Benefits and challenges of distance learning

this summary is assignment in AEP8 at Insearch UTS written by me.

Mupinga (2005), in the sections ‘Benefits of distance education’ and ‘Challenges facing distance education’ of the article ‘Distance Education in Schools: Benefits, Challenges and Suggestions’, describes strong points and hurdles of distance education.The author states benefits of distance learning. Flexibility of time and space is the first benefit. So, it is suitable to students who can not attend a full time school due to various reasons. Moreover, the usage of multimedia resources and self-assessment tools in distance education can lead to a better result in test. When the economic situation is difficult, distance education also can be a substitute for schools.Challenges of distance education stated by the author are as follows. There is less opportunity to socialize and interact with fellow students. And a guideline is needed to be developed to balance the workload of online teachers with offline instructors. Preference to traditional education is also one of challenges to be overcome. Without new approach, distance education can not make use of its advantageous feature of flexibility. To be successful in online learning, distance students must learn time-management skill, self-motivation and responsibility. When it comes to online education, knowledge of information technology is also needed by both teachers and students.