What does electronic conferencing afford distance education?

Sally Barnes (1)

1 Graduate School of Education

Technology is potentially offering many opportunities to extend and expand distance learning in the higher education sector. Electronic conferencing, in particular, is seen as a technique, which offers opportunities for course delivery and methods of interaction for distant learners. This paper examines the similarities and differences between face-to-face seminars and on-line discussions. Through the concept of affordance it is shown that both benefits and limitations for interaction exist for real and virtual meetings.

Keywords: affordances for learning; affordances; distance education; electronic conferencing

Domains: Technology for Human Learning

Sally Barnes. What does electronic conferencing afford distance education?. Distance Education, 2000, 21(2), 2000, pp.236-247. ⟨hal-00190131⟩