Impact of Media on Learning

Author: Bipasha Chowdhury

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Effects of Media Boom on Distance Education

Distance education is often defined as ‘institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separate, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors’ (Schlosser and Simonson, 2002).

The original distance education by correspondence has been upgraded by twenty-first century technology. Distance education has vastly benefited from the media boom with telecasts and broadcasts limiting the dependence on the written word. In the past, distance education was primarily delivered through mail and was called correspondence courses. The medium of instruction was mainly through books, paper documents and other printed materials. Contrary to classroom learning, instructions provided by professors or teachers were delivered in print to the learners who didn’t have the opportunity to have interactive classes. Queries and notes were interchanged between teachers and students and vice versa.

But now the trend is fully replaced by colorful computer-based graphic resources. Computer-based education has changed the traditional offerings of correspondence education. This medium of education converts the traditional static resources into interactive and interesting online modules for the learners. Moreover, online-learning retains most of the characteristics of the classical form of distance learning, while offering more sophisticated learning materials at a much reduced rate.

… We can define quality online education as a people-oriented, instructor-led activity, where the level of communication should be comparable with on-campus education. Due to the connectivity of the Internet, distance education is often called online learning because the Internet-connected computers bring the teacher and learner face to face, which substitutes/replaces classroom learning. Moreover, the Internet has also facilitated the students to study online from any location and at any convenient time.

There are numerous factors which have contributed to the increasing popularity of the distance education through media. With the introduction of online learning in universities, distance learning has gained immense importance. Online learning has assumed the role of an important media for imparting distance education. It also went to the extent of providing quality online courses which have become almost comparable to the traditional classroom learning. Now students can get access to a broad spectrum of disciplines from any location. With the mingling of online learning and distance education, education is no longer a constraint for any class of the society.

Distance education can also be termed as interactive telecommunications system. Interactive telecommunications systems broadly mean that the instructors and the learners use a variety of technological resources while teaching and learning from a distance. Nowadays, many universities have come up with the idea of transferring its on-campus learning into online learning.

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The most important advantage of online distance education is to earn a degree from one’s home or workplace. In traditional distance learning, interaction is limited to a certain point and feedback from the other side is often delayed because of slow postal systems. It has helped a large number of people to pursue education, who don’t even have the time to enroll for regular courses. Moreover, it is usually easier and less competitive to obtain admission for the online courses. Moreover, in case of online distance courses, learning is more fun and interactive. It is also flexible. It is possible to incorporate charts, maps, graphs, moving images, slides, video clippings and even audio recordings with the course material. It helps to understand the entire syllabus without the help of a teacher.

The students are able to interact with their peers through online class projects, e-mails and also with the help of online conferencing. This interaction with the help of media using e-mail, conference calls and chat makes learning easier and entertaining. It substitutes the face-to-face experiences of traditional learning. The availability of online libraries with their huge collection of books has also made the learning process easier and worthwhile. Speaking about the economic side of online distance learning, it is seen that most of the time, the expense of a regular course is much higher than the online courses. The media-related online distance learning is relatively economical than the traditional class-room learning. Nevertheless, keeping in mind its positive effects on individuals, these computer-based distance education continues to grow.

Role of Interactive Learning Module in Education

Interactive learning module is another form of online distance education. The main idea of interactive learning is to provide educational guide through on-line education. In this module, support learning is available on a 24/7 clock and delivered from class-room to anywhere and at anytime. The Interactive learning module generally engages the learner and the teacher in effective instructional communication without disturbing the interaction. Interactive learning modules developed by corporate media companies are becoming increasingly popular. Nowadays, the interactive learning module materials are used in management courses, undergraduate and graduate engineering courses, as well as technical and management corporate training programs. The prime aim of the Interactive Learning Modules is to create modular interactive learning materials for the development of education and to demonstrate their effectiveness in university curricula as well as industrial training programs. Thus, the acquaintance of knowledge is maximized through the advent of Interactive Learning Module.

We have seen that interactive learning modules developed by different corporate media companies are becoming increasingly popular. Witnessing the importance of Internet, innumerable training players are offering their training online. These modules are helpful to provide value-added services and equip professionals to work in a dynamic and competitive environment. Interactive design tools help the learners to explore the activities of product development and emphasize on the integration of design, manufacturing and marketing concepts. Moreover, interactive learning provides solutions for evaluating and monitoring of the learner’s progress.

Interactive Learning Modules are designed not only for the technical and management corporate trainee people but also for the people with learning disabilities. With the advent of technology, physical barriers are no longer a constraint for leading a normal life. Technology can abate any learning disabilities. It can also make learning accessible for the people with disabilities. Interactive Learning Modules are particularly helpful to people with learning disabilities.

With the transformation of a new era, we have seen that the concept of E-learning, supported by the web-based learning environments. This could help people with learning disabilities or social difficulties to adjust with normal contemporary life and knowledge-based curricula. Till now, the society and the media have not thought about the impact of computers on the lives of the disabled in general and the visually-challenged in specific. Special schools were built for their education. But the federal ‘Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’ (IDEA) made it mandatory for the schools to educate children with disabilities in general classrooms.

The Interactive Learning Guide for the disabled, coupled with the application of technology in education provides better understanding of theories, their applications and identification of alternate solutions for them. This advanced type of learning for the disabled has helped them to get over their weaknesses and start a new life afresh with better knowledge as their strength. A teacher, principal, specialist or a paraprofessional can help a child with learning disability to achieve full potential by helping them to adapt the online interactive education guide. Therefore, education is no longer restricted to the normal persons, but it has crossed the barriers and enlightened the life of every individual irrespective of their disability.

From the above inferences, we can rightly conclude that the effect of media is vast on the life of each and every individual. With the on-going development of information and technology in the society, media has given particular attention to the need of education and cultural diversity and promoted media consciousness among individuals. Media has entered in every sections of our daily life- be it in education, news, entertainment, culture, sports, etc. Last but not the least, media has opened a new dimension and gave a new meaning to education. Education has become more entertaining like never before.