ABSTRACT
Among the few innovations in the field of education, distance education ranks very high. It has been in existence for quite a few decades in one form or another, but thanks to modern communication technologies, its importance is now being realized by educationists and policy makers all over the world. Although distance education is catching up very fast in all countries, developed and developing, socialist and capitalist, Western and non-Western, it is still little known and less studied. As Keegan points out:
Even a cursory reading of educational literature shows that distance systems are usually ignored. It merits not a paragraph in most volumes of educational philosophy, in guides to administrative practice or in analyses of didactic strategy.
(Keegan 1986: 4)