Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The process of education used to focus on childhood and youth, but today that point of view is abandoned. Today, the concept of life-long learning shapes education policies all over the world. Considering this, contributions of the systems of open and distance education, which have been developed rapidly in parallel with information and communication technologies, to support the mission of life-long learning is discussed here. The purpose of this study is to reveal the rate at which Anadolu University Open and Distance Education System contributes to life-long learning. As the indicators of that contribution, the people that are registered to secondary university, either with disabilities or as arrestees or detainees were analyzed. Anadolu University Open and Distance Education System is the first institution in Turkey that offers higher education through contemporary distance education model. How does Anadolu University open and distance learning system affect life-long learning process? Finding include: 1) It reaches the vast majority by providing affordable and accessible higher education; 2) It reaches the vast majority by enabling graduated students to have second higher education programs without university entrance exams; 3) It enables people with disabilities to have higher education; 4) It provides higher education to vast majority with different age groups. The results are in line with the hypothesis of Anadolu University Open and Distance Education System contributing to life-long learning targets.