The Use of Vodcasts in Distance Education: Do e-classrooms Admit All?

Abstract

Unisa is the largest open and distance university on the African continent and offers the opportunity of tertiary education to individuals who’s circumstances does not allow for the attendance of a ‘contact’ university. Studying without ever, physically, having to visit the University does, however, present its own educational obstacles; chief among them the inherent difficulties created when educator and student mostly never see each other.

Monge (1999), at the onset of discussions on the effect of globalisation, identifies theoretical impingements transpiring from the use of new technologies. Taken to the field of distance education, it is argued that new technologies (such as vodcasts) has the potential to compress the time and space between students and university and to promote disembeddedness in a single location – bridging some notable obstacles found in this context. With the theoretical possibility established, this article considers its validity in the specific context of African distance students, who historically stand on the dire side of the digital divide. The article empirically explores these theoretical possibilities, within an interpretivistic paradigm, assessing the perceptions of a randomly selected sample of distance students regarding the use of vodcasts for a second-year, undergraduate module, making use of quantitative questionnaires.