Student Support Systems in Distance Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Student support in distance education depends on the market, the package employed, the delivery system, the image of the organization, and the culture in which it operates. If distance education is defined as an industrialized form of teaching and learning, lessons can be learned from the history of traditional higher education. The progress from individual to mass higher education highlights the dangers inherent in an industrialized approach if program developers lose sight of the goal: education of the individual and support that allows adults from diverse backgrounds to relate to the knowledge higher education provides. Distance education must recognize the needs of the individual student learning in an industrialized process where teaching is the dominant characteristic. The success or failure of student support is judged on a number of performance indicators, such as students' success rate. A major question is what the educational philosophy is in which the distance education support services are operating. The service industry should be the source for models of student support, since the dominant ethos of the distance education organization must be that of a service industry. Each student support system must be derived from the unique situation in which the distance education institution operates. (YLB)