Стаття.

Oleksandra Bolkarova

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1142-3223

DOI 10.31558/1815-3070.2020.39.11

УДК 81’1’24:37.018.43=111(045)

TODAY’S OVERALL PICTURE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

Розглянуто тенденцію використання дистанційної освіти з використанням технологій в залежності з новітніми тенденціями опираючись на досвід різних країн світу. Встановлено основні напрями роботи та специфіку дистанційної роботи, які розширили сферу застосування та змінили характер попередніх моделей навчання. З’ясовано необхідність, наявність позитивних та негативних сторін освіти онлайн; порівняння методів дистанційної освіти, що включає прямі інтерактивні зв’язки з тими, які не включають інтерактивні посилання, не демонструє різниці в рівнях задоволеності. Отримані результати підтверджують, що дистанційна освіта не знижує рівня задоволеності студентів порівняно з традиційними методами навчання віч-на-віч, що стає гарними варіантом отримання знань.

Ключові слова: дистанційна освіта, дистанційне навчання, онлайн доступ, технології, програма.

In today’s world, distance education is very popular among students. The purpose of this paper is to examine the satisfaction of the students of distance education in accounting program in terms of the education quality and overall picture of distance education in the world. Student think that distance education in accounting is important for those who can’t commute to campus and using multimedia is helpful to understand the content.

The system and its acceptability have revolutionized the process of study. Distance learning saves time and a student can study sitting at home or at workplace. Usually students learn entirely individually and at their own place. They then neither belong to a group or class, nor feel that they do so. A great number of exceptions to this role occur, however. Universities sometimes teach some groups of students by distance-education methods and other groups face-to-face – they are so-called dual-mode organizations. The student who has enrolled for the distance education program is entitled to get access of all the study materials on the server. The study materials include lectures, references, assignments and training tests. Distance education, like all other technical-social developments, is historically constituted in the thinking and behavioral patterns of those who developed, tested, and implemented. Analyzing well-spread tendency of distance education system as well as three eras of educational, social, and psychological development becomes more common. Each era developed distinct pedagogies, technologies, learning activities, and assessment criteria, consistent with the social worldview of the era in which they developed. We examine each of these models of distance education using the community of inquiry model with its focus on teaching, cognitive, and social presence. It is likely, that students become more adapted and skilled in using ever-present mobile communications and embedded technologies, such as applications and on-line resources that associated with a lack of social presence will be further reduced.

The main reason people choose universities is efforts they put into organizing the education process. Well-known correspondence schools are known since 19th century. Geographical isolation from schools and dispersed religious congregations spurred the development of religious correspondence education in the United States in the 19th century. For example, the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly in western New York state began in 1874 as a program for training “Sunday school” teachers and church workers. From its religious origins, the program gradually expanded to include a nondenominational course of directed home reading and correspondence study. Its success led to the founding of many similar schools throughout the United States in the “chautauqua” movement. One more example is in Europe, mail-order courses had been established by the middle of the 19th century, when the Society of Modern Languages in Berlin offered correspondence courses in French, German, and English. In the United States, companies such as Strayer’s Business College of Baltimore City (now Strayer University), which was founded in Maryland in 1892 and included mail-order correspondence courses, were opened to serve the needs of business employers, especially in the training of women for secretarial duties. Most nonreligious mail-order correspondence courses emphasized instruction in spelling, grammar, business letter composition, and bookkeeping, but others taught everything from developing esoteric mental powers to operating a beauty salon. The clear leader in correspondence course instruction in American higher education at the end of the 19th century was the University of Chicago, where William Rainey Harper employed methods that he had used as director of the Chautauqua educational system for several years starting in 1883. (Gary A. Berg Michael Simonson. Distance learning. Web).

What is the main aim to distance education? By the start of the 20th century, learning theories had begun concentrating on psychological and pedagogical processes with the usage of handouts. Then, with the development of innovative technologies, people become more interested in technological opportunities that are concentrated on visual approaches that nowadays dominated traditional classrooms.

The first significant technological innovation was made by the American inventor Thomas Edison, who devised the tinfoil phonograph in 1877. This device made possible the first language laboratories (facilities equipped with audio or audiovisual devices for use in language learning). After World War I, university-owned radio stations became commonplace in the United States, with more than 200 such stations broadcasting recorded educational programs by 1936.

