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Distance Education: Growth and Diversity
MICHAEL POTASHNIK AND JOANNE CAPPER
television have been used effectively for those of print, it will be some time before
Distance education is becom- more than forty years—satellites and the many countries have adequate infrastruc-
ing increasingly popular as Internet are transforming the world into a tures.
borderless educational arena, benefiting Higher education. Within the univer-
economic forces encourage, both previously underserved citizenries and sity setting, some institutions offer only dis-
and new technologies facili- education entrepreneurs. Although many tance education, while others provide both
developing countries still have limited distance and conventional education. Those
tate, its spread. What advan- access to these new technologies, major new that offer only distance learning are referred
tages does it offer, and what investments in telecommunications and to as “open universities,” and most are mod-
information systems are going to dramati- eled after the United Kingdom’s Open
should course providers con- cally improve their access. University. Mega-universities are large open
sider before embarking on universities, each of which enrolls more
Uses and purposes than 100,000 students per year; combined
new ventures? Distance education is used in a variety of enrollment is some 2.8 million. Table 1
settings and for a broad range of purposes. shows the 11 mega-universities, most of
Universities use it to increase the number of which have been established within the past
HERE IS tremendous growth students who have access to higher educa- 20 years in an effort to meet the pent-up
and diversity in distance educa- tion; companies use it to upgrade their demand for higher education. China alone
tion—in the number and types of workers’ skills and keep them abreast of produces more than 100,000 graduates a
Tindividuals learning outside tradi- rapidly advancing technologies; individuals year through distance education, with more
tional classrooms, in the variety of use it for their own professional develop- than half of China’s 92,000 engineering and
providers, and in the range and effective- ment and to enhance their career opportu- technology graduates having attained their
ness of new technologies serving as deliv- nities; governments use it to provide degrees through distance education.
ery tools for learning. Distance education is on-the-job training to teachers or other Although many conventional universi-
becoming increasingly global, creating workers, to enhance the quality of tradi- ties also have offered distance learning
myriad new alliances as traditional educa- tional primary and secondary schooling, opportunities for some time, many others
tional institutions join with businesses, and to deliver instruction to remote rural are just now beginning to experiment with
foreign governments, and international areas that might not otherwise be served. them, in large part because they are unable
organizations to offer and use distance Various technologies have been used for to meet the increasing demand for higher
learning. Developing countries now have distance education, but print-based corre- education. Even some elite universities that
new opportunities to access knowledge and spondence courses have been, and will would not previously have considered get-
enhance their human capital. continue to be, the dominant delivery mech- ting involved in distance education are cau-
Technology is a major contributor to the anism in both the developed and the devel- tiously entering the arena. For example,
dramatic transformation of distance learn- oping worlds. Print is still the cheapest Johns Hopkins University in the United
ing. Although the use of technology for technology, and, even if the costs of using States offers a managed care course, using
distance learning is not new—radio and high-tech dissemination tools fall below video and computer technology, as part of
Michael Potashnik, Joanne Capper,
a U.S. national, is Head of the World Bank’s Education and Technology a U.S. national, is a Senior Consultant to the World Bank’s Education and
Team. Technology Team.
42 Finance & Development / March 1998
its “Business of Medicine” certificate pro- individuals pursue degrees or professional obtaining recognition for their work. Even
gram. Duke University offers a Global development on their own from their the highly esteemed U.K. Open University
Executive MBA (master’s degree in busi- homes—a trend that will increase as more had difficulty in providing unequivocal evi-
ness administration), an $82,500 course, to individuals gain access to the Internet. dence of the quality of its programs until
students in Europe, Asia, and Latin Teacher training. Teacher upgrading these were actually compared with courses
America using technology that permits is a major application of distance educa- offered by conventional higher education
them to communicate and do course work. tion, particularly in developing countries institutions in the United Kingdom: pro-
The possibility of attracting students from where large numbers of teachers are either grams in 6 of the Open University’s 11 sub-
overseas is one incentive for these institu- untrained or undertrained. In such coun- ject areas were awarded “excellent” ratings.
tions to offer distance education programs. tries, teacher training using distance educa- Does distance education really work? Is it
Virtual universities. Entirely new tion is a top priority for the World Bank. just as effective as conventional education?
structures are being created to take advan- Although most distance education for The answer to both questions is yes.
