The need for knowledge and the development of technologies have generated serious problems in educational institutions, regarding the conservation, renewal and transmission of knowledge as a result of a new profile of the student, subject to constant change and transformation of their environment.
For this reason, it is necessary to face social situations that force a greater educational demand, which requires intense training to take on and put into practice the new activities implied by increasing technological development, as well as having better qualified professional skills, than As a result of accelerated changes, they quickly become obsolete.
To meet this growing demand for studies, it is necessary to have institutions that, without losing their traditional academic and scientific character, have the possibility of giving a flexible and clear response to this new type of student body, which needs constant information and information day and you encounter serious difficulties regularly attending conventional university teaching centers.
In order to cover this need, in the 1970s, this type of higher education began to acquire relevance worldwide, thanks to the work carried out by the Open University of the United Kingdom which, in a certain way, It served as a guideline and model for different institutions around the world.
Distance learning is born favored by the needs of a market segment with needs for continuous training, as well as the advances in communication supported by technology and the great progress in the field of education, which breaks with two determining factors in traditional education: space and time.
Keegan (1980) mentions that the main theorists of distance education agree that the characteristics of this innovative teaching system are the following:
- Physical separation between teacher and student, Organization of learning through an educational institution Use of technical means to relate teacher and students and transmit the course content Provision of two-way communication media that allow the establishment of dialogue between teacher and student. to establish occasional meetings with didactic or socializing purposes. Establishment of an institutionalized model of education.
Among these characteristics of the distance education method it can be mentioned that dialogue is their main means of communication, the teacher becomes a facilitator, giving the opportunity for information to flow freely, unlike traditional education, where the student he becomes the main protagonist, changing from a passive person to an independent being. (Market, 1999)
In addition to the benefits it brings to educational institutions in the reduction of costs, installed capacity, enrollment management, saving time, number and presence of teachers, coupled with the evolution of education based on technology, as well as the progress of classes on the internet. (Eastman, Owens Swift, 2001):
The teacher is no longer the main part of the teaching-learning process but it is still an important part, because through his practice the student's results will be elevated, transforming the teacher's faculty from “The Wise Man on Stage, to A Guide behind the scenes " (Gibson, 1996).
Today educational institutions motivate the active interaction of these two characters (student-teacher) (Webster & Hackley, 1997) through a virtual environment exchanging information, ideas and suggestions through dialogue, considering that distance learning systems They have generally been established to serve an adult population that learns and manifests itself differently (García, 2001).
The distance education student has a different profile than the traditional one, he has a maturity and an experiential history full of experiences, knowledge, capacities, habits, attitudes, behaviors and interest in his own training process, characteristics that improve the process, because they link their own experiences with the theory, which makes learning richer, which forces the teacher to have a different profile from the traditional one.
Teachers are continually updated and trained in the use of technology in order to efficiently support students (Shih & Cifuentes, 2001) in order to develop writing skills, providing information that facilitates and broadens the study through dialogue and feedback, asking questions that generate answers linked to the real world and thus have understanding, which forces the development of critical thinking in the student.
Today educational institutions have identified that it is a product with great demand, which has made it an easy product to market, but there is a big problem, student dropout, so it is necessary to analyze three basic factors: the lack of consideration of the customer's needs, the definition of an adequate profile of the student and the market niche to which the product will be directed.
As a result of the above, and in this war of educational institutions to recruit students, distance education is sold to the student, as an easy and fast system; but the moment the student faces reality, he becomes disillusioned and abandons him; Because he discovers that it is neither easier nor faster than face-to-face, since he will have to take an active position in the teaching-learning process, and this is a position, in which he lacks certain abilities.
For these reasons, distance education is perceived as a second-class education, of poor quality, it is still believed that distance education is for people who are rejected or do not study at the right time and today is the only alternative available.
Therefore, it will be necessary for educational institutions to develop strategies to position this product with ethics, developing specialized teachers and experts in distance education, constantly training them, in technology, writing, in addition to other necessary skills, that take it to obtain a self-taught, disciplined profile that loves their work and as a consequence transmits it to the student, changing the teacher's roles: from being the "star of the scene", he will become the "leader behind the scenes" and the student will become in an active person, who will be the catalyst of the project.
Finally, it will be necessary for the teacher to commit and have the ability to identify students who lack the skills to integrate into the model and provide the necessary elements to motivate the student through auditory, visual and auditory stimuli, among others, that they allow the student the interaction between student-student, student-facilitator, facilitator-student, in a climate of friendship, collaboration, attending immediately to their needs. This will avoid or minimize desertion, both for the student and the teacher.
Today, it is necessary for the individual to learn “throughout life”, therefore,
this system is a good option, as a result of long distances, traffic, work schedules, as well as personal and professional commitments, not to mention cost abatement.
To finish and from a particular point of view, education is a personal responsibility, which must be taken to a self-taught level, since if something abounds today, it is the large amount of information that is generated minute by minute, same as it is available to everyone, the secret will be in how we obtain it, classify it, make it our own and use it.
Bibliography:
Keegan, DJ 1980. On the Nature of Distance Education. ZIFF Hagen. 1980, Market, Mike. 1999. Distance education and the Mit. Of the new pedagogy. Journal of business & Technical communication 13: 208-2.
Eastman, Jacqueline K., Owens Swift, Cathy 2001, April. New horizons in distance education: The online learner-centered marketing class. Journal of Marketing Education 23: 25-35.
Gibson, Chere Campbell. 1996. Toward emerging technologies and distributed learning: Challenges and change. American Journal of distance Education 10: 47-49.
Webster, Jane & Hackley, Peter. 1997. Teaching effectiveness in technology mediated distance learning. Academy of Management Journal, 40: 1282-1310.
García Aretio, l. 1997. Distance learning study at UNED. Madrid: UNED. (p. 151)
Shi, Yu-Chi Doris & Cifuentes, Lauren. Nov / Dec 2001. One tale of why and how to teach and learn online internationally. Tech trends. Washington. 45: 8-15
