This chapter endeavours to give the reader some insight into how the task of an academic at the University of South Africa (Unisa) has changed over the years. Two decades ago, the university basically functioned as a correspondence distance education institution, whereas it now follows an open distance learning (ODL) policy. The task of the lecturer in both environments will be described and an overview given of the student support offered to students. I shall begin by analysing the term ‘distance education’.

Distance education

One of the first theorists of distance education (DE) stated that DE is not merely a geographic separation between students and lecturers, but also a separation by time. This theory was known as the theory of transactional distance (Moore 1993:22). Transactional distance occurs between lecturers and students in an environment characterised by separation that influences both teaching and learning. As a result of this separation, a psychological and communication space is created that has the potential of being a barrier to learning by causing misunderstandings between the lecturer and the student. In what we normally refer to as DE, the separation between lecturer and student is so significant that special teaching and learning strategies are used.

Beaudoin (1990:23) points out that, despite the distance factor, students at DE institutions are more likely to develop a productive one-to-one relationship with the lecturer than they do at contact institutions. Students who study independently, but who receive periodic contact as well as detailed evaluations and feedback, are more likely to feel a bond with the institution than those who sit, anonymously, in a lecture hall alongside a large number of other students and where there is only limited interaction between these students and the lecturer.

DE institutions also seem to be more driven by student support initiatives than contact universities. This is largely because students need this support if they are to succeed. Distance educators are generally conscious of the origins of correspondence education that, historically, has had a bad image owing to the fact that it failed to help students to complete their studies successfully (Rumble 2000:219). This is why distance educators now concentrate on course development, the production and despatch of tutorial matter, and student administrative and support services.