Embarking on a Journey: Discovering Distance Education

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Embarking on a Journey Discovering Distance
Education

• EME 6458Spring 2003

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What does distance mean?

• Geographical?
• Time?
• Intellectual?
• Emotional?

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Distance education is.

• The students sitting beyond the third row in my
  classes.

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Definitions of Distance Education

• Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek
• Moore Kearsley
• U.S. Department of Education
• Rumble
• Keegan
• Garrison Shale
• Edwards

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Simonson Smaldino

• An institutional-based, formal education where
  the learning group is separated, and where
  interactive telecommunications systems are used
  to connect learners, resources, and instructors.
• These 4 components characterize DE.

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Moore Kearsley

• Planned learning that normally occurs in a
  different place from teaching and as a result
  requires special techniques of course design,
  special instructional techniques, special methods
  of communication by electronic and other
  technology, as well as special organizational and
  administrative arrangements.

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U.S. Department of Education

• The application of telecommunications and
  electronic devices which enable students and
  learners to receive instruction that originates
  from some distant location.

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Grenville Rumble

• Offered 4 part definition
• In any distance education process there must be
  a teacher one or more students a course or
  curriculum and a contract, implicit or explicit,
  between the student and the teacher or the
  institution employing the teacher, which
  acknowledges their respective teaching-learning
  roles.

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Rumble (cont.)

• A method of education in which the learner is
  physically separate from the teacher. It may be
  used on its own, or in conjunction with other
  forms of education, including face-to-face.
• In distance education, learners are physically
  separate from the institution that sponsors the
  instruction.

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Rumble (cont).

• The teaching/learning contract requires that the
  student by taught, assessed, given guidance and,
  where appropriate, prepared for examinations that
  may or may not be conducted by the institution.
  This must be accomplished by two-way
  communication. Learning may be undertaken either
  individually or in groups in either case it is
  accomplished in the absence of the physical
  presence of the teacher.

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Desmond Keegan

• Attempted to identify elements of a single,
  unifying definition from 4 definitions
• Identified five main elements of the definitions
  to compose a comprehensive definition of DE

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Keegan

• The quasi-permanent separation of teacher and
  learner throughout the length of the learning
  process
• The influence of an educational organization both
  in the planning and preparation of learning
  materials and in the provision of student support
  services

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Keegan (cont).

• The use of technical media to unite teacher and
  learner and carry the content of the course
• The provision of two-way communication so that
  the student may benefit from or even initiate
  dialogue

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Keegan (cont).

• The quasi-permanent absence of the learning group
  throughout the length of the learning process so
  that people are usually taught as individuals and
  not in groups, with the possibility of occasional
  meetings for both didactic and socialization
  purposes.

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Garrison Shale

• With recent advances in distance education
  delivery technologies, Keegans definition was
  too narrow and did not work with todays
  realities and the future.
• Proposed three criteria essential for
  characterizing distance education

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Garrison Shale

• Implies the majority of educational communication
  between teacher and student occurs
  noncontiguously.
• Must involve two-way communication between
  teacher and student for the purpose of
  facilitating and supporting the educational
  process
• Uses technology to mediate the necessary two-way
  communication.

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Edwards

• Uses the term open learning to describe a new
  way of looking at distance education. Open
  learning places greater emphasis on the current
  specific needs and/or markets. Open learning
  shifts from mass production and mass consumption
  to a focus on local and individual needs and
  requirements.

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Evolution of Distance Education

• Not an American history-- an international story
• Most texts describe three phases (generations) of
  distance education
• Correspondence and Independent Study
• Open Universities/Broadcasting/Teleconferencing
• Networks/Multimedia