Student Perceptions of the Distance Education Mode Compared with Face-to-Face Teaching in the University Distance Education Programme

This paper is based on a study of the perceptions of the distance education mode compared with face-to-face teaching on the part of students on the university distance education programme at the University of Antioch over the period from 2001 to 2007. It is not possible to ignore the close links between educational processes and social, economic, administrative, cultural and political conditions, not only at the beginning of the course, but throughout its existence. The goal of higher education is to promote the development of a professional approach on the part of its students, irrespective of whether they study at a distance or physically attend a campus of the university. When comparing the two modes of delivery (distance and face-to-face) in higher education, while controlling for a number of other personal and demographic variables, it was possible to confirm that there were no significant differences that could be attributed to different modes of delivery. This is not an accident, and arises because of the pedagogic orientation of the primary and secondary schools, which direct their efforts to the delivery of information and the development of basic skills rather than the development of students who are skilled in observation, analysis, synthesis and have leadership qualities which would fit them to direct the process of social change. [For complete volume, see ED567040.]