QA4ODFL1/Structure/Introduction

That structure determines function is a well-known principle in disciplines like Biology. However, this principle has wider applicability, including in business organisations. To meet their educational mandate, traditional face-to-face schools tend to follow standard organizational structures. They have a definite hierarchy and clear boundaries as to which employees or departments are responsible for various tasks involved in school operations, (Reeder, 2022) . All the employees work to support the achievement of the school’s goals. The structure of a traditional face-to-face school, however, is different from that of an open school. This is mainly because although the goals overlap, they are not exactly the same. For example, a face-to-face school may aim at providing education to all learners of school-going age within its catchment area. Often, an open school does not have to confine itself to the school-age population. Its goal may be to provide education and training to both youths and adults who are not accommodated in the formal face-to-face education system. This is because of its openness, which includes open to any age groups. It also serves a distributed group of learners, which requires having a decentralised management structure. An open school gives learners the flexibility of where, when and how to learn. Thus, because of the different goals, the two types of educational organisations are bound to have different structures.

Learning outcomes

After going through this unit, you will be able to:

1. Describe the differences between a face-to-face and a distance open schooling system;
2. Explain why the two schooling systems need to have different structures;
3. Analyse the structure of a distance education institution in your context and make recommendations for improvement; and
4. Suggest how distance education systems could be funded in your context.