A Delphi Investigation into the Future of Distance Education

The purpose of this study is to investigate the views and opinions of distance education experts regarding the replacement of traditional education with distance education settings and the advantages that the application of social and mobile technologies can bring to distance education methods. The Delphi technique was chosen as a method of study. This technique is an efficient and effective group communication process designed to systematically elicit judgments from experts in their selected area of expertise. The 35 experts that participated in the study were asked to rate 16 statements according to what they think will probably happen (probability) and what they would like to see happen (desirability). Findings show that the majority of experts foresee that the use of new technologies will change current educational theories and methodologies, and will have impact on instructor's skills, efforts, feedback and interaction as well as on the process of learning assessment. However, concerning the future of distance learning, participants view a future tendency towards the provision of full online degrees, yet, they are skeptical; stating that distance education setting will not completely replace the traditional educational setting. In addition, findings reveal that experts view the role of social and mobile technologies as facilitators in sharing information in distance education settings, creating an atmosphere of cooperation and easy interaction among users. They assume that the assimilation of social and mobile technologies will influence distance education methods and pedagogies.