Edison was also one of the first to produce films for the classroom. Many colleges and universities experimented with educational film production before World War I, and training films were used extensively during the war to educate a diverse and often illiterate population of soldiers in a range of topics from fighting technique to personal hygiene. Improvements in filmmaking, in particular the ability to produce “talkies,” were put to use just before and during World War II for technical training and pro¬paganda purposes. While the most artistically acclaimed propaganda production may have been Triumph of the Will (1935), one of a series of films made by Leni Riefenstahl during the 1930s for the German Nazi government, similar films were produced by all the major belligerents. In the United States the army commissioned Hollywood film director Frank Capra to produce seven films, the widely acclaimed series Why We Fight (1942–45), in order to educate American soldiers on what was at stake.

Modern world focuses on tendency of distance learning that is increasing because of many reasons. Predictably known advantages are:

• students ability to work on their own time rather than spend hours to arrive and spend classes at a particular time, as result less time is spent on travel time and expense is greatly reduced;

• students who prefer written communication may do well in distance learning courses and get to know deeply courses 24/7.

However, disadvantages exist either:

• absence of the face-to-face interaction with students and instructor.

• students who are not disciplined and self-motivated may find it a challenge to keep up in a distance course.

• students who are poor typists or who are lacking in technical skills may be at a disadvantage in a distance course.

• distance learning courses may actually take more time than a traditional course.

• students may experience occasional difficulty to immediately reach other classmates and / or the instructor through technology.

What skills do studence need to succeed in a distance learning course?

1. Pedagogy 2.0 (picture) Appendix A.

Appendix A contains examples of what the authors consider to epitomize Pedagogy 2.0. They have been drawn from the practices of teachers at tertiary learning institutions worldwide, and cover a range of academic disciplines, illustrating how the principles of Pedagogy 2.0 can be applied in a variety of face-to-face classroom settings as well as in fully online, supplemented, and blended e-learning environments. Importantly, it can be seen from these exemplars that with the advent of Pedagogy 2.0, we are witnessing a re-definition of the roles of both teachers and learners, with the latter assuming more active roles as contributors of course content and ideas while also demonstrating learning outcomes through performance and production of ideas. The three P’s of Pedagogy 2.0 are exhibited by the examples in Appendix A in a variety of different way. (All You Need to Know About Distance Learning Programmes in 2020, 2019 Web).

A new reality that aims us to use e-learning and other technological innovations, these changes has impact on the educational experience. With the power of the Internet and Web-based courses helps people to seek recertification, update employment skills etc. It is now seen as a way of facilitating communication between teachers and students, as well as between students, by removing the time constraints associated with sharing information in traditional classrooms or during instructors’ office hours. Similarly, self-paced software educational systems, though still used for certain narrow types of training, have limited flexibility in responding and adapting to individual students, who typically demand some interaction with other humans in formal educational settings.

In Reynard’s study (Reynard, R. (2003) Internet-based ESL for distance adult students) the teachers were familiar with the traditional distance programs in which students had to complete a unit lesson, including all practice and support sessions, before progressing to the next lesson, with the teacher in charge of this progression. In the online mode students could navigate freely the instructional resources and self-select content based on their perceived and identified learning needs. The resenting of control from the teachers to the students in terms of the content, direction and rate of learning, and the ongoing negotiation of learning needs and goals, placed new demands on the teachers, demands that they struggled to adapt to. It conflicted deeply with their established sense of themselves as distance teachers and what could reaso¬nably be required of them. While students clearly preferred the dynamic online mode, teacher resistance to the pedagogical shifts required of them in the new learning environment severely limited what was possible. As the study progressed teachers increasingly disengaged from the more open course format. Context played a crucial role in teacher identity and the identities available to teachers in the study. The separa¬tion of course design and course delivery contexts and functions meant that teachers working with students in the dynamic distance language course format had little expe¬rience or investment in the new, alternative course. While teacher education and orien¬tation programs took place before instruction began, they did not have the expected result, that teachers would feel competent and comfortable in the online program.

Modern distance learning courses employ Web-based course-management sy¬stems that incorporate digital reading materials, podcasts (recorded sessions for elect¬ronic listening or viewing at the student’s leisure), e-mail, threaded (linked) discussion forums, chat rooms, and test-taking functionality in virtual (computer-simulated) classrooms. Both proprietary and open-source systems are common. Although most sy¬stems are generally asynchronous, allowing students access to most features whenever they wish, synchronous technologies, involving live video, audio, and shared access to electronic documents at scheduled times, are also used. Shared social spaces in the form of blogs, wikis (Web sites that can be modified by all classroom participants), and collaboratively edited documents are used in educational settings but to a lesser degree than similar spaces available on the Internet for socializing.

