A student of the role of distance education in the creation of social capital and to present an appropriate model for its development in higher education

This study was aimed to identify the role of distance education in the creation of social capital and to present an appropriate model forits promotionin the higher education of Iran, The method of study is quantitative and descriptive correlation. The study's statistical population includes all faculty members of pay am-e-noor University in the academic year 90-91 sampling method is multistage cluster with proportional distribution. Sample size was considered based on table Kerjsy-Morgan, taking the error &=%5 and with 280subjects as samples, that 249 questioners were used to collect data. The first questioners for testing of distance education components and the second one for measurement of social capital are compiled. The content validity of questioners was confirmed by experts. Constancy ofquestioner regarding the distance education component was calculated using Cronbach, salpha% 87. And for social capital questioner was calculated %95.Inaddition to descriptivestatistics, inferential statistical of the mean difference test, analysis of one-way variance, Pierson correlation, multiple regression, path analysis and structural equation were used. The results showed that social capital of faculty members of distance education is far from satisfactory situation and distance education system is not functioning properly and interactive, communicative space in the formation of social capital can be more explanatory compared with other variables.