology)
Information Technology has introduced considerable changes in almost
all walks of life. Yet the journey of innovations and developments by
Information technology is not over. This is a fact that information
technology is an endless stream of possibilities which cannot be summed
up in a book or in an article. It is an acknowledged truth that information
technology has dramatically changed the world and we can guess the
coming times will introduce many new things.

9. Defining Distance Education
Time for
Presentation

10. Defining Distance Education
In conclusion, many key features characterize
distance education:
1. The separation of teacher and learner;
2. The separation among learners;
3. The use of one medium to deliver instruction;
and
4. The use of a communication channel to facilitate
interaction and support learners.

11. The End
Questions & Discussions