Digital Distance Education: A Rescue For Correspondence Study
Oriji Abraham Ph.D
Department of Curriculum Studies & Educational Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Nwankwo Ngozi Beaatrice Ph.D
Department of Library & Information Science, Faculty of Education, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Keywords: Distance education, Online leaning, Digital education, Online Instruction, Correspondence education, Online communication
Abstract
To date, democratization of educational opportunities for higher learning, and promoting equal opportunities for all learners, who, for one reason or the other were unable to gain admission to higher institutions to achieve academic or professional qualifications has been the hallmark of every educational planners and policymakers globally. The major aim is to enable second-chance students to pursue their academic or professional studies, which may be due to lack of admission to conventional higher institutions, living in remote areas, age, work or family constraints, and health challenges. Others may be as a result of serving in the army, prison or gender issues. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to discuss the relevance of digital distance/online education by highlighting the merits of digitized distance mode of instruction. Also to be looked into are the forms or types of contemporary distance/online education, and the major challenges confronting its acceptance/adoption and implementation in higher institutions, especially in Nigeria. However, the authors did not overlook the skills required by students for effective participation in modern distance education delivery and learning. Equally discussed are the merits of the contemporary online distance education. In addition, the authors did not overlook the characteristics of the modern day distance education programme, and equally examined the future of contemporary digital education matrix; finally, they as well proffered appropriate recommendations for improving online distance education delivery.