Disadvantages of distance learning:

While thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, pros and cons, one may wonder if there are any distance learning disadvantages. Yes there are various disadvantages of distance education (or online learning), among them:

• Costly and complex technology. Despite the many opportunities of distance education, there are inevitable accompanying costs. Live video communication for example, requirescareful planning of the equipment and facilities. For online learning, you must own a computer (with access to the Internet). This required technology is not always available. Some learners may also be afraid (technophobic) of technology.
• Advance planning. Both the instructors and students involved in distance learning may need to make sacrifices at times to get things done in time.
• Hidden costs. If you work for the military for example, and you are on the ship, how do you get your materials? They may need to be mailed in advance incurring extra shipping and handling costs.
• Distance learning does not offer immediate feedback. In a traditional classroom setting, a student's performance can be immediately assessed through questions and informal testing. With distance learning, a student has to wait for feedback until the instructor has reviewed their work and responded to it.
• Distance learning does not always offer all the necessary courses online. Students pursuing a specific certificate or degree program may not have all the necessary courses available through distance learning so it is not suited for all subjects. While you can study a history lesson completely online, you cannot perform nursing clinicals online. Thus physical classroom attendance will be necessary to complete the course.
• Distance learning may not be acknowledged by all employers. Although most employers do acknowledge distance learning, certain employers do not. Students who want to work for a specific employer upon graduation should be sure of that employer's perspective about online education.
• Distance learning does not give students the opportunity to work on oral communication skills. Students in distance learning courses do not get the practice of verbal interaction with professors and other students.
• Social isolation. Most often you'll be studying alone. Distance learners may feel isolated or miss that social physical interaction that comes with attending a traditional classroom. However this impersonality has been lessening with advances and use of communication technologies such as bulletin boards, threaded discussions, social networking, chats, email and video conferencing.

Advantages of distance learning, online education or e-learning

• Distance learning does not require commuting. This saves you money and time that you’d otherwise spend on travel back and forth to school. You can schedule learning around other aspects of your personal and professional life.
• You can complete most of the classes at your convenience. Most of the classes are asynchronous, which means you don’t have to attend a lecture at a particular time and place. You can review the assignments and do your homework during off-hours or from home.
• Live anywhere, study from anywhere while pursuing the education of your choice. You don't have to live in the same city or the same country to attend the learning institution of your choice. You can study wherever you have access to a computer and Internet connection.
• Gain extra knowledge. You can transfer the computer and Internet skills that you'll gain in the process of your distance learning experience to other facets of your life.
• Self-paced learning. For slow and quick learners. This reduces stress and increases satisfaction.
• Accessibility. Online classes address physical accessibility issues that some people with limited mobility encounter when taking traditional classes. You don't have to worry about gaining access to a classroom or sitting on uncomfortable desks. Instead, you can use your comfortable furniture in your home while enjoying free movement and a chance to further your education.

A Comparative Study on Current Trends in Distance Education in Canada and India

The emergence of DE in Canada is generally considered to coincide with the rise of the mail service. It arose in Canada to provide access to education across the vast expanses of the country. In Canada, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, was the first to offer correspondence courses in 1889. The Canadian North West Mounted police was used for delivery of courses in areas without mail service. (Sauve, 1990). In 1907 DE off campus courses were introduced by the University of Alberta. Soon after several institutions opted for DE to serve populations living away from major centers of learning such as : Francis Xavier University (1935) and, University of British Columbia (1950). Such sporadic growth of distance education continued in Canada with the adoption of DE by Memorial University in 1967 and University of Waterloo in 1968 (CADE et.al., 1999).

A major landmark in the history of DE in Canada was the establishment of Athabasca University (AU) in 1972. AU was Canada’s first Open University and also the first autonomous DE institution to be set up in Canada.. The 1970s and 1980s saw a real spurt in the growth of DE institutions in Canada. In 1972 another open university(OU), namely Tele-universite in Quebec and Open Learning Institute(1978) later known as Open Learning Agency, introduced distance education programmes. The momentum caught on and there were many more players in the field by the 1990s. Today post secondary education in Canada is provided by degree granting institutions, called universities and by non-degree granting institutions which are referred to as colleges, CEGEPs or institutes of technology. Universities offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, whereas colleges typically offer career oriented technical training and general education leading to diplomas or certificates. Presently there are about 90 university level institutions in Canada and more than 200 colleges. About 70 of these grant degrees in all of their own programmes. A small number grant degrees in only one or two fields – usually theology and others do not grant degrees at all, but are associated with universities that do (CMEC, 2002). Canadian universities are generally publicly supported. For demographic reasons, more than half of the universities are located in the two most heavily populated provinces – Ontario and Quebec and also Nova Scotia for historical reasons.

