From virtual teaching to distance education

The educational modality where this teaching or virtual training is based

By: René Zeballos *

In recent days there is a lot of talk about connectivity and virtual teaching. In this context, it is appropriate to address the issue of distance education because it constitutes the educational modality where this virtual teaching or training is based. Distance education has been studied and has pedagogical principles for those who use it.

Distance education has as its central feature the non-existence of personal or physical contact between teacher and student. This separation is their main disadvantage compared to face-to-face education, in which the “face-to-face” relationship becomes their essential sustenance. Its main advantage is that people can access studies in their own times, spaces and rhythms. For D. Keegan, the central components of distance education are:

1) The teacher-student physical separation,

2) The use of educational media or materials with various content,

3) The facilitation or tutoring with two ways of communication from the teacher to the student,

4) The autonomous and individualized learning of the student,

5) Educational evaluation, and 6) An appropriate institutional organization.

If the aforementioned components are sufficiently suitable for distance education processes, they will be successful, otherwise they will tend to fail. It is often said that distance education facilitates the autonomous learning of the student rather than teaching; this principle is key in the framework already described.

The teacher must prioritize in the approach of their distance education actions the objectives, competences or knowledge that they intend to develop, as they would surely do in another teaching-learning modality. The educational materials that you select and share with the student body should, for example, seek to enhance certain previously established capacities.

As they do not have the possibility to resolve concerns in person, extensively and repeatedly, the teacher must use the simplest, clearest and most understandable language in distance education. Expressing yourself ambiguously and generating confusion is a difficult deficiency to resolve. This communicational principle must be in all the elements, such as the contents of the shared educational materials, the instructions or instructions, or any additional information that it provides.

Without proper and efficient communication with students there will never be a good education, especially if it is at a distance. In the form, it is recommended that it be colloquial and assertive, as if you were talking in person with someone. A suitable communication and pertinent attitudes and behaviors of the teacher will be able to generate rapprochement and a relationship of trust with the student body; otherwise it would be detrimental to the educational process.

Technological communication resources are essential in distance education. There are them for simultaneous or synchronous dialogues, or for deferred or asynchronous contacts. The sensible thing is to choose them correctly according to the objectives or educational competencies pursued, the possibilities and the degree of access of the students to them. If more than one tool is used, it must be done in a coherent and comprehensive way. Its excessive and unnecessary use should be ruled out.

Although distance education works with social groups, the ideal is to carry out personalized work because the skills or qualities must be developed in each student. In fact, the evaluation aims to know if each student achieved this or that ability or ability.

Distance education also requires support from the student. Any component of distance education could affect their mood or discouragement, and even drop out of their studies. This evidently poses as essential a communication that encourages and encourages him permanently to move forward, without neglecting the demand for responsibility and fulfillment of duties. The first thing in education is always the student body and their learning.

* René Zeballos C. is a Bolivian university professor