Barriers to Effective Communication in Distance Education

The aim of the study was to investigate barriers to effective communication in distance education at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) - Tanga Regional Centre. Sixty nine respondents participated in the study through questionnaires, focused group discussions and semi- structured interviews. Data for the study were collected around the following focused themes: Communication barriers caused by OUT students, barriers caused by the OUT as an operating institution and barriers caused by English language as the medium of instruction. Tanga Regional Centre and Korogwe Teachers’ College (KTC) which are OUT Examination centres were the areas of study. Meaning condensation technique was used to analyze the qualitative data which were obtained. Incompetence in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and English Language were among the main barriers to effective communication in provision and delivery of distance education at the OUT -Tanga Regional Centre. Furthermore, The OUT administration has not installed reliable internet services at Tanga Regional Centre and it had not digitized all her study materials.