Virtually all provinces have developed various communication media which universities are using to offer students an opportunity to study part time through DE. In 1999-98 there were 826361 learners were enrolled in Universities, 580376 full time and 245985 part time. 494955 were enrolled in colleges, 403516 full time and 91439 part time. (See Table-1 CICIC, 2002).

Table-1 Enrolment by levels in the Canadian Educational System

Year	Schools, Elementary & Secondary	Colleges			Universities
		Part time	Full time	Total	Part time	Full time	Total
1990-91	5141003	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
1994-95	5362799	90810	379961	470771	283257	575713	858970
1998-99	5369716	91439	403516	494955	245985	580376	826361

The Growth of Distance Education

Higher Education continues to see strong growth in the number of courses and programs offered online. In their 2010 Sloan-C report, Allen & Seaman confirm that more chief academic officers than ever (63.1%) agree that online education is critical to their long term strategies.  In addition, they found that the percentage of students taking at least one online course has increased from 9.6% in 2002 to 29.3% in 2009. “Three quarters (74.5%) of all institutions say that they are seeing an increase in the demand for online courses and programs as a result of the current economic downturn” (Allen & Seaman, 2010, p.14). DE is growing much faster than the overall higher education growth rate with public institutions witnessing the highest impacts (Allen & Seaman, 2009). Cuts in state funding and the current economic downturn have exasperated this increase. “The economic impact has been greatest on demand for online courses, with 66 percent of institutions reporting increased demand for new courses and programs and 73 percent seeing increased demand for existing online courses and programs” (Allen & Seaman, 2009, p.1). Distance education is and will continue to be an increasingly important part of higher education.

International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET)

The International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET) is a forum for researchers and practitioners to disseminate practical solutions to the automation of open and distance learning. Targeted to academic researchers and engineers who work with distance learning programs and software systems, as well as general users of distance education technologies and methods, IJDET discusses computational methods, algorithms, implemented prototype systems, and applications of open and distance learning.

Reasons for Popularity of Distance Education Prog. in India

Along with distance learning management programs, executive and part time MBAs becoming increasingly popular, another important trend seen in the past decade is stabilization of the number of students opting for traditional career options while more and more students taking up vocational and off beat careers. The latter is the cause for the former.

A number of other factors are contributing to the popularity of correspondence and executive MBA in India.

Technology and Teaching

Most educational technologists do link distance education to technology (Garrison, 1987) and may view it as different from other forms of education. Claims about the affect of new technologies on learning have caused many people to suggest a change in the way new technologies are evaluated for distance learning (Clark, 1989). Although Salomon (1981) and Clark (1991) make the point that instructional strategies and not the medium are the key to effective learning, technology and production considerations rather than teaching-learning theory or the instructional development process are often the driving force behind distance education programs.

The interest in utilizing "instructional technologies" to accomplish a variety of educational delivery needs has grown to the point where "preparing teachers to use technologies is assumed to be the main function and primary intellectual interest of the educational technologist" (Heinich, 1982). While Heinich feels that teacher preparation is needed, he points to this as a problem in defining the field of educational technology. Romiszowski (1981) suggests that the educational field "has been plagued with more than its fair share of solutions looking for problems" and suggests that developers often reflect a vested interest in technology or make premature decisions to the instructional solution before fully understanding the problem.

Studies on the use of various media in distance education have supported Schramm's view that "learning seems to be affected more by what is delivered than by the delivery medium" (1977, p. 273) and Clark's analogy of media "not influencing learning any more than the truck that delivers groceries influences the nutrition of a community" (1983, p. 3). Also, studies comparing education in the classroom with technologically-deliveredclasses (Beare, 1989; McCleary and Egan, 1989) showed no significant differences in academic performance.

Recent developments in technology are believed to be removing some of the disadvantages associated with media in distance education. Bates (1984) suggests that new technologies promise "a wider range of teaching functions and a higher quality of learning, lower costs, greater student control, more interaction and feedback for students" (p. 223). In fact, the 1990s are experiencing the emergence of digital media which has the potential to blur the lines which separate various media, as predicted by Baltzer (1985).
The issue of media vs. method is likely to continue to be debated in relation to distance education, but there is no doubt that distance education is different from other instructional approaches. A study by Gehlauf, Shatz and Frye (1991) on the reaction of teachers to the teaching experience in the traditional classroom compared to interactive television shows teachers wanting to cling to more traditional approaches but finding these methods not as effective, teachers feeling the need to be better organized, and feeling the need for training for distance education teaching.