Distance learning is the preferred term for education in which there is a geographic distance between the educational provider and the learner and where there is not daily or regular contact between the educator and the student.
In one respect, all voter and civic education starts from that point, unless conducted in a classroom in an institution where both the educator and the student are regularly present.
In this sense, techniques of public education parallel those of distance learning, with the possible exception that distance learning is inevitably based on specific and testable educational objectives in which the learner must ultimately demonstrate competence through an assignment or examination.
The techniques are particularly well-suited to the training and orientation of educators, and consist of the following aspects.
- Recruitment of Learners: In the first place, distance learning requires identification of learners and the establishment of a means of communication between them and the educational institution. This communication can be through a telephone, the post, computer networks, or a locally placed learner coordinator. This contact is essential because
there needs to be an ongoing interaction between the institution and the learner. In order for this to happen, the educational institution must prepare a prospectus that enables learners to select in advance the courses they will complete.
- Preparation and Distribution of Learning Materials: When the learners are identified, and they have registered for a particular set of courses, materials are distributed that have been carefully prepared for various levels and include self-study directions and exercises. Such materials may make it necessary for learners to meet in small groups to work through particular sections, or they may be entirely individualistic.
- Programmes in Support of the Self-Study Modules: Institutions should establish a range of programmes in support of these self-study materials, and it is the ability of an institution to mobilise these programmes that adds value to its role as a distance education provider.
First, and most traditionally, the institution will provide an assignment and testing facility and will provide marking and feedback facilities so that students can assess their progress before any final testing or collection of a student portfolio.
Second, the institution can provide opportunities for learners to meet the course providers in large type events close to their homes. Such events may or may not include personal contact but are likely to include lectures in support of the educational course of study. They may also include counselling in small groups or organised meetings between students from different areas.
Third, a programme of on-the-air schooling can be established through national. regional, or community broadcast channels, through television or radio. Such programmes can be scheduled according to a timetable, which is made available to students in advance so that they can 'attend'.
This programme can be supplemented by provision of instruments over which students can receive the broadcast, such as wind-up or battery-operated radios, or community television sets.
Finally, the institution can recruit, train, and pay for local education group coordinators who perform a dual counselling and facilitation function for groups of learners on a regular basis. Such groups may get together only to move through the provided material, or they may have joint assignments in courses that rely on collaborative effort.
- Pre-performance Programmes: In distance programmes with a formal component, performance is likely to be assessed through an examination. In programmes using distance learning techniques to train people for voter education or some similar programme, performance is likely to consist of going into the field.
Such programmes can also consist of a large event, but in general they will consist of meetings between the educator team and the learners in a question and answer format together with a last-minute orientation and possibly final information session.
At this pre-performance moment, learners are anxious, and such sessions are designed to allay these anxieties by ensuring that people's administrative and practical concerns are dealt with.
Radio provides a particularly good format for such events, because it is possible for listeners to call in with questions and for these to be broadcast together with their answers.
- Certification: When the course of study has been successful completed, and the learner's competence has been tested, there will be a form of certification. Two points should be made about this certification.
First, while there may be some people in a distance learning programme with little experience, many will have work and educational experience. So certification has to take account of this, and in the case of voter education or similar training, some recognition has to be given in the course of study of the likelihood that the learner will actually engage in practical
work during the course. It is no good to expect that they will not conduct events before the achievement of the certificate. Its currency should be carefully considered and its significance clearly communicated in order that it is neither under- nor overestimated.
Second, the programme's relationship to other certificates and to a national qualifications framework should be considered. If adults are going to be expected to take part in a strenuous after-hours learning experience, they are going to have to give up some other course (employment, other study, time with family or friends). It is hard to recruit such people without some value being attached to the qualification with possible exception during a founding election.
