This paper was produced on commission from The Commonwealth of Learning and the Asian Development Bank.
Executive Summary
The purpose of the paper is to guide the planning of distance education programmes for teacher training. Many teacher-training programmes have sought a balance between general education, teaching in relation to specific subjects, classroom methods, and teaching about children, education and pedagogy. The balance between these different elements has varied according to the target audience and programme aims. A number of different models have been developed for integrating the supervision and assessment of classroom practice with other elements.
Distance education has been used for both pre-service and in-service education, and at most levels of education. Programmes have often used correspondence as a staple medium of instruction and many have combined this with other media such as radio and, less often, television, and with classroom practice.
Cost studies have been carried out in many parts of the world which examine the comparative cost of using distance education or conventional methods for teacher training. Some have looked at the cost per learning hour of using a particular medium, others at the comparative cost of conventional and distance-education programmes. The studies have faced a number of difficulties because of the quality of the data, the difficulty of making precise comparisons between different methods when audiences also often differ, and the scarcity of data on successful completion rates. Despite the difficulties, it is possible to draw some robust conclusions reasonably.
The evidence confirms that there are circumstances in which distance education is at an economic advantage as compared with conventional education. This is not invariably so and some programmes have operated on too small a scale to yield economies. A major economic advantage of distance education is that it does not require lengthy full-time residence at a college. There are, however, limits to the economies that can be obtained if quality and effectiveness are to be assured by student support and the supervision of classroom practice. In some cases, the favourable economic evidence on distance education reflects the relatively high cost of conventional teacher education.
The major factors affecting the cost of distance education are the number of students and options within the programme, the sophistication of the teaching media used, the arrangements for student support and the supervision of classroom practice, and the success rate. Limited data are available on the costs of different media. The choice between one-way and two-way media is of major educational as well as economic importance.
The research that has been undertaken makes it possible to identify four characteristics of a successful programme. These are likely to have obtained a good balance between the various different elements in teacher training and an integration between them. Within that balance, there needs to be an adequate emphasis on teaching practice. Assessment systems need to reward the qualities that are seen as important within the programme. Programmes are likely to benefit from the use of a combination of different teaching media. All four of these features are likely to increase rather than reduce the cost of a programme but, by raising its effectiveness, may be justified on educational and economic grounds.
Costing techniques have been developed that can be used both by planners and managers. In carrying out cost analysis it is necessary to identify all costs, annualise capital costs and reduce any cost to a single constant currency where necessary. On this basis it is then possible to calculate unit costs and derive a cost function which makes it possible to see the effect of increasing or reducing enrolment. A thorough economic examination of a programme needs to consider how it should be financed and the role that student fees, if charged, should play in this.
Some data are available on the costs of print, of radio and television, of audio and video cassettes, and of computer conferencing. In each case it is useful to analyse costs in terms of initiation, production, reproduction, distribution and reception. In this analysis, too, one needs to ask where the costs will fall: they may fall on the distance education institution, or on another public or semi-public body, or on the student.
The conclusion of the paper is that the evidence on the use of distance education for teacher training is positive both economically and educationally. Further research would be useful on the integration of distance education with other ways of supporting teachers, ways of maximising quality through the most appropriate mix of media, and on the changing costs and availability of different communication media.
