Technology has challenged the conventional idea that you have to be physically present in the classroom. In recent years, distance education and online courses are offered by several universities around the world which is a boon for students who want foreign degrees but have other commitments keeping them from on-campus learning.

Prajana Waiba Pradhan, Senior HR Officer at WWF Nepal completed her Masters in Sustainable Development through Sikkim Manipal University’s distance education program in 2005. The university sent syllabus and study materials through postal mail and she self-studied throughout the course of her two-year program.

Pradhan also did her Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) two years ago. She attended classes thrice weekly at the International Centre for Academics (ICA), the partner institution of IGNOU in Nepal.

“If I have to compare the experience of self-study and classes (referred to as ‘counseling sessions’ at ICA), I think attending sessions at ICA was better. Everybody there was working, so it was a good place to interact,” said Pradhan, adding, “When you’re self-studying, there’s nobody to guide/coach you and you yourself have to take time out to meet your deadlines (assignments).”

For somebody who is laidback, not having someone to pressure you, might be a problem. You’re not bound to take things seriously since there’s nobody to monitor you. But for someone who is serious enough, this freedom can be well utilized.

President of Kathmandu Cycle City 2020 Shail Shrestha, 26, is the only student of Distance Education at ICA, Gyaneshwor.
“Since I’m the only student studying this subject, I don’t attend regular classes. I self-study and consult online for materials. I usually refer to print materials for study because of load-shedding problem and visual presentations for reference,” he said.

Shrestha is also a filmmaker and says distance learning has given him freedom to pursue all his interests apart from education. “Since the early years of school, we have always had parents and teachers pressuring us with rules and certain deadlines, but the freedom this medium offers is advantageous or not, depending on the individual – say, it doesn’t work for someone who can only work under pressure,” added Shrestha.

Prateebha Tuladhar, a broadcast journalist at Kantipur TV and Nepal Correspondent for German Press Agency, also completed her MA in Journalism from Ateneo de Manila University’s low-residency program. Under the low-residency program, it required her to attend classes on campus for sometime before moving onto the online course. She attended her first two semesters on campus and completed the last two through distance education. “I wanted to pursue a degree that would help me interact with international students. But I was also working, so the low-residency program fit in perfectly,” said Tuladhar.

“If you’re on campus, you get to interact on a personal level. Having said that, technology has compensated with virtual platforms like social media and lectures podcasts,” she added.

Universities around the world use Blackboard, a software for online course delivery which has virtual classrooms and discussion boards. Tuladhar says, “If you want to initiate a discussion, you can post it on the discussion board, and it helps you interact directly with professors and other students.”

But this global medium has its own share of problems. “The pressure is greater,” says Tuladhar. “You have assignments to submit and online weekly lectures to attend.”

And on top of that, Internet speed isn’t great here. “As a student from Nepal, I was constantly competing with students from all over the world in this aspect. I often couldn’t listen to podcasts because the Internet was slow,” added Tuladhar.

Similarly, Nabin Baral, who is currently pursuing his diploma in Photojournalism at the same university, cites Internet speed and loadshedding as his biggest problems. “Teachers use a lot of multimedia techniques to provide references, and we have ‘chat classes’ every week. Between those and work, it gets hectic, especially because you have to coordinate everything with the loadshedding schedule,” added Baral who works as a photographer for ICIMOD.

Technology continues to change with the times we live in, in more ways than we can imagine. From the tradition of ‘gurukul’ to distance education now, we’ve come a long way.

source: republica,5 march 2013