Alongside the growth in modern institutional distance learning has come Web-based or facilitated personal educational services, including e-tutoring, e-mentoring, and research assistance. In addition, there are many educational assistance companies that help parents choose and contact local tutors for their children while the companies handle the contracts. The use of distance learning programs and tutoring services has increased particularly among parents who homeschool their children. Many universities have some online tutoring services for remedial help with reading, writing, and basic mathematics, and some even have online mentoring programs to help doctoral candidates through the dissertation process. Finally, many Web-based personal-assistant companies offer a range of services for adults seeking continuing education or professional development.

One of the most prominent types of educational institutions that makes use of distance learning is the open university, which is open in the sense that it admits nearly any adult. Since the mid-20th century the open university movement has gained momentum around the world, reflecting a desire for greater access to higher education by various constituencies, including nontraditional students, such as the disabled, mili¬tary personnel, and prison inmates.

The origin of the movement can be traced to the University of London, which began offering degrees to external students in 1836. This paved the way for the growth of private correspondence colleges that prepared students for the University of London’s examinations and enabled them to study independently for a degree without formally enrolling in the university. In 1946 the University of South Africa, headquartered in Pretoria, began offering correspondence courses, and in 1951 it was reconstituted to provide degree courses for external students only. Open universities have spread across the world and are characterized as “mega-universities” because their enrollments may exceed hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of students in countries such as India, China, and Israel.

As one of the most successful nontraditional institutions with a research component, the Open University is a major contributor to both the administrative and the pedagogical literature in the field of open universities. The university relies heavily on prepared materials and a tutor system. The printed text was originally the principal teaching medium in most Open University courses, but this changed somewhat with the advent of the Internet and computers, which enabled written assignments and materials to be distributed via the Web. For each course, the student is assigned a local tutor, who normally makes contact by telephone, mail, or e-mail to help with queries related to the academic materials. Students may also attend local face-to-face classes run by their tutor, and they may choose to form self-help groups with other students. Tutor-graded assignments and discussion sessions are the core aspects of this educational model. The tutors and interactions between individual students are meant to compensate for the lack of face-to-face lectures in the Open University. To emphasize the tutorial and individualized-learning aspects of its method, the Open University prefers to describe it as “supported open learning” rather than distance learning.

Ukrainians correspondence courses acquired a poor academic reputation. It is seems that students don’t study as much as they should and always do their tasks before the examination day.

While the situation is improving by the introduction of accrediting agencies that set standards for the delivery of distance learning programs, there has always been concern about the quality of the learning experience and the verification of student work. Additionally, the introduction of distance learning in traditional institutions raised fears that technology will someday completely eliminate real classrooms and human instructors. Anyway, the teacher always fill information in the courses.

There are two categories of skills that students should possess: technical and study skills. As for technical skills, they should know basic word processing, how to send and receive emails, how to send and receive attachments, navigate the Web, and basic knowledge of Windows operating systems. As for study skills, students should be self-motivated, manage their time well, have good communication skills and be diligent. Patience and a sense of humor are also helpful.

Educational opportunities are numerous and many distance-learning programs are offered now:

1. Moodle is the world's most popular learning management system. Start creating your online learning site in minutes!

2. Gmail – instant e-mailing for all generations.

3. Google-forms – polls and possibility to create test with video, audio and testing material.

4. Google – presentatins and PowerPoint. – help to make lesson more complicated.

5. Class time – is a solution for classrooms that complements in-class teaching with immediate feedback on students' level of understanding.

6. Zoom – is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars etc

Learning has no limits and it never stops, and with the technology developing every day, learning truly has no borders. Nowadays, many people are interested in distance learning programs.

There is a misconception that distance learning programs are mostly for certificate courses or short-term courses. However, you may find a distance learning program not only for short courses but also for Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees. Online Bachelor programs are becoming popular. Usually, most students choose to follow their Bachelor’s degree in the traditional format, attending on-campus classes, whether in their home country or by going abroad. In the last years, however, more students have started to embrace the idea of online education.

Universities have been introducing diverse study programs for Bachelor students that are either working, are older students, or simply prefer studying from home.

There are more than 560 distance learning bachelor’s degree programs. You can find a great variety of programs from engineering, information technology, accounting to business, sales or literature and this list can be continued. These programs are great opportunities for those who want to hold a diploma with the flexibility of choosing their own study hours. (All You Need to Know About Distance Learning Programs in 2020, 19 Nov 2019 Web).

A large number of distance learning Bachelor courses are available in universities from the UK, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, France, and a few can be found in institutions from Ireland, Netherlands and Switzerland, Finland.

