The Quality of the Learning Experience: a Comparative Study Between Open Distance and Conventional Education

The text that follows aims at pointing out and analyzing the quality of the process and practice of learning, emanating from the learning experiences of two different groups of postgraduate students studying open and distance education through the "Studies in Education" course of the Faculty of Human Studies of the Hellenic Open University and through the Pedagogic Department of Primary Education of the University of Athens, Greece. As noted by Figueroa (1993), relevant research references have been made in the past in which the point of reference lies more in the quality of the learning experience and in the value of understanding "how" the students learn more effectively, than in to what degree do they accomplish and achieve their objectives (Marton and Salif, 1976a; Thomas and Harri – Augstein, 1985; Thomas and Fransella, 1988). The new forms of education, whether they are following models of distance education using printed material, or education aided by technology and other alternative forms of learning material, are still very young and have not received the recognition they ought to have received. This research has the ambition to cast its own stone to the new building of educational principles emerging.