Benefits Of Distance Learning

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Distance Learning - Recorded Audio and Video Pros & Cons

By Carl Street, Pupbrothers.com

Recorded audio and video is data that has been recorded onto some kind of media. Both are often used as vehicles of distance education programs. In the case of using recorded audio for education distance learning, the most usual suspects are podcasts, tapes and CD-ROMs. Distance learning programs that utilize recorded video, normally take form of vodcasting, DVDs and tapes.

Audio and video subjects that have been recorded can be delivered via the media onto which it was stored or it can be delivered electronically via online learning resources. Teachers can elect to provide students only with the pre-recorded instruction or they can incorporate it along with some other distance education learning approach. Students are able to watch recorded video and/or listen to recorded audio whenever they wish. In other words they can listen/view as regularly as is needed to digest the subject matter.

Many advantages of distance learning are brought to the forefront with recorded audio and video. First of all, recorded audio and video can be played ad nauseum for as long as it takes a student to understand the material.

Recorded video can be very elaborate and detailed. This kind of teaching is often used to record a newsworthy or other kind of incident that is related to the topic being learned. With high-impact visual content and full-motion video, a lot of attention can be added to the subject matter and as such, can help to keep a student more focused on the material.

When students are more focused on the distance education resources presented, they are prone to grasp the subject matter more rapidly. But if they don't, that's no trouble because recorded video can be replayed as required.

One of the benefits of distance learning recorded audio is that it is rather inexpensive to make. When material must be updated, all a teacher has to do is re-record another audio file. Apart from low production expenses, the costs of delivering this form of media to large numbers of students located all around the globe are also rather inexpensive.

Recorded audio, because it is only auditory, is not as useful a learning tool as is recorded video when it comes to distance learning systems. When students just sit and listen to some distant person talking, with no other option for interaction, it can be arduous for some to remain interested throughout the full lesson. The lack of interaction with the teacher is a huge limitation of recorded audio.

One of the big limitations of recorded video is that production expenses can be extremely high. And depending on the topic, it is sometimes required to revise recorded video so that the content stays current. Maintenance costs also are high. And though recorded audio can be more interesting, with its high-resolution images and showy graphics, it too does not permit for interaction with the teacher.

The only good use of recorded audio is lecture-style narration and description. Good uses for recorded video involve case studies, illustrations and lecture-style narration and description.