Prospect of Email Communication as an Educational Tool for Distance Education in Bangladesh
Prospect of Email Communication as an Educational Tool for Distance Education in Bangladesh
Files
Links
Date
2008
Authors
Sadat, Anwar
Editor
Corporate Author
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
Report/Paper Number
Abstract
PCF5: Cross-Cutting Theme // Bangladesh Open University (BOU) is the only public University in Bangladesh which provides higher
education through distance mode. At present BOU offers 21 formal programmes. BOU provides printed
materials to the learners which are prepared in a self-learning style of distance education. The learning
procedure also includes audio-video programmes and some face-to-fact teaching classes called ‘tutorial class’.
In reality, these are not enough for learners to complete the whole course successfully. Today, Internet has
replaced all means of traditional communication significantly. In the past decade only youth and young
generations were playing with it, but today it has been found that aged people have also gladly accepted it for
communication with others. Email is the most popular means of communication medium now-a-days.
Therefore, it may be used as an educational tool for learning. In present socio-economic condition of
Bangladesh, learners can afford computer or cell phone to access Internet and email. We took this opportunity to
investigate the prospective use of these tools for distant learning. To the best of our knowledge, there is no
report regarding acceptance and possible use of e-mail communication as additional educational tool for BOU
learners. This paper presents survey result carried out to understand the present status of Internet and email
knowledge among the learners and their views for possible introduction of Internet and e-mail communication
as supporting tool for learning. Furthermore, by investigating BOU’s available infrastructural facilities, possible
cost effective solutions have been suggested to provide e-mail facility to the learner. // Paper ID 266
Description
Subject
Distance Education,
Online Learning
Country
Bangladesh
Region
Asia