The importance of face-to-face meetings in Open Distance Learning (ODL) courses
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Abstract
Face-to-face (F2F) meetings consist a very popular strategy for supporting ODL students, which has more or less been adopted by the majority of relevant institutions internationally, either as an obligatory or an optional part of their courses. Their contribution to the cognitive, affective and systemic support of learners has been suggested by theoreticians of ODL and confirmed by international research studies. However, it has been claimed that F2F meetings contaminate the purity of ODL, their planning and management proves particularly demanding and expensive, whereas attending them often challenges learners, especially in specific geographical and cultural contexts. Besides, tutors often lack the necessary knowledge for their moderation. In this framework, several institutions worldwide have attempted to limit F2F meetings, primarily over the last years using modern technologies and the internet. Although online support has been proved by plenty of studies as almost equivalent to F2F meetings and despite it displays advantages, mainly linked to the abrogation of access limits, its effectiveness has been doubted, mostly due to the lack of training on the aspects of an effective online interaction. On the contrary, hybrid courses seem to combine the benefits of both models, cancelling at the same time any of their flaws.
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