Qualifying for Distance Education

Qualifying for Distance Education involves evaluation of computers, software and the qualities of the individual learner. In this case, we are considering online distance education.

For a student to effectively participate in an online course, the computer must be regularly available. The computer must be reliable. It must also be connected to a high speed the internet.

The student should have permission to install and uninstall programs on the computer. Thus, a computer in a public library would be inadequate for certain distance learning programs.

Computer software and distance education

In Qualifying for Distance Education, many teachers emphasize that the student should have a basic understanding of how a computer works. The student must have a basic understanding of the internet browsers together with applications such as and the Microsoft Office and notepad.This knowledge helps to reduce frustrations which students face when they start online courses.

Another consideration in qualifying for distance education is that students should be comfortable in using a computer and in carrying out certain activities such as downloading a file, saving a file and viewing a file. The student should be able to upload a file, attach a file to an email and download a file from the internet. The student should also be able to change browser preferences.

The student must have an email address to receive and send email as well as software to open attachments. Most people will send an email with formats such as doc, .rtf and .txt.

In qualifying for distance education you will also need a program called Adobe acrobat reader, required to open pdf files. You can download the latest version for free online.

Other software required in qualifying for distance education include free plugins such as QuickTime version 7 or higher for viewing video files and Windows Media Player version 9.0 or higher in order to view video and audio files.
Lastly but not least in qualifying for distance education the student must be motivated to succeed without much follow-up by their instructors.

The student must be prepared to attend school every day and do some work. The student must be prepared to complete all the homework due on time. These are some of the most important requirements in qualifying for distance education.To help our students overcome some of these hurdles, we provide an orientation package to all who register for our online courses.