Many people are familiar with the concept of distance education, which has evolved from the centuries-old correspondence courses where one simply received one’s study matter through the mail and sent back assignments the same way. Then the computer age arrived and threw in a few extras — primarily, however, a far faster, more convenient and more secure way of communicating with one’s distance university.
Tutorial matter and one’s reading lists could arrive on-screen; enquiries relating to academic or purely admin matters could be now more easily cleared up by sending email messages; assignments could be sent from one’s home or work-based computer instead of one’s labours getting lost in the post (sometimes a convenient excuse if in reality you didn’t do the work, or failed to finish it on time); and even fees could be paid by electronic transfer.
Now comes e-learning, or online learning, which includes all of the above but adds an entirely new dimension to and even transcends the old concept of distance education.
“The concept and methodology of modern e-learning are really built around the concept of the synchronous virtual classroom, where teaching and studying take place live in real time and is a highly interactive, even intense process whereby knowledge and information can be transferred or exchanged between lecturers and their students, and even between the students themselves,” says Nigel Tattersall, CEO of eDegree (Pty) Ltd, which pioneered e-learning in South Africa.
“A specific time is set aside on certain days in the week, say Friday at 5pm, when a lecturer and his ‘class’ go online for a live tutorial session just as if they were in a lecture room on campus. Everyone is at their computers wherever they happen to be. All take part in the discussions, one at a time. The students will have had advance warning of the topic to be discussed, and so are expected to come fully prepared for the ensuing session,” he says. “It’s a formalised process.”
Simply dumping learning content on the internet is no way of ensuring either student interest, motivation or active involvement, says Alison Jacobson, eDegree’s MD.
“You can produce interactive online content, but it’s the structuring and facilitating of the virtual classroom that brings it more in line with the benefits of a residential university, as opposed to being merely some kind of distance learning body,” she says. “Yes, the students are physically at a distance, but their communication and their active collaboration are just as real as if they were attending lectures at a residential university — and invariably the backwards-and-forwards communication is much more satisfactory and effective, from both sides of the learning process.
“To run a virtual campus, you need the technology, you need subject-matter experts in the form of lecturers, and you need students. But you also need an administration function — an intermediary such as eDegree — which joins all the components together. eDegree’s facilitators ensure that the system runs smoothly, consistently and continuously, and that everyone is contributing in the ways that they are supposed to.”
Tattersall notes that although every kind of modern interactive technology is readily available, such as multimedia including voice, video and graphics, e-learning in South Africa is limited by a lack of sufficient bandwidth. So e-learning at this stage is necessarily text-based, and participants communicate via their keyboards, he says. “But it’s fine and works well, once you have got used to it.”
eDegree brought on board suitable academics to complement its existing technology expertise who, on the operational side, were trained as online facilitators, forming an indispensable, ever-present link between the student body and the lecturing staff at eDegree’s “customers”, the participating universities.
“The key value was building online content involving both our on-board academics and our technology people. Setting up a virtual classroom that functions in real time, without a hitch, and that meets everyone’s expectations, is a complex process,” says Tattersall. “It’s not about simply dumping learning content on the internet — it’s a careful weighing up of factors such as how much online interaction and how much self-study should be built into the course,” he says.
Tattersall insists that online learning should really fall within the definition and ambit of full-time study, as opposed to distance learning. The sophisticated technology used makes up for any problems that students who are physically far apart may encounter.
“We make sure that classes are held regularly and are in fact attended. Our logs show who’s online and who isn’t, and we get in touch with absentees and ask what the problem is — it may be illness, emergencies, other sudden and more pressing commitments, or even computer problems,” he says.
“Staying close to the student is very much part of our business. Also, if a lecturer does not pitch, then our eDegree facilitator would be able to step in and take over temporarily.”
There is no clear-cut indication as to whether e-learning is more expensive than attending live lectures on campus. A whole range of factors and considerations comes into play. However, there is an army of would-be eager students out there, but who must work full time, or are stuck in a remote location. They have no choice but to enrol with a distance-learning institution and study after hours or in their spare time.