Introduction
Face-to-face contact teaching is one of the student learning support services often provided by distance teaching institutions (DTIs). This involves formal meetings of teachers and learners for the purpose of teaching-learning interactivity which may include formal teaching, tutorials, seminars, and group discussions, usually for remedial purposes, and practical or laboratory work. On some occasions, students may meet to take part in teleconferencing or teletutorials (Sparkes, 1982-, Agboola and Giwa, 1985; Gledhill and Dudley, 1988; Idrus, 1992). During these contact sessions, students are also able to enjoy both group and individual social interactions. Thus, face-to-face contact sessions obviate one of the main criticisms that distance learning gives only instruction and not education. The contact sessions also mitigate the isolation syndrome of distance learning (Wedell, 1970; Ljosa, 1975; Peters, 1973, McIntosh, 1975; Wangdahl 1977).
However, the premium placed on contact sessions varies between institutions. Practices indicate that this depends on three main factors: the size of the institution (student population), the organisational/management structure, and the nature and types of courses being taught by the institution. These factors, to a great extent, determine the role assigned to and the reliance placed on contact sessions. The provision therefore varies from none at all to a strong component.
Degree of face-to-face mix
Some institutions do not provide for contact teaching at all because they believe that the students want to be left alone and provision for contact will infringe learner autonomy or the independence of the adult learner (Keegan, 1990). This agrees with the view that the contact session is peripheral or is tantamount to 'watering down of the purity of distance teaching' (Keegan, 1982).
Most of the DTIs have contact sessions as either supplementary (optional) or complementary (compulsory). Others make attendance at contact sessions compulsory for selected courses only (Horlock, 1982; Holmberg, 1982; Nashif, 1982). When contact sessions are supplementary, no new topics are taught, while a few new topics may be taught when they are complementary. The survey of Schuemer (1988) on the use of face-to-face contacts by DTIs reported that out of the 166 institutions which responded, 127 (76.5%) organise face-to-face contact sessions to support student learning. While the group approach to teaching dominates the practice in contact sessions, the traditional tutorial approach of teacher-learner (one-to-one) contact is also made possible to individualise solutions to students' problems. Face-to-face contact sessions therefore play a vital role in the instructional delivery network.
In some institutions such as the UKOU, the University of New England, Armidale in Australia, and the NCE by Correspondence, Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, there is a residential contact session component which is compulsory for students to attend. In some other DTIs such as those in Germany, eastern Europe, and USA, students have to attend lectures regularly (in the evenings and weekends) like full-time students or consult with lecturers of full-time students to supplement the self-instructional course materials. It has been observed that compulsory attendance at contact sessions helps course completion, leads to a high success rate and a high degree of student socialisation in such institutions. Furthermore, the need for a very elaborate non-contiguous student support service is reduced.
However, problems are associated with the organisation, management and effectiveness of thesessions, whether optional or compulsory.
Problems associated with contact sessions
Organisation
In order to achieve the set goals of inclusion of a face-to-face contact component into distance teaching, the sessions have to be properly organised. The need for this becomes essential if the contact sessions are held in the 'field' it the study centres. Classrooms must be secured; tutorial staff sought employed in adequate number and quality, tutorial meetings scheduled taking into consideration the peculiarities of the students, tutors, courses and the 'school'; instructional materials have to be procured. In the case of residential vacation/weekend schools, student accommodation must be secured as well as arrangements for welfare services. The students must be appropriately informed in advance so that they, on their own part, can make all necessary arrangements for permission to attend (if a worker), re-schedule some other regular activities, plan for family needs and find the money for fees (tuition, accommodation, etc.) and transportation. Furthermore, they have to readjust their emotions for meeting other students some of whom may not be social or economic equals.
The importance of proper organisation cannot be over-emphasised particularly if the facilities and services of other organisations and personnel are needed. The DTI may have to rely on the generous cooperation of other institutions or adhere to their demands as to payment of prescribed charges for various facilities and services needed. The DTI also has to accept and comply with local conditions and situations of the cooperating institutions to the extent that it cannot control theme. One other problem associated with tutorial centres in borrowed premises is the unwillingness of some of these institutions to provide further services for students of other institutions (Freeman, 1982). The experience of the Fernuniversitat (FeU) in Germany is of a political nature. Keegan (1982) noted that the FeU found it difficult to establish study centres outside its home state of North-Rhine Westphalia in other states which did not favour the establishment of the University.
The smooth running of the contact session lies in efficient organisation, the complexity of which depends on the duration of the session and the number of students and staff involved. In essence, the longer the duration of contact sessions and the larger the number of students and staff to be provided for, the more complex and involved is the organisation. Whether the contact is for a brief or long duration, the organisation has to be completed long before the commencement of the session. A carefully, organised field services network has to be developed for easy coordination of activities especially by large DTIs such as UKOU, SI''OU, and the National Teachers' Institute in Nigeria, to mention a few. If need be, specific situations like arranging separate study arrangements for female students may have to be met as in Pakistan's AIOU (Fleming,1982).
