Access Barriers Experienced By Adults In Distance Education Courses And Programs: A Review Of The Research Literature

Distance education in the American education system continues to expand. However, despite technological improvements and nearly universal accessibility to the Internet, adult learners continue to experience barriers to accessing distance education courses and programs. Building on prior work by Cross (1981) and Darkenwald and Merriam (1982), this literature review focuses on the institutional and student barriers experienced by adult learners. Institutional barriers consist of program costs, resource availability, lack of equipment and infrastructure, scheduling, instructional concerns and technical assistance. Student barriers include costs and motivators, feedback and teacher contact, alienation and isolation, student support and services, and a lack of experience and/or training. Recommendations for addressing institutional barriers include continual evaluation of noninstructional areas, faculty training, and adoption of new technologies. Recommendations for alleviating student barriers include providing opportunities for distance students to interact with faculty, other students, and other parts of the campus, providing toll-free phone support to all areas of the campus, requiring faculty to have online office hours, and developing electronic tutorials for new distance students. The use of distance education in the United States continues to grow. A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics (Waits & Lewis, 2003) documented the increased use of distance education in a multitude of academic and technical disciplines in postsecondary institutions. Private industry and business, along with governmental agencies, have also recognized the attraction of learning “any time and any place” in providing education and training opportunities for their employees. Relieving adult learners of the time and place constraints of a traditional classroom, distance education can present a new set of constraints, or barriers, to accessing educational opportunities. These barriers can be significant for adult learners, many of whom are “non-traditional” students, i.e., older, employed, needing job skill updates, seeking career change, or returning to college after a long absence. These students may also be single parents or transfer students, who, because of family responsibilities, work commitments or geographic limitations, are seeking to access educational opportunities at their convenience. Distance education offers the promise of unfettered access for these individuals; however, at present, the promise remains unfulfilled

A Comparative Examination of Vocational Education Teacher Qualifications and Preparation Between Finland and the State of Ohio in the United States

Working between the formal education system and workplace, vocational education teachers contribute to the growth and development of a country’s future workforce. Using interviews of university professors, examination of legislation and administrative rules and information obtained from applicable websites, this article compares two different teacher education systems for the preparation of vocational teachers in the country of Finland and the state of Ohio in the United States. Findings indicate both systems have commonalities as well as significant differences. This comparison will contribute to a better understanding of vocational teacher education from an international perspective and examines such aspects as qualification requirements for vocational education teachers, the institutions providing teacher preparation and the content of the teacher training programs. A discussion of the vocational education systems in both settings is also provided for background and context