Asian Journal of Distance Education
Yazarlar: D.G.Sandhya K. DOLUWEERA, Prabir K. BISWAS, S. SOMARATNE
Konular:
Anahtar Kelimeler:Distance Education
Özet: Distance Education refers interactive, educational process between two people, student and teacher, separated by physical distance. There is a two-way communication between teacher and student. Through this communication process, students have active role in distance education according to compare with traditional classroom environment. The Open University of Sri Lanka offered degrees and diplomas using distance course materials supported by mostly by print. Students are adequately supported by Student Support Services such as print and contact sessions, and subsequently other media such as AV materials. The objective of the study was to examine the perception of academic councilors on student support services of the Open University of Sri Lanka. The data were gathered through piloted and validated questionnaire from the academic counselors of the Open University of Sri Lanka covering over 100 staff members. CART, a data mining technique was use in the analysis of data. The distribution of designation of the academic staff members showed that Lecture category (47%) exceeds the rest of the categories in the sample. The age distribution of the sample population showed that 35% of the total sample is represented by the age group 42-49 yrs. These were considerable difference in perception of support services with respect to the age and academic qualifications of the academic counselors. Interactively participation of students in Day Schools and the structure of the final examinations paper use to evaluation the student evaluation performance were played an important role in the variation in perception of the student support service by academic counselors within the Open University. This situation can be explained by considering the respondent’s experience in the distance education methodologies and training etc. This study reveals that there is need in in-depth studies on the academic staff perception on the support services offered by the Open University of Sri Lanka with a vast collection of information and data mining techniques to avoid reaching subjective conclusions. The organization of training programs for academic staff and improvement of print materials are important and should be prioritized.