Distance Education: Students’ Point of View
Maxim Milioutine, Anna Pakshtayte, Oleg Saunin
Siberian-American Department of Irkutsk State University
Russia
The world becomes less and less…
For the last 15 years our world has become
different.
Those
who
predicted
the
development of the world a century ago could
not imagine that the progress would be so
impressive. Internet changed our life, provoked
the globalization. As a result, we speak one
language, we eat in McDonald’s and KFC,
have a coffee in StarBucks. The term
globalization transformed in term unification:
unification in each area of our life.
However, what are the key points of our
education? Why one university provides better
education than other? In spite of the power of
Information Technologies, the key points in
educational process are people. It was a norm
30 years ago when one university keeps its
professors constantly in one place during the
semester. Situation in the world now makes us
be unified. In this context, global
(international) education gives us equal
opportunities: the global competition among
graduates is no more a surprise. Now the only
way to give us really fresh knowledge from the
best staff is to introduce Internet technologies
in education process.
Internet education is still disputable issue, but
we have to realize that we cannot avoid it, and
that it is the right time to develop it.
Universal knowledge
Since globalization came in our world, it
became smaller and flatter. All processes and
things had to adopt to these new conditions.
Knowledge area was not an exception. 30-40
years ago, when people could not communicate
with each other so effectively and fast, each
country and each university had their own
standards of education and quality of
knowledge they provided. After the Bologna
Convention was accepted, knowledge became
more unified, standardized, and universal.
Besides the fact that knowledge is more
universal, it becomes more dimensioned now.
Several years ago Professors usually could
teach no more than 200 students. Now, with the
help of Information Technologies, the number
of students can be unlimited.
One of the benefits of e-learning is that global
standards of education allow employers to
evaluate graduates from many different
universities using the same criteria. For those
who consume our brains, the educational
standards are more understandable. As
students, we are happy to realize the
opportunities the e-learning gives us.
Thinking globally
Why do we need higher education? The
fact is that the necessity of higher education is
obvious; there are several main reasons: to be
competitive on labor market, to satisfy mental
needs, to benefit society from our work. Now
think about Internet-based education in this
context: does it further or hinder purposes of
education?
We, students, treat the distance education
as the new era in education technologies. Now
we have a chance to receive more knowledge
in one semester, to use our time more
effectively, and, as a result, overfulfill our
educational plans. Knowledge of any area has
one disadvantage – its life time is too short.
With help of e-learning the velocity of
information spread increases tremendously.
Internet-based education is able to give us the
freshest knowledge. Undoubtedly, internet
education makes us more self-organized, gives
us more opportunities, creates more key
competences. Communication with different
people makes us think globally, understand and
become familiar with many cultures and
traditions.
Now we do not belong to the particular
country; it does not matter who you are and
where you are from – we are members of
internet society.
Features of e-learning
Observing internet learning at the whole,
we tried to find positive and negative factors
about it. But each factor, depending on one’s
point of view can be treated both positively and
negatively. So, we pointed just specific features
of Internet learning:
 Lack of discrimination. With the
appearance of Internet-based learning,
many people started to comply about
lack of personal communications. We
do not see faces of people we
communicate with; we do not see their
reaction on our words. Yes, it is true.
But on the on the other hand, internetbased
education
dissolve
the
discrimination of any reason. When one
cannot see a person, it is possible to
treat him or her only on the basis of his
knowledge, but not on the basis of the
appearance, race, religion, etc.
 Communication
opportunity.
In
internet-based form of learning there
are different people who are involved in
different working areas. You can share
with them your experience, and they
will share theirs with you. Moreover,
internet-based education involves not
only formal communication. Sure, we
show interest on somebody’s work,
make comments on somebody’s
projects, we get feedback on our
assignments. But sometimes distance
education
provides
informal
communication that produces positive
effect, creates involvement, and makes
us think creatively.
 Time management. It’s the most
controversial feature of all. From the
one side, for people who can control
and organize themselves it’s easy to
study through Internet because they can
manage their time in the most effective
way. From the other side, for those who
can’t manage their time distance
education become really difficult. Selforganization and self-control are the
key requirements of internet-based
education. Anyway, if one wants to
succeed in his or her studying, it is
extremely important to know the basis
of time management and understand
that everything depends on yourself.
 Flexibility. When you finish studying
the basis of time management, you
finally understand the flexibility of the
whole system. It doesn’t mean that you
can miss deadlines and send incomplete
assignments. You receive time benefits
from the e-learning: with this flexibility
you can organize your life in the most
effective way, but you should always
remember about the danger of
postponing everything till the last
moment.
 Intellectual and technical development.
Everybody knows that now information
technologies (both software and
hardware) develop very fast. It becomes
difficult for our mental conditions to
follow this development. People are not
always prepared to cope with such pace,
to be part of it. Some of us are so
frightened by new internet technologies
that prefer to stop to use them. It’s on
the one hand. On the other, the fast
development
of
information
technologies can stimulate people for
their own development: both mental
and physical. E-learning is a good
example of it. When one studies
distantly, he or she becomes more
familiar with information technologies,
understands the necessity of it, and has
no more fear. It is impossible to avoid
IT; that is why we must deal with it,
accept its rules.
The first step in adult life
The first experience we had with internetbased education was system Hecadem
developed by BIBIM. As we were newcomers
in our university, we were happy with seemed
lack of control provided by the distance
learning. Some of us remembered their schools
where teachers cared about us, always helped
us, constantly monitored our successes and
failures. Time of school control was finished,
and we became independent people, who could
manage their time and decide when to study.
On the one hand, distance learning made us
more flexible, but on the other, for some of us
the first experience of independent life was not
very successful.
After the first learned lessons we have got,
after passing first web-classes, we fully
realized the benefits of internet education, but
we also realized that the cost of this benefits
were perseverance and patience. Dealing with
internet education, participating in conferences,
submitting assignments we understood that we
pay more attention to the class materials, trying
to notice each minor fact. As a result, the
quality of our knowledge increased.
So, the distance learning gives us real upto-date knowledge and experience of crosscultural communications, which are the key
factors of success in modern business world. Elearning
involves
students
into
the
globalization process. Our world can not
function separately, every its part depends on
others’ ones. And the distance learning clearly
shows this tendency. Moreover, it is its
necessary part! Let’s describe how this system
works in University of Maryland University
College (Maryland, USA).
E-learning in action
UMUC offered its first distance education
courses in 1972. Today, more than 30 percent
of UMUC’s students are enrolled in courses
that do not require on-site class attendance. The
Internet serves as their link to the university
through WebTycho, UMUC’s system of elearning.1 So, distance learning via Internet
became natural next level of distance
education. Fortunately, Internet gives wide
opportunities for attracting new students,
because this is convenient way to study for
many of them. WebTycho committee was
founded in 1996, but start of the Internet
system of learning was done later.