tage of the Internet and other technologies teachers is provided through print and Achievement. Numerous studies have
to increase access to and improve the qual- aimed at practicing teachers, some coun- been conducted assessing the effectiveness
ity of higher education. For example, vir- tries or school systems are making use of of distance education, although they have
tual universities—universities without technology-based distance training. yet to be conducted on Internet-based train-
walls that use the Internet and satellites to Extending classrooms.Distance edu- ing or on the benefits of on-line communica-
deliver their courses—allow teaching cation is often used to enhance the quality tion with students. More than 70 years of
resources, libraries, and even laboratories of traditional primary and secondary research on print-based correspondence
to be shared by people and organizations in schooling and to deliver instruction to stu- courses has consistently documented their
widely scattered places. dents in remote rural areas. Probably the effectiveness compared with courses taught
Launched in 1989, the Virtual University best-known example of distance learning in conventional classroom settings. Most
of the Monterrey Institute of Technology in aimed at children is Sesame Street, pro- studies of radio instruction show that stu-
Mexico is a consortium of collaborating duced by the Children’s Television Work- dents benefit from radio learning and that
universities, including 13 outside Mexico. shop in New York. the benefits increase the longer it is used.
It enrolls 9,000 degree students and an In many countries, children living in Research on the use of prepackaged com-
additional 35,000 nondegree participants remote rural areas do not have access to the puter-based training for adults across a
annually from throughout Mexico and sev- full complement of course work offered to broad range of settings has consistently
eral Latin American countries. Courses are their peers in more populated areas. For found that those who learned at a distance
delivered though a combination of printed example, Mexico’s Telesecundaria program on computers learned as well as or better
texts and both live and prerecorded televi- has successfully used television to provide than those who learned in traditional class-
sion broadcasts, with communication be- more than 700,000 students in small, remote rooms, and in some cases the former
tween faculty and students facilitated by villages with a middle school education. learned both faster and at substantially
computers. One-way radio has been widely used to lower cost than the latter (Capper, 1990).
With World Bank support, a virtual uni- improve educational quality since the early Completion. Although research has
versity also has been established for Africa. 1970s, particularly in Africa, Asia, and found that distance students learn as much
This venture was motivated by the excep- Latin America. Because of the generally as conventional students, studies of corre-
tionally low enrollments, lack of educa- low cost and wide availability of radios— spondence students have found that they
tional materials, outmoded programs, and even in remote rural areas—this technol- are much more likely to drop out before
virtually nonexistent levels of research in ogy is second to print in both economy and completing their courses, with dropout rates
Africa’s universities. extent of use in distance education. ranging from 19 to 90 percent and an over-
Most recently, the governors of 10 west- Interactive radio instruction (IRI) uses one- all rate of 40 percent. While similar studies
ern U.S. states have launched a virtual uni- way radio to deliver activity-based learning have yet to be conducted for technology-
versity that will allow students to earn and involves having the “radio teacher” based distance learning, both intuition and
degrees by taking courses on-line. This communicate the lesson, integrating the the limited research already done suggest
venture was encouraged by a boom in lecture with activities that have students that the interactivity and novelty provided
enrollment that the states’ governors do not answer questions, sing songs, and do prac- by most technology-based approaches may
expect to be able to meet by adding tradi- tical tasks. These activities occur during contribute to higher completion rates. High
tional colleges and universities. carefully timed pauses, with the classroom dropout rates are typically attributed to
Learning on the job. A growing teacher serving as the facilitator. IRI pro- some students’ sense of isolation when they
number of companies are using distance grams are generally used to supplement study without peer or instructor interaction,
education as a cost-effective way to provide instruction provided by classroom teachers insufficient self-discipline, or loss of interest
professional upgrading for their employees. who have inadequate training and limited or discouragement owing to the slow feed-
For example, Hewlett-Packard has estab- learning resources. back they receive in the form of graded
lished a high-tech teaching facility that pro- assignments. Other reasons include compet-
vides television broadcasts to its employees Is it effective? ing demands of jobs and family life.
at more than 100 sites in Europe and the As distance education extends its reach
United States. Other companies, however, and uses new delivery tools, concerns about Ensuring quality
are turning to external organizations, such its effectiveness will only increase. Distance The quality of some distance education
as the U.S.-based National Technological education programs still lack credibility in programs and institutions is perceived to
University, to provide professional develop- many countries, and students taking such be poor, with their deficiencies often
ment for their employees. In addition, many courses often experience difficulty in attributable to inadequate planning and the
Finance & Development / March 1998 43
Table 1
Mega-universities: Basic data
Percentage of budget from
Students in Graduates Budget Student Government Unit
1 2
Name of institution Established degree programs per year (million dollars) fees grants cost
China China TV University System 1979 530,000 101,000 1.23 0 75 40
France Centre national d’enseignement à distance 1939 184,614 28,000 56 60 30 50
India Indira Gandhi National Open University 1985 242,000 9,250 10 42 58 35
Indonesia Universitas Terbuka 1984 353,000 28,000 21 70 30 15
Iran Payame Noor University 1987 117,000 7,563 13.3 87 13 25
Korea Korea National Open University 1982 210,578 11,000 79 64 36 5
South Africa University of South Africa 1873 130,000 10,000 128 39 60 50
Spain Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia 1972 110,000 2,753 129 60 40 40
Thailand Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University 1978 216,800 12,583 46 73.5 26.5 30
4
Turkey Anadolu University 1982 577,804 26,321 30 76 6 10
United Kingdom Open University 1969 157,450 18,359 300 31 60 50
Source: Adapted from J.S. Daniel, 1996, Mega Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education (London: Kogan Page).
