Initial and in service distance education at the Faculty of Education of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú

Abstract

Distance education constitutes a valid alternative delivery mode in initial and in service professional education for the students of the Faculty of Education of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Because of its flexibility of time, strategies, and learning styles, it makes it possible to respond to the demands of pre-service and in-service development from teachers of different places of the country, and to involve sectors of the population who cannot enroll in face to face education for different reasons. At the same time, it allows students to develop autonomy in learning, to learn at their own pace without suffering from group pressure, to reinforce abilities that let them distinguish relevant information, to identify and use sources of information, to contrast information with reality, to construct knowledge and apply it adequately. In sum, to give the students the tools that let them continue their permanent study with responsibility, within a learning culture that tends to reach human development.
The article describes the process of implementation of distance education in the academic offer of the Faculty of Education, acquainting the reader with the latest development of this way of studying in the last twenty years.