Evaluación del director por parte del Supervisor Escolar

among distance learners and tutors and to establish as well as implement standard rules for quality evaluation of assignments.

Meanwhile, Russell (2006) determined the differences in academic performance between distance learning students and traditional on-campus students in allied healthcare education. A total of 252 sets of student data were used in the statistical analyses, and of these 252, 174 (69%) were on campus students and 78 (31%) were distance students. The study found that there was no significant difference between the two groups for gender or previous academic performance. However, there was a significant difference in age between the two groups. Sixty-four percent of the on-campus students were 25-years-old or less, while 72% of the distance students were greater than 25-years-old. Also, with the pass rate for on-campus students was 86% and the pass rate for distance students being 87%, Russel (2006) found that there was no significant difference in the final GPA scores or in certification pass rates between the distance learning students and on-campus students.

Students' barriers may include, but are not limited to, their ability to access the internet, credibility of online courses, and interactivity with the instructor.

Faculty barriers could be the ability of instructors to deliver online courses, time consumption, the rapid changes in technology that disables them from following up with new trends in technology. Barriers may also include lack of courses in digital forms, and colleagues' knowledge and support of online teaching and learning. The institutional barriers include the high cost of distance education, institution's strategic plans to implement online courses, and technology infrastructure such as classrooms and computer laboratories (Zirkle, 2003).

Al-Alawneh (2013) examined e-learning barriers as perceived by faculty members of engineering colleges in the Jordanian Universities. In the findings of Al-Alawneh (2013), student barriers were ranked as the highest barriers as perceived by faculty members, faculty barriers came second while institutional barriers were ranked third. This was principally attributed to the likelihood of the lack of students' services and technical support. Other culpable issues are students' experiences of technology and internet, and the most important issue is the isolation of instructor from students. In this part of the world, particularly in Nigeria, such students' issues include experience with shortage supply of electricity. This emphasises the centrality of the learners in distance education and the need to seek to understand and support them. Also, though institutional barriers were ranked third in Al-Alawneh's findings, specific issues related to institutional barriers were ranked high by the faculty members, namely:

technology-enhanced classroom, labs and infrastructure, funds to implement distance education programmes, and shared vision and strategic planning for distance education. Al-Alawneh further found that the second most influential factor borders on quality assurance, scepticism against the accuracy of content and richness of delivery of courses. Also, lack of technical support from student services and administration, lack of confidence in comparison with face-to-face, prior educational experience, or general lack of time are traditional reasons given as barriers to participation in distance education.

With some specific contextual variations, these barriers are largely obtainable in Nigeria.

Generally, situation in Nigeria is that distance learning institutions still run relatively small distance education operations and have not developed many of the systems and structures needed to expand this delivery significantly (COL International, 2001). In analysing the management of distance education in Nigeria, Nakpodia (2010, p. 49) highlights that “perhaps the biggest problem for the programmes is the lack of support by the faculty”. COL International (2001) reports challenges that border on policy making and implementation in the country:

First, distance education provision constitutes a very small component of higher education provision within the Federal University System. Second, the two dual-mode institutions at Lagos and Abuja seem encumbered by existing university rules and traditions. Third, it appears that the main motivation for offering the variants of distance education described above is financial. Under such conditions, the quality and revaluation of distance education course materials and practices tend to stay static or decline over time.

Meanwhile, Obioha and Ndidi (2011) in an empirical study using NOUN as a case study identified the administrative problems of open and distance education in Nigeria. The study revealed that the administration of NOUN study centres by people who lack sufficient experience in the field of educational administration to develop, maintain and manage exemplary programmes was the principal problem. Other administrative challenges in the institutions include: irregular payment and omission of some facilitators’ honorarium;

inadequate funding and lack of receptive to open and distance education; inability of the administrators to identify and recruit committed facilitators; high cost of technology to support open and distance education; insufficient and unequal distribution of course materials; staff disobedience; course allocation conflicts; inaccurate statistics and; lack of supervisors. The study further discovered that there was no significant difference between the administrative problems identified in the study centres of NOUN in the Northern and Southern geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

According to Agyeman (2007), one of the objectives of Nigeria's ICT policy which took effect from 2001 is to integrate ICT into the mainstream of education and training and to build a mass pool of ICT literate manpower using the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), and other platforms as a train-the-trainer scheme for capacity-building among others. These suggest and include the use of ICT for distance and open learning but according to the nationwide survey carried out by Agyeman, this is the actual situation of ICT in education:

The challenge is the lack of electric power and telecommunications infrastructure in a substantial part of the country. Mobile telecommunication currently covers 60% of the national territory, but mobile telephone companies generally power their base stations using electric power generators since the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is unable to supply them with power. This phenomenon is prevalent nationwide and constitutes the bottleneck to effective countrywide deployment of ICT in education.

Adewale (2003) concluded that adult learning in the country has not taken adequate advantage of media and new technology. Necessary and supportive infrastructures such as regular supply of electricity and efficient telecommunication network are lacking. Because of this, e-learning in Nigeria is still a dream because of poor ICT infrastructure and other socio-economic reasons (Ajadi et al, 2008). This is a menace confronting the developing countries generally:

unaffordability and inadequacy of the needed infrastructural development and lack of accessibility to internet and other ICTs. Based on the perception of distance educators in Nigeria, COL International (2001) identified the provision of telecommunications, electricity and postal services as impediments to their functions. This emphasises that the distance education sub-sector is not shielded from the general problem of deficit national infrastructure though some creative institutional efforts could help in limiting how such deficit affects distance education programmes. Anderson and Simpson (2012) observe that different types of institutions will face different challenges. It is expected that this study would address some peculiar challenges of the case institutions in relation to the scopes of the objectives.

However, some of the encouraging aspects and strengths observed in Nigerian emerging distance education, according to COL International (2001), include: the culture of peer review;

provision of open access literature and; the know-how gained by providing distance education learner support to thousands of students. Also, the COL International’s report showed some enabling and progressive practices in the Nigerian university system on which more efforts could be built: the wealth of experience that has clearly built up amongst the primary providers of distance education programmes; strong tradition in Nigerian tertiary education of documenting theory and practice of distance education delivery; strong central government commitment to distance education and there appears to be strong – and growing – institutional commitment to this mode of delivery. As Anderson and Simpson (2012, p. 7) emphasise:

"Ultimately, it is the combination of the human, the technological and the organisational that works." The mix, and attention to balance these three components, must remain at the forefront of any institutions' and any nation's vision because distance education is systemic.

2.3.3 An Overview of Tertiary Education and the Need for Distance Education in Nigeria