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Makale Özeti:
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Distance education by its nature differs from the regular mode of higher education. A
viable option for providing access to higher education for students who cannot attend
traditional, on-campus courses, distance education, often gets a tag of being sedentary.
This puts into question the qualitative aspect of the distance education courses. Distance
education therefore often confronts a perception that its programmes, learning
materials, and student support are not of a high standard (Badat, 2005).
Evaluation of the effectiveness of distance learning should focus mainly on students’
academic performance and their feedback on their learning experiences. The present
study intends to study the quality facet of distance education and its dimensions as
perceived by the students enrolled in distance education courses. For conducting the
study, 100 students pursuing Masters of Education (M.Ed.) from University School of
Open Learning, Panjab University, were selected. Students were asked to give their
feedback on areas associated with the quality like, aims and objectives of the course,
teaching of the course content, curriculum transaction, learning material, student
support services, evaluation procedures, infrastructural facilities and general perspective
of the overall learning environment. To study the quality dimensions as perceived by the
learners, content analysis was incorporated. The results reveal that the students are
satisfied with the overall quality of distance education courses. The areas that emerged
to be a matter of concern in the present study are student support services and
infrastructural facilities available in the institutions offering distance education courses.
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