Information Technology Reference
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and to agree to the extra “value-added” design skills to be acquired by each of
the partner institutions. For all the partners, distributed education techniques (face-
to-face, print, digital resources, and Internet technology) offer many benefits such
as flexibility and new teaching resources; however, easy accessibility and equality
of distribution continue to be problematic, and for this reason we explored digital
offline resources as well as Internet-based solutions.
As examples of the contexts in which less developed countries are attempting
to move from “conventional” face-to-face learning and memorisation towards the
incorporation of educational technology to assist learning, the following might be
considered. The Maldives are a collection of islands, or more correctly atolls, with
small populations and little local access to higher education. Distance education
is a priority for the Maldives College of Higher Education and their strategic plan
involves the development of more flexible courses that can be offered at key cen-
tres throughout the islands. Both Bhutan and Nepal have a higher education system
which could be called distributed, although they differ in the nature of the dis-
tributed components. In Bhutan there is a network of regional colleges throughout
the country, each specialising in different subjects, but there is little experience of
distance education or the use of new technology for supporting learners (Rennie &
Mason, 2007). Nepal has a highly centralised higher education structure focussed
on Tribhuvan University but has recently experimented with the introduction of
some forms of technology-supported distance learning and is currently discussing
the establishment of an Open University for Nepal. Internal travel is very difficult in
both countries due to the mountainous terrain and the lack of infrastructure. Access
to secondary education, much less higher education, is a major problem and only
a small percentage of the total populations attend university. Separate campuses
in different parts of the countries define their own structures and curricula. The
same is true for the Cambodian partner, a private university called Build Bright
University that has a very young staff and an energetic recent history of curriculum
development, but with, at best, an intermittent quality of online access.
Online Versus Face-to-Face Teaching
Universities in countries with limited resources for e-learning face very difficult
problems in trying to equip their students with the skills, experience, and online
opportunities which the country needs to develop as a knowledge-based economy.
In Asia the proportion of the total population participating in the Internet revolution
is relatively small, but the rate of growth of mobile phone and Internet technol-
ogy is rapid. In countries where the infrastructure is reasonably well developed,
pressure is growing to use e-learning, partly because of the growing number of for-
eign universities offering online courses and partly as a perceived solution to offer
access to mass education throughout the country. While in Europe online learning is
growing in popularity and is increasingly accepted as a comparable alternative (or
complement) to face-to-face education, in Asia all distance learning is still gener-
ally regarded with suspicion and is certainly not on a level of credibility with campus
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