Embracing distance learning

A slow revolution is taking place in the way knowledge is disseminated by teachers and acquired by students. Dr Ali Khwaja highlights the widely available and acceptable options.

What began as a small and insignificant beginning almost thirty years ago has spread all over the country in the form of open universities, online courses and distance education opportunities. Today, India boasts of the largest distance learning institutions both at university and at high school levels. This is a boon to innumerable students who could not manage to go for full-time classroom studies.

I recollect fondly a young boy (let us call him Rohan) who was brought to me by his parents almost two decades ago for counselling, as he seemed to be at a dead end in his academics. He had a learning disability (hardly diagnosed those days) due to which he was lagging behind, and was particularly poor in languages. He had already appeared for language papers in the Board exam three times, and his marks had actually gone down steadily in each attempt. 

Being forced to study, go for more and more tuition and coaching, Rohan had become very rebellious and angry. When he first met me, he arrogantly said, “I will become a smuggler and earn more money than all the engineers and doctors. I don’t need education.” Luckily for him, the National Open School (now known as National Institute of Open Schooling, NIOS) had opened its doors for such students.

I asked him simply, “If you have to give exams without languages, and in any subjects of your choice, would you be willing?”  He looked at me suspiciously, and for a long time refused to believe that such a thing was possible.

To cut a long story short, Rohan completed both his 10th and 12th through NIOS while getting practical training in computers, a field that was just beginning to blossom. Within two years he was earning very well as a hardware technician.  

Subsequently he took up Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) through Open University, completed it slowly at his own pace, and is now running his own computer training institute where even software engineers enroll for vocational courses.

Not only that, when he was married to a girl from his village, he motivated his matriculate wife, who completed her graduation and postgraduation in psychology through distance education, and is now a college lecturer.

Correspondence and online courses in these years after Rohan’s journey began are becoming more and more popular.  There are Open Universities catering only to distance learning, supplemented by private institutes that offer wide variety of courses. 

With the coming of free Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC), quality inputs are available from top universities of the world. The latest addition has been the UGC sanction for Community Colleges, where students can get a certificate in one year, a diploma in two years, and a degree in three years of study – and these studies can be done with gaps and at the pace of the learner.

Major advantages

* Fee is much lower. Matriculation through NIOS is Rs 1,300 for boys and 1,000 for girls, inclusive of text books. University courses are also much cheaper than the charges of conventional private colleges.

* Courses offered by universities include not just degrees and postgraduation, but also one-year diplomas, six-month certification courses etc.

* Candidates can study at their own time and place. Students and housewives in remote villages where even electricity is scarce, can take advantage of it.

* Students who have fallen behind and are older can be spared the embarrassment of sitting in classes with others who are much younger.

* Examination centres can be changed if candidate is transferred to a different place
* One can earn while learning, doing full-time or part-time jobs.

* Enthusiastic students can take up more than one course at a time, or supplement their regular studies with correspondence courses. For example, many aspiring chartered accountants complete their BCom. through Open University while doing full time articleship under qualified CAs.

* Exams can be given few subjects at a time, twice a year, sometimes even on-demand, reducing pressure of appearing for “Board exams”

* Employees who find their promotions blocked because of lack of necessary qualifications, can acquire the degrees and promotions without giving up their jobs.

* Under the Open University system, any 18 year old who has not completed 10+2 can seek admission directly into graduation, based on a simple entry test.

* Those who had given up their graduate studies half-way can seek lateral entry at the stage where they had dropped out, and complete earlier.

* Innumerable women, housewives, retired personnel have boosted their self-esteem and their confidence by acquiring qualifications through distance learning.

* Qualification through distance learning is recognized everywhere for higher studies, government jobs and even IAS. In fact some universities give out the same degree certificates to distance learning students as they do to students who attend colleges.

The most recent development in distance education started with online courses that go beyond just text lessons, but also offer audio and video lessons, opportunities to interact with teachers through audio-visual media, and watch real-time lectures from most eminent professors.  This gives the feel of the classroom which correspondence courses were lacking in.

In 2008, another small but significant development took place. Reputed American universities such as MIT and Harvard introduced Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and the concept has spread like wildfire all over the world.

Coursera alone offers over 200 courses in subjects ranging from computer science, business, humanities, medicine and education, while Udemy offers over 5,000 different courses. 

While all MOOC courses are free to any student anywhere in the world, some universities charge a small fee for extra work with an instructor, or to get a certification of successful completion. Some reputed universities also offer transfer of credit for further studies in their campus.

A great deal of learning is also done through peer interaction and evaluation. India stands second in number of enrollments at Coursera, with 8.8 per cent students enrolled from our country.

Universities from Asia, Europe and Australia have also started MOOC courses in a big way, and even IITs have initiated the process to offer courses. At present the only issue of concern is that a large number of students drop out (since they have enrolled free), and if peer groups or coaching centres can support these courses, they will be a boon in providing global education at almost no cost.

From basic correspondence and distance learning courses, to virtual classrooms in villages, to global education from the top universities of the world, this alternate form of education has opened doors to enable innumerable students and adults to learn and grow.

In India where the gross enrollment ratio (GER) in higher education is much lower than the world average, we can take advantage of these opportunities and become global players without having to step out of our country, or even our villages and houses.

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