According to UNESCO statistics, 10 million of the world's 600 million students study at a distance. Theoretical Principles of Distance Education seeks to lay solid foundations for the education of these students and for the structures within which they study. As a more industrialised form of education provision, distance education is well adapted to the use of new communication technologies, and brings to education many of the strengths and dangers of post-industrialism. The central focus of the study of distance education is the placing of the student at home or at work and the justification of the abandonment in this form of education of interpersonal, face-to-face communication, previously considered to be a cultural imperative for education in both east and west. This book explores the problems that distance education poses to the theorist, bringing together an international team of distance educators to address these issues for the first time in a systematic way. The team comprises theoreticians, administrators, experts in educational technology and adult education, experts in learning from video machines, from computers and other forms of technology. Contributions from Italy, and Scandinavia contrast with viewpoints provided by scholars from the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK.

"Introduction"; "Quality and Access in Distance Education: Theoretical Considerations"

"Theory of Transactional Distance"

"Distance Education in a Postindustrial Society

"The Evolution of Theory in Distance Education"

"Towards a Broader Conceptualization of Distance Education"

"What's Behind the Development of a Course on the Concept of Distance Education?"

 "Reintegration of the Teaching Acts"

"Matching Teaching Methods to Educational Aims in Distance Education"

"Structural Analysis of Distance Education"

"The Education of Adults and Distance Education in Late Modernity"

"Understanding Distance Education"

"Distance Education: What Is It and Can It Have an Educational Future?"

"Theory and Practice in the Use of Technology in Distance Education"

"A Theory of Distance Education for the Cyberspace Era"

"Distance Training"

Desmond Keegan is an Irish academic. He attended the University College Dublin where he pursued a BA in Classical European Civilization and his MA in Medieval European Civilization. Keegan laid the foundations differentiating Distance Education from regular study. In 1979 he initiated the international journal Distance Education, which is now in its 36th year of publication. This was the first publication of its kind to focus on Distance Education as a new area of scholarship. Keegan proposed some of the fundamental issues that are still outstanding. Some of the issues include The Role of Time Synchronous Technology, Access Equity and Social Impact of Distance Education, Didactics or Skills Required by Learners and Teachers in using Electronic Technology and The Market and Willingness of Students to Partake in Electronic Classrooms.

Cite:Keegan, D. (2005). Theoretical principles of distance education. Routledge.