Distance Education for Continuing Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The role of distance education as a vehicle for delivering continuing education in Asia was examined from the following standpoints: facilitating development amidst poverty; making human resource development the prime strategy; overcoming the stagnation of education amidst wrenching change; and using distance education to accomplish those continuing education goals that the formal education system has not been able to accomplish by dissolving the limits of time and space in classrooms. The following points were made regarding incorporating distance education in continuing education programs were suggested: identify the problem in the continuing education program first and only then devise a distance education program to solve it; recognize that using distance education in a program requires much more planning and a longer gestation period than use of classical teaching methods does; use mass technologies only if there is a mass clientele; plan and operate the technologies on a team basis; and ensure that the technology used permits adequate feedback about students' learning. Selected activities conducted as part of the Asian Development Bank's initiative in distance education were examined along with possible applications of distance and continuing education concepts in the areas of women in development, environmental protection and development, and poverty alleviation. (MN)