Recently, a growth in distance education programs can be seen because of the time and space restriction of face-to-face learning system. It is also economically advantageous and preferable by working students.

Distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are physically sepa¬rated, and technology (i. e., voice, video, data, or print).

Web based distance education systems should have some characteristics such as user identification and user management, preparation of course contents, course management, starting student specific programs, setting / delivery of homework and project, preparation and holding examination and test, monitoring and analysing student behavior, determination of student success status, establishment and management of interactive communication environment. (Related Terms and Concepts, Goals of Distance Learning, Technologies Used in Distance Learning Web).

For more than a century, distance learning in higher education has constantly evolved – both in practice and in the definition of the term. As in many academic pursuits that are still in a state of development, there have been debates not only about the definition, but also about the words distance and learning themselves. While there is no one authority to arbitrate this issue, reviewing some well-researched definitions yields some common concepts.

Three main concepts are common to these definitions:

• Education. A course of study is being undertaken involving both teaching and learning.

• Overcoming barriers of place and / or time. Teachers and learners traditionally meet at an appointed place at an appointed time to pursue a course of study. Distance learning originally developed to overcome the difficulties of teachers and learners who were not in the same geographic location. More recently, distance learning may also serve those who might be at the same location, but choose not to meet at the same time.

• A tool is used to facilitate learning. To overcome the distance of place or time, some form of technology is used to communicate between the teacher and learner. Originally, the technologies of pen, paper, and the postal service were used to connect them. As electronic communication technologies (audio, video, and data) became readily accessible to learners, these have been increasingly used. (Distance Learning in Higher Education Web).

While the term distance learning is widely used, the rapid development of communications technologies in the late 1990s and early 2000s created many variations on the theme. To understand distance learning, it is helpful to examine other closely related terms and concepts.

Correspondence study. The original form of distance learning, correspondence study involves the exchange of the written word, on paper, between teacher and learner. Improvements in transportation technologies (i. e., trains, trucks, planes) have assisted the postal service in making this an increasingly more viable method of study.

Distance education. Those wishing to focus on the learner as the center of the instructional process favor using the word learning. Others insist that the higher education institution cannot force someone to learn, and that the activity undertaken by the institution is education, not learning.

Distributed education. As electronic technologies provided more assistance to overcome the barriers of time, instead of just distance, some felt that the focus on distance had outlived its usefulness. In distributed education, education is available (or "distributed") to any location at any time. Often a mix of technologies is proposed, including face-to-face instruction.

Hybrid classes. These courses use a mixture of distance learning and face-to-face techniques. For example, a group of learners in a biology class may meet face-to-face for their laboratory work, but the remainder of the instruction may be offered via television or computer.

Open learning. This is a term for distance learning commonly used in the British Commonwealth countries. The term derives from the Open University of the United Kingdom. To assist those not privileged to attend Britain's selective universities, the Open University began offering classes in the 1960s via a combination of written materials, televised programs, and local tutors. Open universities have spread throughout the Commonwealth countries and serve millions of students throughout the world.

Online learning. Distance learning where the bulk of instruction is offered via computer and the Internet is called online learning.

E-learning. Gaining popularity in the early 2000s, the term e-learning refers to any electronically assisted instruction, but is most often associated with instruction offered via computer and the Internet.

The main goal of distance learning is to overcome barriers of place and time. Learners may live in isolated, rural areas and have no access to education. Other learners may have ready access to a college, but that college might not offer the course of study needed by that learner. Distance learning allows education to reach those who are not able to physically attend courses on a campus. Further, as learners attempt to balance family, work, and education, time becomes a precious commodity. Driving to campus, parking, and spending time in class at an appointed (and probably inconvenient) time may not fit into the learner's overall schedule. Distance learning courses increasingly allow learners to participate at a time that is most suitable for their schedule.

Distance learning can also overcome barriers of learning styles. It doesn’t mean that people don’t absorb the information; this means that people and institute should be ready enough to prepare all tools for useful result. While this complaint could also be made of the lecture method of teaching, it still predominates on campus. Electro¬nic education tools, formerly used only in distance learning, are increasingly being used in both on- and off-campus courses. Using video, audio, active learning, simulations, and electronic advances can overcome problems encountered by learners who do not adapt to just one learning style.

Other educational barriers can also be overcome by distance learning. Learners with physical or mental handicaps have attained degrees without going to a campus. Distance learning allows those with physical handicaps that prevent or hamper their attendance in person to pursue an education. Distance learning allows those with mental handicaps to follow the instructional materials at their own pace.

