They observe a segment of the world around them and search for order in the realm of experience, which is often confusing, if not outright bewildering, because of its inherent complexity. In their attempts to improve our understanding of distance learning mba, several theorists have presented significant models, each of which explains an important aspect of the field. An overview shows that these theorists have approached the discipline from a broad perspective and have treated it holistically.


Their conceptualization of the field addresses overarching issues, such as how to define its characteristics and how to distinguish distance education from other forms of education. This is to be expected from a relatively young area of study , one that, compared with similar disciplines in the humanities and sciences, is still in its infancy. In looking at distance education from a broad perspective, the leading theorists of the field have developed conceptual synergies.

The independence of the learner is the conceptual attractor to which seminal thinkers in the field point, including Erlenmeyer, the premier American theorist. Wedemeyer recognized the independce of the learner and posited that such independence would be afforded to learner by a bariety of means and stategies, including anytime and anywhere learning and learner control over the pacing of the learning process.


Wedemeyer also acknowledged the necessity for the learner to take more responsibility for learning, freeing the instructor of the custodial duties of teaching. But the real impact of Wedemeyer's contribution to the theory and practice of distance education is yet to be realized. distance learning mba which defined the relationship of instructor and learner in more precise terms. He stated, "There is now a distance between learner and teacher which is not merely geographic, but edu and psychological as well.

It is a distance in the relationship of the two partners in the educational enterprise. It is a transactional distance . As significant as the individual learner is to distance education, this type of education invariably involves institutional structures as well. Structural and institutional concepts in distance education are reviewed in the next section.