Education Today

The importance of Education in our daily life

Education begins the minute a baby is born and is life-long. Education may even begin before birth as evidenced by some parents playing music or reading to the baby in the womb in the hope it will influence (educate) their child before birth. For some, the struggles and triumphs of daily life are far more instructive than formal schooling (Thus Mark Twain: "I never let school interfere with my education.") Family members have an educational effect which is quite profound — often more profound than they realize — though family teaching techniques may be highly informal.

Formal education occurs when society makes a commitment to educate people, usually the young. Formal education can be systematic and thorough, but the sponsoring group may seek selfish advantages when shaping impressionable young scholars.

Life-long or adult education has become widespread. Many adults have given up the notion that only children belong in school. Many adults are enrolled in post-secondary education schools, both part-time and full time, where they are often classified as non-traditional students in order to distinguish them administratively from young adults entering directly from high school.

Online Education

Computing devices can change when and where we learn. This can be based on the computer based or networked learning structure, in which people contribute to each others' education. It is defined as online education (a subset of distance education),which is a break to the traditional educational system.

There are many terms for online education. Some of them are virtual education, Internet-based education, Web-based education, and education via computer-mediated communication (CMC). The following definition of online education is based on Desmond Keegan’s definition of distance education. Hence, online education is characterized by:

• the separation of teachers and learners which distinguishes it from face-to-face education
• the influence of an educational organization which distinguishes it from self-study and private tutoring
• the use of a computer network to present or distribute some educational content
• the provision of two-way communication via a computer network so that students may benefit from communication with each other, teachers, and staff

Distance Education

Distance education is a method of teaching in which the students are not required to be physically present at a specific location during the term. Most often, regular mail is used to send written material, videos, audiotapes, and CD-ROMs to the student and to turn in the exercises; nowadays e-mail and the Web are used as well. Often students are required to come to meetings at regional offices on specific weekends, for example to take exams. Distance education is offered at all levels, but is most frequently an option for university-level studies.

Full time or part-time study is possible, but most students choose part-time study. Research study is possible as well.

One of the oldest distance education universities is the University of South Africa, which has been offering DE courses since 1946. The largest distance education university in the UK is the Open University founded 1969. In Germany the Fernuniversität Hagen was founded 1974. All three are now mega universities. In 1999 the European Graduate School went online from both Switzerland and the USA.

Although these universities have very large numbers, their success rates in terms of percentage of enrolled students completing qualifications are in the order or 5 to 7%. The missing element is the personal contact with someone who will encourage the student to continue and not give up. Someone needs to help them to persevere with those things that are neccessary to steadily work through the material, to regularly write a planned amount of pages. They need encouragement to do the research, read and study the articles and reference books found or provided on CD-ROM. This contact is not privided by the weekend lecture sessions either since very few students make use of this opportunity. It may be surprising that a university with 140,000 students enrolled may only have 10,000 qualifications issued per year.

Distance education is an outgrowth of correspondence courses, which arose from the need to provide schooling to students in remote, sparsely populated areas that could not support a school. Such courses are generally offered at the primary or secondary level, often with the students' parents supervising their education.

Building on the model of this home schooling solution – where untrained parents fulfil a certain encouraging role with great success in many areas – the tutor or mentor is brought in to provide a crucial solution to several issues. In contrast to the parent, the tutor is trained to a first degree level. This training is called "buddy tutoring" where you pull up someone to your own level instead of from one level higher. The tutor is in fact initially one level higher in the beginning of the study year and as time progresses the student "becomes like his teacher".

e-Learning

In general, e-learning most often means an approach to facilitate and enhance learning by means of personal computers, CD-ROMs and the Internet. This may include email, discussion forums and collaborative software. Advantages are seen in that just-in-time learning is possible, courses can be tailored to specific needs and asynchronous learning is possible. e-Learning may also be used to support distance learning through the use of WANs (Wide area networks), and may also be considered to be a form of flexible learning. Often, but not always, e-learning will also attempt to be a student-centred learning solution. Some view e-learning as a means to effective or efficient learning, due to its ease of access and the pace being determined by the learner.

Calvary University

The term e-learning is is used by Calvary University to indicate the role of technology in their learning model and the differences built into that model as compared to the standard set by distance learning and online education or virtual learning. Some of these differences aim to provide a solution to the problems left unsolved by distance learning:

• The tutor provides a face to face presence in the learning process to provide encouragement and learning advice within contact range of the student.
• The educational institution has no direct influence on the student's life and value system. Christian may find this an invaluable advantage.
• Since most of the material is provided by means of outstanding text books and a Course CD, no lengthy and costly network or permanent Internet connections are necessary to provide learning content.
• Continuous assessment has replaced a year-end exam which must be taken at a specific location and a pre-determined time. Such examinations place a lot of stress on the student.
• Internet content can be provided on a resource CD-ROM to make research feasible for students in countries where Internet access is still slow, costly or only available occasionally.
• A unique web-based randomized assessment programme provides a unique test to each student at any time. This test is down-loaded in seconds, written on the learner's computer and marked by the Web data base the moment the test is up-loaded onto the web. No tampering with the scrambled code is possible.
• Study groups are encouraged and often prescribed to help the student through peer-group interaction and to build interpersonal communication skills.

Multi-faceted Assessment

The presence of a tutor also allows for a more wide-ranging method of assessing the measure to which outcomes were reached. Calvary uses five assessment instruments:

1. Tests
2. Assignments
3. Practical Tasks
4. Group Work
5. Work File

All aspects of competence are assessed in this way. Some of the marks can only be determined through a face-to-face situation which can be the tutor, an area mentor of tutors or at a central training facility such as a study centre or even a study group.

Concluding Remarks

The world has become a global village and training is essential for every inhabitant in the world in order to stay in touch with the rapid expansion of knowledge. At the same time there is a tendency of urbanization and concentration of technology in the large cities. Although technology makes online learning or distance learning possible, the rural student and those in developing countries still have no hope of participating in this costly new wave of the cities. The faceless computer connected to the Internet on its own is not the ultimate answer.

Calvary University’s e-learning model uses both technology and the Biblical basis of learning which is discipleship where the ...

"disciple is not above his teacher but every one that is perfect
(or: fully trained) shall be as his teacher".

Character formation is as important as insight, knowledge and skills. Where people have no access to a place of higher education that is based on Biblical principles and which upholds a Christian value system, Calvary University now provides one of the best answers.

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