Management
The management of contact sessions by DTIs can be fraught with problems which are associated with the organisation of the sessions. Management of contact sessions involves staff selection and recruitment, supervision and coordination of all activities, and handling the reward and compensation systems. While the management of the contact sessions is handled rather centrally in small-size DTIs, it is being, decentralised in large ones. Thus the problems are more with the management of the field sessions in DTIs. While some DTIs give a free hand to the regional centres to completely manage the study centres (e.g. UKOU), some others manage the field offices centrally. In sonic institutions, the field staff are full-time staff of the DTIs complemented by part-time staff drawn from the local area of the centre. Quite a number of other DTIs depend solely on part-time staff. Generally, while the regional offices handle the management issues, the study centres render academic and student advisory services and also provide the much needed direct contact of the students with the tutors. The DTIs thus have the responsibility for overall coordination and supervision of field activities. This can be a cumbersome responsibility especially in large DTIs operating over large-sized geographical areas or countries. The number of staff to be supervised can be enormous. For instance, in 1987, the UKOU had about 6,000 part-time tutors and counsellors in over 200 study centres to be managed by the Regional Tutorial Services Department (Harry, 1982; Keegan, 1990). The tutors also have to be 'adequately' rewarded to sustain their motivation to participate in the program.
Effectiveness of contact sessions
It is a common belief that the best interactive support that can be provided to students is face-to-face tuition. This interaction is normally provided by tutors. However, the assessment of the overall contributions of contact sessions to distance learning has been a chequered one. Reports on attendance have been rather discouraging, especially when contact sessions play a supplementary role and attendance is optional. For instance, attendance recorded at STOU was 30% in 1985 (Srisa-an el al.); Panjab University India had 20% (Chib, 1988); UNED in Spain had 37% among women and 28% among men (James, 1982); Indira Ghandi National Open University, India had far less than 50% (Menon, 1990). This trend appears to be at variance with the reasons advanced for the need for contact sessions (Harrington, 1977; Freeman, 1982).
An assessment of what takes place at the contact sessions also gives a mixture of desirable and undesirable results. Research results indicate that tutors were not good at identifying and explaining problems and often lacked personal interest, and that extensive feedback and increased personal and supporting comments do not necessarily increase student achievement or decrease withdrawal rates (Coldeway, 1982). Difficulties in employing reliable tutors and lack of dedication and professionalism by quite a number of tutors in spite of the supply of guidelines (Idrus, 1992) constitute some other bottlenecks. It has also been observed that face-to-face components of short duration have a less positive effect on learning (Agboola and Giwa, 1985). The following comment depicts the dismal performance of some tutors in a correspondence program.
During the contact session, some of the lecturers (tutors) do not attend their classes regularly, some go late to classes, while some have no time to prepare for their lessons because of some other personal engagement. In some classes, lecturers distribute handouts, without explaining them; while in some, lecturers dictate lecture notes without allowing for explanations on such notes. (Agboola, 1981)
Economically, it has been noted from various studies that the more face-to-face tuition built into a distance teaching system the higher the costs, and the nearer the costs come to that of a conventional institution where face-to-face is the major teaching medium. Suggestions have therefore been made to reduce the face-to-face component and also to increase student numbers (Rumble, 1982; Idrus, 1992). Other less expensive student learning support services have to be introduced in place of a reduced contact component. From the students' point of view, attendance at a residential school is a very expensive and disruptive event (Timmins, 1989). Similarly, it has been argued that the organisation of contact sessions in vast countries, especially with sparse population spread may be non-viable and expensive. New South Wales in Australia and Quebec in Canada serve as examples (Smith and Small, 1982; Caron, 1982). Hence, face-to-face contact sessions cannot be provided for all students. Even when this is done, monitoring of all sessions to ensure that ill groups progress uniformly poses another problem. Thus inconsistencies on the part of the tutors upset schedules made for tests, examinations and submission of assignments.
Emerging issues
All these observations imply that a range of problems attenuates some of the contributions of face-to-face contact sessions to the effectiveness and efficiency of distance education. A number of questions thus arise:
- to what extent should face-to-face contact sessions form a component of the instructional delivery strategies in distance education
- are there alternatives to contact sessions in distance teaching
- is the contact session really indispensable in distance education?
Each of these issues will be considered briefly below.
Extent of use of contact sessions
The usefulness of contact sessions as one of the teaching strategies in distance education has never been in doubt. However, the argument is: how much face-to-face contact should be put into distance learning. Essentially, it is necessary to remove or reduce the intensity of the prejudice of the 'traditionalists' that complete education can be had only through contact between teachers and learners. This prejudice militates against the undisputed recognition being sought by distance education. This issue has been extensively discussed by distance educators and others interested in education, including Carnoy and Levin (1975), Escotet (1980), Omolewa (1985a), Mainusch (1982), Crick (1982), Granger (1988) and Chen (1988). Keegan (1982) noted that one group of distance educators supports pure distance learning without contact sessions, while the other shares the traditional view that no true university education can take place without a meeting of minds which allows for academic socialisation. While one group argues for the independence and autonomy of the learner, the other group vouches for maintenance of traditional approaches to learning.
