What is distance education?

Distance education means that a specific educational organization comprehensively applies the technology of a certain social period, collects, designs, develops and utilizes various educational resources, constructs an educational environment, provides educational services for students based on the technology, educational resources and educational environment of a certain social period, organizes some collective meetings and exchange activities for students for the purpose of teaching and socializing (through traditional face-to-face or modern electronic means), and helps and promotes all practical activities of students' distance learning. In all activities, teachers maintain a quasi-permanent separation from students in the form of educational resources or as promoters of learning; Students and educational institutions (teachers) or students and students will maintain instant dialogue by establishing two-way or multi-directional communication mechanisms.

broad sense

Distance education is a system of teaching and learning between students and teachers, students and educational institutions by various media means.

The educational form of communication is the education of transmitting courses to one or more students outside the campus. Modern distance education refers to the education of transmitting courses outside the campus through audio, video (live or video) and computer technology, including real-time and non-real-time education. Modern distance education is a new type of education with the development of modern information technology. With the development of computer technology, multimedia technology and communication technology, especially the rapid development of internet, the means of distance education has made a qualitative leap and become a distance education under high-tech conditions. Modern distance education is an educational method which is mainly based on modern distance education means, compatible with traditional teaching forms such as face-to-face, correspondence and self-study, and optimized combination of various media. Modern distance education can effectively play the characteristics of distance education. It is a teaching activity opposite to face-to-face teaching, separation of teachers and students, and non-face-to-face teaching organization. It is a cross-school and cross-regional education system and teaching model. Its characteristics are: students and teachers are separated; Adopt specific transmission system and media for teaching; There are many ways to transmit information; The place and form of study are flexible and changeable. Compared with face-to-face education, the advantage of distance education is that it can break through the limitations of time and space; Provide more learning opportunities; Expand the teaching scale; Improve the quality of teaching; Reduce the teaching cost. Based on the characteristics and advantages of distance education, many people of insight have realized the significance and broad prospects of developing distance education.

Requirements for learners

The characteristics of distance education determine that distance learning is mainly self-study, and most of students' learning time is separated from teachers and classmates. There is no classroom and no classroom atmosphere. These characteristics will inevitably make many students who have just started distance learning encounter some difficulties or are not used to it. Therefore, distance learning first requires learners to have two abilities and keep their learning motivation at all times. Most people who participate in distance learning are adults, and their learning motives are varied, but they are nothing more than improving their academic qualifications, increasing their skills, charging on the job, expanding their career scope and so on. They generally have strong learning motivation and clear learning purpose, but whether they can maintain the resulting learning motivation in the course of several years of study is the key to their success or failure. The spirit of active exploration. Adult students should be able to decide how much time to invest in their studies, make their own study plans, and choose and gradually adapt to a learning method. Learning to learn has become one of the four pillars of education in 2 1 century; This is also of great significance to distance learners. In the specific learning process, when faced with a question, active learners will not only accept an answer, or wait for the teacher to tell you what kind of views or positions you hold; Nor will it be limited to a chapter or section of a book or textbook to find the answer. Active learners will actively try various solutions, establish their own ideas, and decide what to do and how to do it after active exploration. Peking University Business Network encourages students to actively explore, think and try to understand what they have learned, instead of rote learning and passive acceptance. In addition, with the formation of information society and learning society and the arrival of knowledge economy era, education is undergoing profound changes. Learning in distance education needs to change one's learning concept and understanding. Although there is less time for face-to-face instruction and higher requirements for autonomous learning, you can improve your learning ability through this new form of learning. In the information society, people's living and working environment is changing faster and faster, and they need to face the emerging new knowledge and technology. One-off school education is increasingly unable to meet the lifelong social needs of individuals. Only by continuous learning can we keep up with the rhythm of life and work. Modern distance education provides equal learning opportunities for all scholars, so that receiving higher education is no longer a right enjoyed by a few people, but a basic condition for individual survival; The universality of educational resources, educational objects and educational time and space provides the possibility for mass lifelong learning. ● Receiving education is not only about learning knowledge, but more importantly, learning to learn and cultivating good study habits for further study; Master the necessary learning skills. Learning to use modern information technology for autonomous learning is very beneficial to continuously acquire knowledge and improve education level in the future. In distance education, while the Internet and other media provide learners with learning opportunities, learners should also learn to adapt to online learning methods. Then, learners should do: 1. Master the basic skills of online learning. Stimulate the potential learning motivation (Ausubel's cognitive internal drive, the leading role of self-improvement internal drive) 3. Learn to adjust your learning mood (often feel lonely in online learning, learners should actively participate in discussions and exchange knowledge and experience in this open platform) 4. Improve their metacognitive skills (metacognition) According to the individual differences of learners' different learning backgrounds, knowledge bases, learning styles and learning abilities, a learner model is established, and artificial intelligence technology is used for reasoning, thus providing learners with personalized learning content. So as to improve the adaptability of the system to distance learners. Only in this way can we realize the two-way adaptation mechanism between learners and systems in distance learning, and distance learning can become mature.