Workers may find that they are in need of additional skills to maintain a job or advance in the workplace. Distance learning allows these workers to obtain these skills without quitting their jobs, uprooting their families, and moving to a campus.

Distance learning can help students advance toward a degree more quickly and has allowed some learners to transfer courses into their program that are only available at other campuses.

Various technologies have been used to overcome the distance between the teacher and the learner. Using these technologies, the teacher prepares the lesson and sends it to the learner, and the learner then interacts with the lesson and sends feedback (questions, assignments, tests) to the teacher. As technologies have improved, so has the quality of this interaction.

Advances in printing, writing, and transportation led to correspondence study, the first major form of distance learning. Teachers would identify books, prepare lessons, and mail them to the learner. Initially, these materials were completely in printed or written form, and the learner would study the lessons, complete the assignments, and mail them back to the teacher. Communication depended on the speed of the postal service. Given the long lag time between lessons, learners often failed to complete the courses.

In the first half of the twentieth century, broadcast technologies, such as radio and television, became staples in every home, and colleges experimented with offering lectures via radio as a way to supplement correspondence courses. In the early twenty-first century, open universities (in the United Kingdom and throughout the British Commonwealth) and the Public Broadcasting System in the United States still broadcast many courses via television. The increasingly high production values and use of experts of world-renown have increased the educational effectiveness of these courses. With the advent of cable television, federal regulations in the United States required that a few channels be set aside for public, education, and government use. Some colleges broadcast classes to cable television subscribers.

All of these technologies have relied on consumer products that are available in many homes. There is also experimentation and widespread use of closed-circuit technologies that require special equipment and often require the learner to travel to a local college, library, or other learning center to access the instruction. The most recent advances in technologies have focused on computers and the Internet. The popularity of these technologies has grown as an increasing number of personal computers entered homes, and as an increasing amount of data could be transmitted over regular telephone lines (Distance Learning in Higher Education Web).

Modern information society puts forward requirements for the education system, the main of which can be formulated as follows: 1) the ability to find independently, accumulate and think about scientific knowledge; 2) the ability of students to navigate in a modern information society. The quality of implementation and application of distance education can be assessed using such indicators as: 1) effectiveness (the degree of gaining knowledge, the ability to apply the accumulated knowledge in practice, success, individual learning process, flexible consultation); 2) accessibility to all sections of the population (students, businessmen, disabled people, servicemen and prisoners also have the opportunity to study remotely); 3) resource-intensive (no need to attend lectures and seminars, financial expenses, material resources, classrooms, teachers, etc.); 4) promptness (time for learning, reporting to students, etc.); 5) Demo¬cratic teacher-student communication; 6) comprehensive software; 7) Leading educational technologies. All of the above can be attributed to the effectiveness of the distance learning process. Distance education is developing very fast and is a promising form of higher education for Ukraine. The use of the Internet gives the possibility of quick access to information resources of the educational institution and the possibility of effective interaction "teacher-student", both on-line and off-line modes. Summing up, despite all the negative aspects of distance education, I would like to express hope for the introduction of existing information technologies into the educational process of universities and the development of new technologies more sophisticated and adapted to Ukrainian conditions.

We have seen how different models of teaching and learning have evolved when the technological affordances and climate were right for them. All of these are likely to be important but may not be sufficient to bring about a paradigmatic change of the sorts we have seen in earlier generations of networked systems because the nature and mode of communication, though more refined, will not change much with these emerging technologies. As concerns about privacy mount and we come to adopt a more nuanced approach to connections and trust, our networks are bound to become more variegated and specialized. It is already becoming clear that connective approa¬ches must become more intelligent in enabling people to connect to and discover sources of knowledge.

Summing up, the field of distance education has changed dramatically in the past ten years. Distance education, structured learning in which the student and instructor are separated by place, and sometimes by time is currently the fastest growing form of domestic and international education. What was once considered a special form of education using nontraditional delivery systems, is now becoming an important concept in mainstream education. Concepts such as networked learning, connected learning spaces, flexible learning and hybrid learning systems have enlarged the scope and changed the nature of earlier distance education models. Web-based and web-enhanced courses are appearing in traditional programs that are now racing to join the “anytime, anyplace” educational feeding frenzy. In a time of shrinking budgets, distance learning programs are reporting 41 percent average annual enrollment growth. Thirty percent of the programs are being developed to meet the needs of professional continuing education for adults. Twenty-four percent of distance students have high speed bandwidth at home. These developments signal a drastic redirection of traditional distance education.

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