The Information Environment of Distance Learners: A Literature Review

Abstract

The distance mode of educational delivery has become a very trendy method of popularizing education and breaking down the “insularity and the elitism of the typical conventional university”. It is widely known that distance learners can be found everywhere and anywhere—in metropolitan, non-metropolitan areas as well as any other environment. It is equally known that the information environment of users should aim to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of a user’s location. Consequent upon the fact that information support services are part of higher education programmes that add to the value and quality of learning regardless of the mode of delivery, the information needs of distance learners deserve to be met, irrespective of where they are located. It is in this respect that this review of literature seeks to examine the information needs of distance learners. It also peeps into the information (seeking) be- haviour culminating in how the information needs of distance learners are met. The other aspect of this review is the channels and, or sources of information through which the information needs of distance (remote) learners are met. Some of the sources or channels considered are the library, modules/study guides, lecturers or tutors, interaction with peers, friends/colleagues and mass-media. The review examines literature both in the western world, as well as what is available in Africa.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 21 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.