CONCEPT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
 AND OPEN LEARNING
 

1.1 One of the most significant developments in the field of education during the last two decades has been the acceptance, spread and growth of distance education through open learning systems in most parts of the world.

1.2 The terms 'distance education' and' open learning' have been used in different contexts with some what different meanings. Distance Education has been defined as an educational process in which a significant proportion of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner. Distance Education programmes have often used a combination of educational media, old and new, varying from print to broadcasts to audio and video recordings, and included opportunities for face to face study as well as learning from recorded material.

1.3 The term 'open learning' has been used to refer to the process of making learning available to learners no matter who they are or where or when they wish to study. The term 'open' has been taken to imply open access for students regardless of their previous qualifications or age. International experience shows that distance education and open learning tend to complement each other.

1.4 The term distance education is a fairly recent one, but the concept it expresses is 150 years old. It gained formal recognition in 1982 when the four decades old International Council for Correspondence Education (ICCE) changed its name to the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE). This was an acceptance of the fact that distance education was no longer primarily associated with the printed word and had successfully incorporated the use of multi- media in the teaching- learning process.

1.5 Distance education is now internationally recognised and accepted as an alternative channel for providing broader access to education in a cost-effective manner; wider and diversified curricula and a means for continuing life-long education. Increasingly new categories of clients are seeking better education; the young who for one reason or the other are not able to join a college or university; adults who want to acquire a diploma or degree; professionals who want to keep pace with technological change; persons required to discharge responsibilities for which their formal education does not equip them; those who do not want to get uprooted from their environment and do not want a disruption from their respon-

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sibilities at home and/or in their offices; and those who look for education at their door step. Many of these categories may not fit in with the normal admission criteria and find that their aspirations may not be fulfilled through the conventional system of education.

1.6 This is also a time of convergence between the worldwide need to extend and develop educational opportunities and the development of new communication technologies viz. sophisticated printing methods, audio based technology, video technologies; computer based technologies; and satellite communication, making it possible for learners to get access to the world's knowledge from the remotest and most inaccessible areas.

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