Further studies in the economics of distance education indicate that distance learning is relatively cheaper than conventional learning largely because of the total removal or substantial reduction of contact sessions. Hence, over the last decade, there have been experiments in various distance teaching institutions to diversify student learning support services with the object of cutting down on face-to-face contact sessions in order to make economic gains as well as to take advantage of developments in telecommunications. Idrus (1992) did not mince words as he stated that teletutorials were introduced at the Universiti Sains Malaysia so as to greatly reduce the expense of tutorials. It is also becoming a common practice to mix non-residential compulsory attendance at contact sessions with shorter and optional contact sessions. This helps to retain some of the advantages of face-to-face teaching at a cheaper cost (Mason and Miller, 1992).
Alternatives to contact sessions
As a result of the developments in the use of telecommunication strategies in education, electronic tutorials are becoming part of student learning support strategies, especially in advanced countries. As argued by Gledhill and Dudley (1988), Lauzon (1991), Bates (1991), Idus (1991) and Taylor (1992), the electronic tutorial introduces the feeling of discovery or group learning for distance education students. An electronic tutorial is said to be available at all times and accessible to all students. Similarly, the use of interactive radio and telephone conferencing has also been intensified to promote the social aspect of education. Some DTIs attempt to solve the 'isolation' problem of the distance learner by attaching every student to a tutor/counsellor. Thus there is a close personal contact between teachers and their students throughout their course, just as in the old tutorial system. The student is free to contact the tutor at any time or at pre-arranged times for both academic and non-academic advisory services (e.g. Open Learning Institute, Canada and UKOU). In Caron's 1982 study for instance, more than 40% of the respondents preferred individualised learning support without group meetings. Some other DTIs encourage their students to keep in touch with their institutions by providing a toll-free telephone service, for example, the Department of Independent Study, University of Florida, USA.
However, problems identical to those which militate against the effectiveness and efficiency of the contact sessions bedevil the alternative strategies. Flexibility of time of participating in teletutorials is still a problem (Taylor, 1992). Costs may militate against the use of sophisticated equipment.
Assurance of individual active participation is not obtainable. As Bates (1901) commented on a videoconference:
... most members of the audience are excluded from any form of interaction other than just watching or listening to the remote speaker... there is nothing more depressing than to log on to 'contact-free' conferences containing little but chitchat between personal opinions unrelated to any conceptual or pragmatic development.
Operating problems of the equipment can also be frustrating (Gledhill and Dudley, 1988). (But postal systems are not free from delivery problems either!) All these problems would lead one to agree to a large extent with Grepperud and Stanersen (1992) that 'the role of technology in distance education is to enhance rather than replace face-to-face meetings'.
Contact session indispensable
All the foregoing discussions have explored the need to examine implications of using contact sessions and the teletutorial options. Neither strategy is free from problems, rather, organisational, management and financial implications become more complex. Learning theories, personality theories, as well as socio-political theories, support the use of means of individualising education while mindful of the gregarious nature of students. This calls for a guided approach to the provision of the much needed interaction between students and teachers as well as among fellow students. The guided approach will study the situation and provide for interaction as needed by students at minimum costs (Warner and Wilkinson, 1992). A variety of systems of generating contact between the students and their teachers will help. This is particularly so in the attempt of DTIs to remove the stigma attached to distance teaching by the traditionalists. Both Omolewa (1985b) and Perry (1986) have concluded their emotional expressions by arguing that the battle is yet to be won in spite of all the 'apeing' of curriculum, admission requirements and the traditional face-to-face contact teaching.
Conclusion
The DTI continues to battle against many odds in order to gain recognition for its didactic approaches. The contact session, the centuries-old approach to teaching has been brought into distance teaching, albeit as one of the instructional delivery strategies. The main target in distance education is the student. All barriers to student learning have to be removed. However, the DTI has to identify the barriers to student learning before attempting to remove them. Timmins' study (1989) reveals that most students learn best using personalised study methods rather than residential or teletutorial approaches. However to cater for all, the DTI has to provide various student learning support and counselling services. This essay therefore concludes that the advantages of the contact sessions are to give meaning and an identity to distance education, although at some substantial costs. Contact sessions are both an asset as well as a burden which distance teaching institutions may have to cope with in order to achieve desirable educational goals.
References
Agboola, B.A. (1981). 'The Role of the Tutor in Distance Teaching'. Distance Education
Manual. 1, 131–175.
Agboola, B.A. and Giwa, F.I. (1985). 'The Place of Face-to-face Instruction in Distance
Education'. Nigeria, Education Forum. 8 (2), 181–6.
Bates, A.W. (1991). 'Third Generation Distance Education: The Challenge of New
Technology'. Research in Distance Education. 3(2),10–15.
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