Online courses are governed by the same
academic standards as on-site courses, so there
is no difference for students, except the way of
study. Course content, texts, requirements,
assignments, and class participation are
comparable for online and on-site courses. The
main differences between online and on-site
sources are based on technology features.
Tutors need to be sure that students get the
same amount of knowledge as on-site students.
The differences, considered by UMUC, are:
Online students need to be
prepared to write extensively
because all or the majority of
communication
is
written.
Online students need strong
“Orientation to Online Study”. Retrieved from
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/de_orien/intro.html on
September 19, 2005
1
Online students need disciplined
work habits, effective time
management skills, and the
ability to work both alone and
collaboratively.2
Students need to participate in class
conferences on regular basis, to submit their
written assignments at least once a week, write
mid-term and final exams. However, the final
exam is proctored by SASM tutors, because
UMUC follows non-cheating statement. Online
courses at UMUC usually include the
following elements:


English reading and writing
skills.
Online students must be
competent in the use of
computers and commonly used
software programs.
Since
WebTycho
is
asynchronous and students are
expected
to
be
active
participants
online,
online
students are encouraged to log in
frequently to check what has
transpired in their online
classroom (in lieu of class
meetings).



Asynchronous, frequent student
and faculty participation
Lectures and assigned readings
(from textbooks and online
resources)
Individual
and
group
assignments (for example, case
studies
and
discussion
questions)
Individual and group papers
Literature analyses
Use of online library resources

Online quizzes and exams3


“Orientation to Online Study”. Retrieved from
http://www.umuc.edu/grad/online/online.shtml on
September 19, 2005
3
“How do I learn in an online course?”
Retirieved from
2
As we see, many of these elements are
created on the basis of typical Internet
communication tools. And that gives simplicity
of use for all users, because students and
faculty do not need to study how to use the
system, it has simple and intuitively
understandable user interface. Students even do
not need to install any additional software for
studying; all that they need is Internet browser.
WebTycho is flexible system, and tutors
can easily change its elements in order to adapt
to their own understandings of how the course
should be constructed. However, it does not
make it more difficult to use, but just more
interesting.
WebTycho is not only educational system;
it
includes
modules
for
University
administration and support personnel. It is very
complex, but, on the other hand, simple.
UMUC has the WebTycho Operations
Committee that was formed in late 1995/early
1996 as e-learning program began developing
functional specifications and development
plans for its new incarnation, WebTycho. The
committee's purpose is to gather feedback from
WebTycho users, discuss and make decisions
on the development of new features, and
disseminate important information about
WebTycho with faculty and students. The
committee meets twice monthly. New versions
of WebTycho are released three times yearly
(spring, summer, and fall), and that keeps the
system development and improvement.4
This committee is one of several methods
of feedback gathering used to make decisions
about the development of WebTycho. Other
sources include, among others, technical
surveys offered to all users each semester,
course evaluations offered to all students each
semester, the Distance Education Faculty
Forum, and information gathered from
WebTycho Technical Support records.4 It
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/de_orien/faqlearn.html on
September 19, 2005
4
“WebTycho Operations Committee”. Retrieved
from
http://tychousa6.umuc.edu/wtdocs/wthelp/html/toc.html
on September 19, 2005
seems that the system of e-learning is like a
human being that develops constantly!
To be continued…
After having such a great experience with
the University of Maryland, we understand that
the world has changed recently. Information
Technologies are involved in every part of our
lives. And education is not an exceptional area.
It is not the same as it was 10 – 15 years ago,
but we can not say that it is good or bad. It is
just different. When we experienced this
educational system, we have found out that it
has its own advantages. And who knows,
maybe in the future we will decide to continue
our education and will choose distance form of
it.