The Hindu : New Delhi News : Impact of distance education

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Sunday, Dec 30, 2007
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New Delhi

Impact of distance education

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Vice-chancellors of conventional universities, open universities and directors of distance education institutes on Saturday unanimously agreed that distance education has not only challenged the traditional form of higher learning but also served as a “movement to overcome generic problems of scarcity and exclusivity of traditional universities”.

A meeting of representatives of all these institutions had been organised by the Distance Education Council here on Saturday.

More changes

Inaugurating the one-day meeting for sharing ideas and strategies, Indira Gandhi National Open University Vice-Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai said: “With the ascent of digital technology, more changes are on the way and gradually all universities will transform themselves as universities of convergence by adopting Information Communication Technologies in their learning processes.”

“Students will be more likely to select institutions based on relevance and quality of offerings, convenience and price rather than geography.

Challenge

The challenge before the open and distance learning system is not on how to be an alternative system but to make a definite contribution to the development of knowledge-based human resources rather than simply being a mechanism to expand the existing educational system,” added Prof. Pillai, who is also the Council Chairman.

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