Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods

This publication is a guide to the type of technology modes, education models, and instructional methods used for teacher pre-service and in-service distance learning across the globe. 

This guide places particular emphasis on the modes, models, and methods of distance learning used in many developing country contexts. Unlike most studies on distance education, it focuses less on the technical and administrative aspects of distance learning and much more on how various distance education technologies—both current and future—can support the actual teaching and learning process within distance education.

This guide is organized in two main sections. Section I provides our working definition of distance education and anatomizes its many modes and models, dissecting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of instructional quality and effectiveness. Section II focuses on methods, collating best practices and lessons learned about teaching and learning from successful global distance education models. The guide also contains a glossary of terms, a reference section for further Web-based information on distance learning programs and approaches, and an extensive bibliography of the sources cited within the guide. Where available, we provide website addresses for every program discussed here. We also provide the URLs of websites that offer free content, but not those of commercial websites, which can typically be accessed online by searching for them by name.