Leadership : The Field Of Distance Education

The first value suggested by James and Barry is to model the way (Jlucarelli, 2011). The leader should know what he wants to do and how he should do it. Modeling the way is all about finding one's own voice and acting upon it. The leader needs to lead from front hence he should be very clear. He should be an example for his team or organization. A leader cannot ask his people to do something he won't do himself. Hence, becoming a model is the key. People believe in a message only if they believe the one delivering the message and the messenger can develop his trust only by acting on principles and developing his credibility (Jlucarelli, 2011). The leader should come up with

Adam Savage once said “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody 's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you 're here. And when you don 't, well, you suffer the consequences.” Now, what if we replaced “adulthood” with the term “higher education”, or more specifically, “distance education”? The words become almost synonymous when you define what it takes to succeed in either field. In the article, College Distance Education Courses: Evaluating Benefits and Costs from Institutional, Faculty and Students’ Perspectives written by Simon A. Lei and Rajeev K. Gupta, distance education is defined as “technology-based instruction in which students are at a location physically separated from their instructor during the entire course of study” (Lei and Gupta 616). In Lei and Gupta’s article, there are many drawbacks of distance education defined, but distance education remains an amazing opportunity because the benefits and the platform to develop useful life skills far outweigh said drawbacks.

“Can You Be Educated from a Distance,” an insightful essay by James Barszcz, brings to focus some of the benefits and disadvantages of Distance Learning education (DL). In it, Barszcz discusses the mechanics of DL courses available to students, the quality of education DL can offer, and some reasoning behind its rapidly growing popularity. “Can You Be Educated from a Distance” is an engaging article that students of all ages can benefit from.

Although the terms “management” and “leadership” are often confused as in meaning the same there is a distinction between the words. The distinction between the words is that people manage things and lead people (Collins, 2017).

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

One way to establish the difference between management and leadership is the fact that leadership is simply one of the many things that a manager should have. In fact, this should be one of the priorities of a manager. But aside from this, a manager also needs to be highly knowledgeable in administrative tasks, because this also comprises a huge part of their job. Specifically, a manager has four major functions to do: Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. All these functions have been proven to be essential in any kind of management process, and serve as the main foundation of all organizations (Bateman & Snell, 2009).

Distance learning (education) has become an integral part of the education process over the past few decades and is growing in popularity as technology advances.(Willis 1992) describes distance education (as) "the organizational framework andprocess of providing instruction at a distance. Distance education takes place when ateacher and student(s) are physically separated, and technology…(is) used to bridge theinstruction gap." (Coutts 1996). Furthermore, "distance learning activities are designedto fit the specific context for learning, the nature of the subject matter; intended learningoutcomes, needs and goals of the learner, the learner's environment and the instructional echnologies and methods." (American

Over the past two decades, leadership within the field of distance education has transformed distance education from being the “stepchild” of higher education to the forefront, particularly online learning, making it one of the most coveted mode of teaching and learning in the field of higher education today. Kotter (2012) pointed out that leadership is the ability to create or make suitable changes when necessary and sets the stage for the future. This is the kind of leadership that is needed for distance education to take the lead in education and stay abreast with the ever-changing new and innovative technology; the vehicle that has made e-learning so popular and competitive today. This two-part paper focuses on five attributes or approaches that best embody effective leadership in the field of distance education as well as three challenges distance education leaders face today.

Leadership is about inspiring the confidence and support of people needed to achieve organisational goals, a dynamic relationship between leaders and group members and the facilitation of contribution (DuBrin 2016, p. 3: McShane and Von Glinow 2013, p.351). Kotter (1992, p. 102) draws a distinction between management and leadership, saying the former deals with getting things done while the latter decides what to do and why, but in practice they overlap and complement each other.

Distance education is evolving rapidly in the targeted countries in the past years. The governments of these countries pay special attention to the higher education and the possibilities for distance learning in order to satisfy the increasing demand of highly trained individuals.

The concepts of leadership and management are often viewed in different ways with different theories and schools of thought regarding the meaning of these terms (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010). Management and leadership can be defined individually and encompass different roles and attributes, however, both management and

The relation between leadership and management has for a longtime influenced how organizations are perceived. It has also contributed to maintain some type of confusion in education and within the organization itself.

With the continuing rise in technology, distance education has become increasingly popular as schools are offering more online classes every year. The growth of distance education has gone beyond online classes and expanded to the birth of online universities and degree programs.

Distance education provides many benefits for the students, faculty, and universities who utilize them. For students, it provides more flexibility for their schedules, the ability to work at one’s own pace, and improves their familiarity with job-friendly technology. It also allows them to receive an education while simultaneously being employed in a full-time job elsewhere—whether that be maintaining a career or caring for a family. Distance education also keeps teaching staff at peak performance level, necessitating that each professor be familiar with the technology and anticipate confusion while preparing their lessons. For universities, online schooling provides a cost-effective means of maximizing their resources. It also opens the

To most people in the 21st century, distance education means online education, the use of the Internet to create a computer-based learning connection between instructor and student (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, 2006). In today’s increasingly technological world, nearly 70% of top academic leaders agree that online learning is part of the academic world’s future, and as of 2013, nearly 1/3 of higher education students were enrolled in an online course (Kentnor, 2015). Although distance education’s rapid evolution began alongside the growth of technology in the late 1990s, the history of distance learning goes back much farther than modern technology.