The heart of distance learning: a student's perspective

Abstract

This article takes the form of a personal and reflective account of the author's experience of studying at master's degree level, by distance learning. He also employs the term long‐distance learning to describe the particular circumstance in which learners are so geographically isolated that their studies are conducted without direct face‐to‐face contact at any stage. He then outlines a set of basic factors which he considers to underpin successful distance learning, relating to three key parties, namely the educational institution, the learner and the tutor. The author further suggests that the central challenge of distance learning is to create purposeful working relationships through the medium of distance communication systems, and illustrates this by reference to features of his own distance learning experience which he felt were helpful. By contrast he identifies the effective abandonment of recognition of the value of working relationships as a major risk in distance learning. In this context, he challenges the meaningfulness of distance learning systems which place too much stress on educational technology, on educational materialism and on excessively reductionist approaches to the components of the learning task. It is argued that any learning, including distance learning, is first and foremost about people and their processes of growth and change.