1 Enrollment figures vary by year between 1994 and 1996.
2 Unit cost per student as an approximate percentage of the average cost per student for other universities in the country.
3 Central unit only.
4 Open Education Faculty only.
use of superficial materials delivered in a studies have established the cost effective- traditional courses. For example, the Open
piecemeal fashion. Moreover, some inferior ness of the mega-universities, with unit University invests up to three years and as
programs give more attention to technol- costs per student ranging between 5 and much as £1 million to produce a new
ogy issues than to more important curricu- 50 percent of the average for other universi- course, with design teams consisting of a
lum and learner-support issues. ties in the country (Table 1 and Daniel, team manager, content specialists, design-
Learner support. Distance learning 1996). In most of these countries, however, ers, and production specialists. Several of
differs from conventional learning primar- more than 50 percent of the budget is the mega-universities acknowledge quality
ily in the isolation and the greater self- derived from student fees, with this propor- problems, however, and in some of them,
discipline required of its students. Because tion ranging from 87 percent at Iran’s students complain that learning materials
of these characteristics, ensuring that dis- Payame Noor University to 0 percent in do not teach the relevant subjects well.
tance learning systems provide adequate China’s TV University System. Distance Print, audiocassettes, and prerecorded
support to, and interaction with, students education’s cost effectiveness becomes evi- instructional television (lectures) are the
is crucial. Currently, the type and extent dent when one compares the numbers of lowest-cost technologies for small numbers
of support provided to distance learners enrollees and costs per student of the mega- of students (fewer than 250), while radio
varies widely, with the United Kingdom’s universities with those for conventional requires 1,000 students or more to achieve
Open University being notable for both universities in the United States. The 3,500 comparable per-student costs. Computer
the extent and quality of its learner U.S. colleges and universities collectively conferencing is a low-cost approach to pro-
support. The Virtual University of the serve 14 million students at an average viding interactivity between teachers and
Monterrey Institute of Technology assigns annual cost of $12,500 each. By contrast, students, but live interactive broadcasts
one full-time professor for each course and the 11 mega-universities serve 2.8 million and video conferencing are still very high-
an assistant for every 50 students enrolled distance students at an average annual cost cost technologies, regardless of the number
in the course. of only $350 each (Daniel, 1996). Since of students enrolled (Table 2).
The variability is due in large part to the course completion rates for distance educa-
increased costs associated with providing tion are much lower than in conventional Trends and challenges
support, which cause institutions more con- universities, however, the annual cost per Although distance education has been
cerned with generating income to provide student completing courses is apt to be around for more than two hundred years
less support than is needed by students. In higher than the $350 cited by Daniel. and has been shown to be effective in a vari-
an attempt to counteract high dropout The two major factors that influence the ety of settings, the introduction of technol-
rates, much of the research in distance edu- cost effectiveness of distance programs are ogy and its application across global
cation now is focused on identifying the the number of students enrolled and the boundaries introduces new trends, issues,
causes of noncompletion and effective extent of support provided to students. The and challenges. How, for example, does one
strategies for reducing dropouts. higher the number of students enrolled, the judge the quality of a degree earned over the
lower the per-student costs per course, Internet? When should technology be used?
Cost effectiveness although this ratio works in reverse for per- And which technology is best? Should coun-
Although distance education programs student costs of providing student support tries use programs offered by foreign insti-
are reputed to be more cost effective than services, which increase with enrollments. tutions rather than developing their own?
conventional programs, studies show this Offering a limited number of courses also These and many other questions are con-
is true only if and when enrollments reach helps to keep costs low, since course devel- fronting education policymakers and practi-
sufficiently high levels relative to expendi- opment often is considerably more expen- tioners around the world. Careful analysis,
tures and completion rates. A number of sive for distance education than for evaluation, and research will be needed.
44 Finance & Development / March 1998
Table 2 program is not effective, using a new tech-
Average cost per number of students for each distance education technology nology to deliver that education or training
will not make it any more effective.
