Field Research on Distance Education in Rural Areas in Asia

远程教育是世界上最有前途的高等教育方式之一。尽管如此，关于远程高等教育功能的研究成果却很少。因此，自以来，国立多媒体教育研究所(NIME)通过对机构学生和毕业生的访谈，对亚太地区的远程高等教育机构进行了一系列比较研究。1992年，我们在马来西亚和韩国进行了这项研究。在马来西亚，我们采访了马来西亚理工学院远程教育系7个地区学习中心的学生和毕业生，得到了一些关于马来西亚大学学生背景和毕业生就业分配的文件，以便与9月远程教育机构的学生进行比较。在韩国，我们于8、9月对8个地区学习中心的学生进行了访谈和问卷调查。1993年，我们在中国进行了调查。11月，我们走访了中国，采访了6个城市12所高校的约180名学生和毕业生。通过对12所高校中6所广播电视大学和6所重点综合性大学与远程高等教育的比较研究，我们考察了远程高等教育机构的职能和运作，发现在亚太地区，高等教育机构在国家发展和个人社会流动方面发挥了重要作用。

Distance learning is one of the most promising methods to provide higher education with people in the world. In spite of this, there are few findings of the function of distance higher education. Therefore since 1989, the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) has been conducted a series of comparative studies on distance higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific regions by interviewing students and graduates of institutions.In 1992, we conducted the research in Malaysia and in Korea. In Malaysia, we interviewed students and graduates in 7 regional study centers of a department of distance education in the Malaysia Institute of Technology and we get some documents about the students' background and graduates' job allocation in the University of Malaysia in order to compare with those of distance education institutions in September.In Korea, We made interviews and sent out questionnaires to students of 8 regional study centers in August and September.In 1993, we conducted the research in China. In November, we visited China and interviewed about 180 students and graduates of 12 higher education institutions in 6 cities. In 12 institutions, 6 are radio and TV universities and other 6 are major comprehensive universities in order to compare with the distance higher education.By these researches, we examined functions and operations of distance higher education institutions, and found that higher education institutions had played an important roll of both nation development and personal social mobility in Asia and the Pacific regions.