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The American International
Business School believes that the world has arrived at a convergence of
interests between the education community and the educational needs of
students in developing countries.
We believe that
international e-learning¹ will increasingly be a means for institutions to expand their reach to
potentially millions of students, previously locked out of the quality
higher education arena that they will now be able to enter.
Furthermore, despite the gaping "technology gaps" between rich and poor, the
price for accessing the technologies will soon reach negligible levels and
the impending wireless revolution will eliminate the need for depending on
governments for costly infrastructure to connect.
The initial reasons distance education will be interpreted as a solution to
the access to quality curriculum dilemma are mostly economic:
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Technology becomes more accessible and more affordable. As
computer-processing speed-to-cost ratios continue to double every 18 months
and telecommunications costs plummet while bandwidth capabilities soar in
similar ratio, it will become vastly cheaper and easier to reach
geographically wide student audiences. This eventually will be true even in
neglected regions with the arrival of wireless systems. For the first time
in history, basic access to communications will not be a significant barrier
and many will want to seize this opportunity.
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Economies of Scale.
The other motivating factor for choosing distance education is the
economies of scale enabled by technology-driven distance education.
According to this argument, many distance education delivery technologies
can afford to have high fixed costs (such as course production costs or
satellite transmission) and access to the best and brightest educators
because they can spread these costs across vastly larger student
populations. Hence, the per unit cost of education can then, in theory, be
dramatically lowered through high student numbers -- precisely what
developing countries will have in abundance.
To summarize, e-learning will increasingly be viewed as the means to provide
more people with better education using the same resources.
Ultimately, each education institution needs to provide its own answers to
why it would choose to engage in e-learning in developing countries. This
school believes there is one reason, which is common to all institutions:
the student market exists and will grow.
Prof. Marshall G. Hall
Head of School
AIBS Online
Email the author
There may be
other definitions, but AIBS Online
defines e-learning (also called elearning
or eLearning) as:
The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic
means. E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g.
a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning
material. (Derek Stockley 2003)
E-learning can involve a
greater variety of equipment than online training or education, for as the
name implies, "online" involves using the Internet or an Intranet. CD-ROM
and DVD can be used to provide learning materials.
Distance education provided
the base for e-learning's development. E-learning can be "on demand". It
overcomes timing, attendance and travel difficulties.
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