Number of students per annum Affordability. Distance education pro-
50 125 250 625 1,250 grams need sound financial planning and
(dollars) management to ensure sustainability. In
One-way technologies many cases, developing countries find that
1 — 2.61 — 0.63 0.37
Print funds are not available to continue a dis-
1
Audiocassettes — 3.51 — 1.30 1.02 tance program after donor funds are termi-
Prerecorded instructional television (hypothetical) nated, so it is important that initial
25 courses 7.71 3.09 1.54 0.61 0.31
10 courses 7.95 3.18 1.59 0.63 0.31 investment be accompanied by adequate
1 course 18.76 7.50 3.39 1.50 0.75 funding for recurrent expenditures. A
Radio 1 — 14.88 — 2.97 1.48 related problem arises when the per-
1
Educational broadcast TV — 109.87 — 21.97 10.99 student cost of adding distance education or
2
Computer-based learning other education technology is large relative
Low end 59.25 18.75 11.25 6.75 4.50 to a country’s average per-student financial
High end 322.50 130.50 66.75 28.50 15.75 allocation for that educational level. For
Two-way technologies instance, if a distance mathematics program
Audio conferencing (Open Learning Agency, Canada) — 7.12 — 4.11 3.67 using computers consumes financing equal
Live, interactive lectures (hypothetical) — 67.24 50.14 34.36 29.00 to 50 percent of the country’s per-student
3
Video conferencing budgetary allocation, its financial future is
384 kilobits per second 56.74 22.17 16.78 14.19 14.19
Computer conferencing (hypothetical) likely to be bleak, despite high putative ben-
Dual-mode efits. When such a situation is encountered,
Institution 1.45 1.12 1.09 0.99 0.93 the country would be best advised to opt for
Student 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 0.69 pilot programs that test less expensive alter-
Combined 2.25 1.81 1.80 1.69 1.68 natives than to do away with the distance
Source: Anthony W. Bates, 1995, Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education (London: Routledge). education program entirely.
— Indicates data were not available.
1 United Kingdom’s Open University.
2 Data drawn from Ann Stahmer and L. Green, 1993, Analysing Costs/Benefits of Training Technologies: Some Guidelines The World Bank’s role
(Toronto: The Training Technology Monitor). Within the framework of the new
3 Data drawn from Anthony W. Bates, 1994, Broadcasting in Education (London: Constable).
Strategic Compact, recently approved by its
Executive Board, the World Bank is
Globalization, accreditation, and Quality and effectiveness. Some expanding its own distance education and
competition. Employers and universities developing countries are reluctant to adopt learning activities and helping member
are now drawing both staff members and programs originating elsewhere, despite countries build their capacities to conduct
students from all corners of the globe. their reputed quality, choosing instead to distance education. To this end, the Bank is
Consequently, they face new challenges develop their own; unfortunately, many supporting the creation of a new Web site
in evaluating course work done at, and lack the expertise needed to produce high- on distance learning called EducationNet
degrees earned from, unknown institutions quality materials and support structures. (EdNet), in order to provide high-quality
in other countries. While accreditation has Considerable time and expense are required information services on distance learning
typically been controlled by individual to produce quality programs, and countries for policymakers, education specialists, and
countries, the globalization of distance edu- with limited resources may put programs investors. It is organizing a series of
cation has created a whole new challenge in together that are inadequate. regional training workshops on distance
accreditation and certification of learning. Technology. Making sound investment learning for client countries and is funding
For example, the Global Alliance for decisions about technology is a major chal- projects to build distance learning capacity.
Transnational Education (GATE) has been lenge facing educational policymakers and The Bank is also launching its own global
formed to carry out the formidable task of planners. New technologies offer options to distance learning program to disseminate
creating a global certification and review both expand educational opportunity and knowledge about development around the
process for education delivered across bor- improve quality, but inappropriate deci- world through its field offices and a wide
ders. sions regarding whether to use technology variety of other networks. F&D
Globalization raises other issues for or what type of technology to use can be
countries. For example, instructional pro- costly and can impede the success of a dis- References:
grams broadcast from abroad have height- tance education program. Unfortunately, Anthony W. Bates, 1995, Technology, Open
ened fears about the contamination of the information needed to make such deci- Learning and Distance Education (London:
Routledge).
cultures and values. Competition between sions is limited. Care should be taken to Joanne Capper, 1990, Review of Research on
local and foreign education providers is avoid allowing the novelty of technology to Interactive Videodisc for Training (Alexandria,
another issue. While competition is usually drive decisions regarding the most appro- Virginia: Institute for Defense Analyses).
good for the consumer, in that it often raises priate delivery mode for distance education John S. Daniel, 1996, Mega Universities and
quality and reduces prices, local institu- programs, overshadowing the more impor- Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for
tions typically resist foreign competition tant decisions regarding curriculum and Higher Education (London: Kogan Page).
and, in some countries, are trying to block instructional quality. If a country’s conven- Michael Moore and Greg Kearsley, 1996,
Distance Education: A Systems View (Belmont,
outsiders from operating in local markets. tional education or teacher training California: Wadsworth).
Finance & Development / March 1998 45
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