Distance education

Distance Education used to be called correspondence courses because it consisted of going to school by receiving written material and sending back written exercises through the mail. Now there are many more components to distance education. You still stay home, but besides receiving and sending written material through the mail, your course material may include audio tapes, video tapes, and computer software and may come by TV, by computer or by satellite. You can talk to your tutor by phone and you may participate with other people taking the same course by teleconference calls, or by arranged classroom seminars in your area.

In BC, the Open learning Agency (OLA) has the widest range of distance education courses. Through OLA you can study English as a Second language (ESL), complete your high school diploma (Adult Basic Education) (see page 32) take career, technical or college courses, or work toward a university degree. OLA is in partnership with UBC Access Guided Independent Study at the University of BC; University Extension at the University of Victoria; and the Centre for Distance Education at Simon Fraser University. This means that you can register through OLA for distance education from all these institutions. Other schools offering distance education are listed at the end of this chapter.

The advantages of this type of education are that you don't have to spend any time or money on transportation, you can arrange your study schedule to fit around the demands of your job, your family, and your life and you can go at your own speed. Women who like distance education find they enjoy working on their own and the sense of accomplishment they get from doing it.

However, distance education is not for everybody. And even if it is for you, this may not be true all the time. It depends on what is going on in your life. There may be times when you could take a distance education course and really do well and other times when you just can't bring yourself to concentrate on it.

Many people who register for distance education courses don't finish. It is important to remember that if you take a credit course through OLA and you don't withdraw in time, this incomplete goes on your college transcript and can affect your ability to get into a course or school later on.