TEACHING SKILLS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATORS

The expansion of educational development has tremendously taken place in the last few decades. The number of schools, colleges, and universities has risen with the addition of privately owned schools and colleges. Traditional educational organizations are concentrating on modern methods of imparting education. Eventually, the traditional mode of imparting education has transformed into a distance mode of education. The teaching skills required for the traditional mode of teaching–learning practices have now been replaced by newer teaching skills. In the traditional mode of the teaching–learning process the teaching skills are called ‘Micro – teaching Skills'. These are put into practice as the student – teacher masters over the content related to education. The teaching skills are crucial as they give an idea of how a human being learns. These skills do not reveal the expertise of teaching a particular subject or domain but give a general idea of how to teach the candidates effectively. Hence they are common to all areas where training is imparted. To cater to the demands of education from the ever growing population the traditional mode of imparting education is not enough. Hence Distance Education mode came into existence. Such a mode of education is student centric as it caters to the needs of the students on priority basis. Distance Education evolved to serve those who cannot attend regular college hours at fixed place and a time. They are mostly working adults with an aspiration to acquire higher education. They cannot educate themselves as conventional students at a conventional campus. Distance Education becomes comfortable to the courses imparted through the traditional mode. In the traditional mode Micro – teaching skills start with set induction skill, to explanation skill, questioning skill, preparation of audio – visual aids skill and class control skills. These skills are to be revised for the distance educators.