Print version Recommend this page Press release
04/ 2004
Bonn, 30.01.2004
Distance learning - Right around the corner on the Internet!
Distance learning providers are increasingly making use of the possibilities that the Internet offers for learning in order to supplement their instruction materials - which have consisted primarily of teaching assignments, CD-ROMs, cassettes and the like to date - or to strike out onto entirely new paths in the online world as well. A recent study conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training ("BIBB") of some 130 providers01 indicates that more than half of the distance learning providers surveyed already combine their conventional courses with online learning (so-called "two-track" providers). Approximately 15 percent offer only Internet-based distance learning courses. Another 34 percent are still conducting distance learning courses without the help of the Internet (traditional providers). However, this latter group is already giving thought to offering online courses too. Nearly half of these providers have concrete plans that have progressed rather far already. All the providers partici-pating in the study did however consider one thing to be a matter of course, namely, having a presence on the World Wide Web. Web pages are used for "external pres-entation" (87%), recruiting new students (84%), as well as for looking after existing students (69%), for communication between students (60%) and providing instruction material (55%).
Looking at the subject matter of the courses offered - which generally revolved around computer or software courses, business, industrial or technical subjects, or language courses, the study discerned two major objectives among all providers:
- Enhance their approach to selected target groups. To achieve this, providers are offering online products that draw on the respective institute's particular prod-ucts and existing instruction materials and then modify the way they are taught: Nearly 14 percent of the "traditional" and "two-track" providers want to replace courses they have offered through conventional channels in the past with online courses.
- Reach persons with a potential interest in conventional distance learning courses even better through Internet-based offerings. Nearly 60 percent of the providers surveyed hope to tap new target groups by additionally offering online courses. It was however also evident that the providers generally did not have plans to offer new content. More than 60 percent of the institutes surveyed have devel-oped (or are planning to develop) the content of their online products on the basis of their "traditional" courses. In some cases, providers offer courses in both tradi-tional and online form. Other providers use the Internet more to support existing courses. A third group designs its products as blended learning arrangements (in which different modes of instruction complement each other).
The study's bottom line: Distance learning will not be able to manage in the fu-ture without Internet-based learning. It is already evident today that the vast major-ity of distance learning institutes will assign online products a firm place in the range of multimedia-based products they offer. Although Internet-based courses that have been developed into blended learning arrangements will not completely replace tradi-tional distance learning courses, it can be assumed that the demand for courses that do not make use of Internet-based forms of learning will fall off noticeably.
The German-language documentation of the individual survey results can be downloaded from the Internet in PDF form at www.bibb.de/fernunterricht.
For further information regarding this study, please contact Willi Schmitz (Tel. +228 / 107-1528; E-mail: schmitz@bibb.de) or Angela Fogolin (Tel. 0228 / 107-1427; E-mail: fogolin@bibb.de) at BIBB.
