by Rachel Evans

Created on: September 06, 2007

Many people dream of gaining formal university, or college, qualifications. Unfortunately, life doesn't always make that an easy dream to accomplish. While a person's family or work commitments, among other things, may prevent them from attending university on campus, it does not prevent them from undertaking distance education. Advances in technology have changed the way distance education is undertaken, bringing it inline with on-campus learning.

Communication is an integral part of any learning experience. Where once distance education was limited in its methods of communication, technological advances have made a huge impact on the way students work, study and learn. Instant messaging programs and discussion boards have brought many advantages to distance education students. Distance is no longer an issue for study groups who can participate in instant communication via programs such as MSN and Yahoo. They can also take part in discussions through message boards. This promotes debates and discussions and opens the student mind to abstract ideas. It also makes it possible to evaluate their progress against other students.

The internet has also brought access to resources never before available outside university campuses or well established and financed libraries. Professional journals, before only accessible via subscription or large libraries, are now accessible online free or at reduced costs. This is valuable to distance education students who, at one time, found it difficult or expensive to access these texts. Mass media resources are also now available online. This gives access to publications and broadcasts not normally viewed by the average student. This broadens their information intake, which gives them greater capacity to explore different perspectives, ideas and beliefs. In itself this is allowing the critical self to explore, review and learn. Other information is also readily available on the internet. Websites relating to every possible topic are easily accessed.

Virtual reality has changed the world for many people. And this is no different for distance education students. While nothing can compete with the traditional classroom environment that does not mean that distance education students have to miss out on valuable experiences. Virtual reality has made it possible to have virtual classrooms. Students attend a virtual classroom and participating in virtual classes. Lecturers, tutors, teachers or others educators are also present, residing

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