Interface

videoconferencing and; website and the Internet. Very crucial to media choice is the status of the students with regards to technological access. This is one of the reasons why there have been some loud attentions given to the issue of the so-called "digital divide"; the gap between the technological haves and have nots. Even in the USA, Askov et al (2003) find a reason to talk about the fact that;

Students must have access to a computer connected to the Internet at home, in a library, or in a community technology center. They must be minimally competent in operating a computer and accessing information on the Internet.

Although some adult education programmes now use computers in instruction, many use outdated computers that are still not connected to the Internet.

How much more in the developing climes where there is obvious lack of technological access due to abject poverty, poor infrastructural development and high illiteracy? Gunawardena, Lowe, and Carabajal (2000, in Askov et al., 2003) find that the most significant predictors of satisfaction of distance learners (particularly with online courses) are individuals’ computer competency and perception that they were perceived as “real” by other stakeholders in the course--facilitators and students alike. Ensuring student satisfaction is one of the key functions of student support systems. Hence, the discourse of the characteristics of distance learners dive nose into the issue of the provision of students support services.

2.1.4 The Concept and Importance of Students Support Systems in Distance Education

learning into: academic support (individual study plans, validation, guidance, tutoring, active leadership, teachers, study guides); Social support (work mates, study mates, stimulating learning environment, teachers’ guides) and; organisational support (teachers, technology support, study guides, stimulating learning environments, guidance, work mates, study guides).

Perhaps the first step in providing support services to the students is providing proper orientation for the students at the beginning of their distance learning endeavour and continually as necessary until the end of their programmes. Orientation is not just a one-stop programme but a systematic arrangement that permeates every level of distance education programmes. Al-Alawneh's (2013) study concludes that students need to be provided with orientations about quality of online courses so they can choose what fits their needs. Askov et al (2003) notes that students rely on teacher feedback about their work and on support from both the teacher and other students to help them succeed. But arranging this social support is no easy task. There may be some modifying orientation or outright orientation towards making the learners familiar and ready for the peculiar challenges of distance learning. Orientation could be about study skills, strategies for learning at distance, course materials, computer skills, the teacher's assessment of students for interests and abilities and "orientation can also be a time when the teacher can help students set goals for programme participation and clarify course expectations." (Askov et al., 2003, p. 44). They add that an orientation provides a way for teachers to take care of some of the “housekeeping” details, such as students’ contacts.

Orientation programme could take place face-to-face or at distance. Orientation is an effective way of preventing attrition right from the onset of the programme and it boosts the psychological readiness of the learners.

Close to orientation is what could be termed social support. This involves building a personal relationship between the teacher and the student (facilitator-learner) and among the students (learner-learner-learner). It is a very important aspect of learning rooted in the affective domain.

This seems to concern the aspect of the learner as human being who naturally craves for the companionship of others in different forms and levels. It manifests in terms of motivation, encouragement, empathy, informal guidance and counselling. However, it is more difficult to provide social support at a distance than in traditional classroom contact. Askov et al (2003) explain the dilemma of the imperatives of distance education and the necessity of social support thus:

Ironically, some of the difficulties in supporting and motivating students in distance education programmes may stem from the same attributes of distance education that are attractive to students. … Distance education allows them a greater degree of control over the time and place in which they can further their education. However, it does so at a cost. It frequently removes many of the social supports that a classroom teacher and other students provide, while at the same time requiring distance learners to structure their time and work independently. Thus, the teachers needed to develop new ways to motivate and support their online students.

Meanwhile, Beaudoin (1990) rightly argues that the physical proximity in the regular face to face education might not translate to better and higher level of relationship due to the tendency of the students to maintain anonymity whereas in distance learning the student could build closer bond with the institution through the support staff. In any case, student support systems include teacher support which aggregates to the leadership roles the teacher could assume in teaching and learning and it also includes technical support (Askov et al., 2003). However, while teacher support is perceived as a subset of social support, we can see it as being different from technical support because it is not uncommon to see a situation whereby the instructor cannot provide support relating to technology in which case such responsibility is left to non-teaching staff.

Al-Alawneh (2013) observes that students see lack of instructor's feedback and communication as a barrier in distance education. Prompt feedback on students’ work, is very crucial in formal learning. It is a key component of supporting students (Askov et al, 2003). According to Askov and colleagues, teachers can encourage and motivate their students through the following ways:

sending e-cards encouraging students and praising accomplishments; sending individual, rather than group emails to students, to make the messages more personal; e-mailing encouragement to students on a regular basis; sending e-mails that asked questions and prompted students to think about their goals; offering assistance to students in finding information or sites on the internet that could help their studies; telephoning students to have a synchronous conversation and learn more about the student’s goals and concerns; telephoning students who had not been active online for a period of time to encourage them to stay with the programme; providing certificates upon completion of a predetermined unit of work and; offering drop-in times for students who wanted assistance from a teacher in person.

COL International (2001) talks about face-to-face educational support; that is, academic support provided through tutorial support centres. The NTI and NOUN have such distributed classes around the nation. In Nigeria, such platform is usually expected to encourage social support but they often tend to be relegated to mere platforms "used to deliver lectures supplementing the materials rather than being used for meaningful student-educator interaction" (COL International, 2001, p. 24). The problem is in part said to have originated from the expectation and request of the students for such approach and the readiness of the lecturers to be comfortable with running such sessions. Support could come with regards to learning resources; media support, learner support in interacting with materials.

In the unaffordability of face-to-face interaction, electronic communications become inevitable--a viable and desired alternative. To enable the learner make the best of modern distance education characterised by heavy use of new technologies, the learners need to have accessibility to a variety of electronic materials and at the same time supported in examining and discussing these materials with other learners (Askov et al., 2003). Anderson and Simpson (2012, p. 6) warns that "technology by itself can blind us to the needs of students and the need for good pedagogy". Making a choice of devices to use for distance education might at surface

level seem simple and natural but careful examination of different interwoven factors will reveal that it requires effective decision making. Hence, in the final analysis technical support in distance education is to enable the instructional stakeholders to focus on the course content rather than on the challenges of using the technology (Anderson and Simpson, 2012).

In Nigeria, earlier in the 21st century it was found that though there was the general awareness of the need to decentralise learner support systems, they were expensive to maintain and were so functioning at low scale and scope, engaged with only the logistical functions of student registration and distribution of course materials (COL International, 2001). Effective students support systems would rather be comprehensive and holistic. This is one of the ways of decentralising support systems. In addition, building adequate students support systems requires training for the faculty members in the areas of special needs of distance learners and various aspects and strategies for supporting learners. This study adopts Lowe’s (2005) categorisation of support structures as explained in the PARS model. According to the model, there are academic and relational support. Academic support is further divided into institutional and instructional support and relational support consists of emotional and interpersonal support.