Abstract:
The expansion of higher educational opportunities and recommendations along with the deliberations
at the higher levels of policy planning for the country have led to the introduction of several innovative practices
in education. One of the innovations is “distance education”. Conventional face-to-face education is teaching or
teacher centered, while distance education is learning or learner centered. In a leaner centered context, leaner
support plays an indispensable role. The teaching and learning component of the support service has been the
focus of the current research interest. Present study centered on the teaching leaning and the practical components
of the courses offered by the Faculty of Engineering technology of the Open University of Sri Lanka. The
objectives of the study were to identify the personal characteristics of the distance learners, to evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of the teaching and learning and the practical components of the courses. A piloted and
validated questionnaire was administered to a sample of 300 students from Degree Programmes of 2015/2016
Academic year selected at random. The student support services provided to the students of the faculty of
Engineering, considered (16, 64%) support services were very strong. Another 5 that is (25%) support services
were considered as strong. The rest of the services (04; 16%) were poor and need immediate attention. The results
of this study will be useful for the course developers and policy makers when developing courses and
implementing policy decisions. However, to capture the whole picture of the issue required and objective
approaches with different faces of the open distance learning institutions.
