Distance Education

1
Distance Education

• The best classroom is a log with the instructor
  at one end and the student at the other

- Socrates
2
Distance Education Overview

• Background whats old and new
• Whats it to you?
• Roles
• The Instructor
• The Learner
• The Technology
• The Good, Bad, and Ugly of DE

3
Distance Education

• The acquisition of knowledge and skills through
  mediated information and instruction (USDLA )

Information Technology !

• Education taking place when student and teacher
  are separated by a physical distance
• Separation of the Teacher and Learner
• Separation of the Learner and the Learning Group

4
DE History Not a Web Innovation

• At least 160 years old
• University of London (in 1840) offered External
  Degree Programs
• Correspondence Courses used world-wide
• Ana Ticknor created a Boston-based society (1873)
  for women to encourage studies at home
• China has similar program today with 1,000,000
  enrolled
• DE emerged with Technology
• Telecommunication, transportation, computer
  technologies

5
Nippers 3 Generations of DE

• Traditional Correspondence Model
• Print-Based Instruction
• Production and distribution of learning material
• No student/student or student/teacher
  interaction
• Industrialized Multimedia DE
• Integrated Print Modern Media
• Production and distribution of learning material
• Little or no student/student or student/teacher
  interaction
• TV programs printed material, Radio broadcast,
  Audio/Video cassettes and postal system
• Interactive Multimedia DE
• Two-way Communication
• Emphasis on communication and learning as a
  social process
• Video conferencing, Internet-based technologies
• Synchronous (e.g., chat, discussions)
  asynchronous (e.g., email) communication

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Communication System
Information has little or no value unless it is
communicated

• Components of a Communication System
• Source - produces the raw information
• Transmitter or Encoder - transforms or encodes
  the information into a suitable form
• Message or Signal - the transformed information
• Channel - mode by which the message is
  transmitted
• Receiver or Decoder - translate or decodes the
  message back to its original form
• Destination - the intended recipient of the
  information

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Distance Education and You

• Corporations are using the online model to train
  technical professionals while private and public
  universities have redefined the world as their
  market

http//illinois.online.uillinois.edu/IONresources/
onlineLearning/StudentProfile.asp
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Distance Education and You

• Universities have started to require web sites
  for courses
• Businesses are asking for just-in-time
  education via DE

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Role of Technology

• Allows the separation of instructor and learner
• Can be a cognitive tool
• enhances powers of thinking, problem-solving,
  learning
• Written language, mathematical notation,
  scientific method
• Redefines Interactive Learning

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Role of Instructor

• Course Design
• Standard Design Issues
• Course Scope, Topics
• Learning objectives
• Reference materials (Multimedia)
• Activities
• Readings, Exercises, Trips, Interviews
• Balance instructional goals against technological
  feasibility

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Role of Instructor

• Course Construction
• Web design issues...
• Interactivity requires programming or software
• Retraining
• Collaboration
• TIME and MONEY!
• Hybrid Delivery
• Include F2F if possible

12
Profile of the Distant Learner

• Open-minded about sharing (life, work,
  educational) experiences as part of the learning
  process
• Has access to computer hardware/software
• Be able to communicate through writing
• Distracted (job, family, hobbies) generally
  older (but this is changing)
• Self-motivated and self-disciplined (responsible)
• DE is normally accelerated and requires
  commitment
• Continuing education, Corporate motivation
• Accepts critical thinking and decision making as
  part of the learning process
• Has high expectations

13
Self-Evaluation

• Your score is 11
• Online learning may not be for you. The benefits
  of studying online could be outweighed by the
  difficulties you encounter. Some of the benefits
  are the ability to access your course materials
  at your convenience (at any time, from any
  place), to attend lectures multiple times if
  necessary, to have time to think and reflect
  before participating in class discussions, and
  many more. However, some of the difficulties you
  may encounter are that you must be extremely
  self-disciplined, somewhat technologically savvy,
  and communicate through writing without ever
  meeting your instructor or peers face to face.

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DE Requires Resources

• Multimedia
• Print
• Audio cassettes, streamed, interactive
• Video tapes, TV, satellite, web
• Local Components
• Labs, instructors, groups
• Proctored exams
• Mailed materials

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Interactive Technologies

• Email, Chat
• Threaded discussion
• Interactive Video Satellite, ATM, Internet-II
• Tools, Simulations, Virtual Reality
• The Virtual Frog Dissection
• 3D Insects!
• BugScope - SEM via the Web

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Virtual Classrooms

• E.g., Symposium, HorizonLive
• Whiteboard, Interactive Audio, Application
  Sharing

17
Self-Assessment Testing

• Self-Assessment can be an Interface to
  Information
• Feedback, Directed help
• best tool any professor has ever given to me
• Testing, Beware!
• Cannot control cheating
• Proctoring essential
• Multiple Choice Magnet

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Problems with Distance Education.
Technology was introduced in classrooms by
enthusiastic advocates, such as administrators
and researchers, but teachers failed to
effectively use technology because of the lack of
equipment, time, and training.
- Hara and Kling, First Monday, December 1999
http//firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_12/hara/index
.html
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Problems with DE

• Universities not merely educational "content
  providers, but institutions of learning,
  research, teaching, and professional
  development
• Loss of F2F nonverbal communication
• Hampered (?) discussions
• Technology doesnt work
• Servicing remote students
• Instructors dont respond to email
• Keeping electronic resources up to date

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Issues Good, Bad, Ugly

• VTs President Steger
• VT is at the cutting edge of a new way to educate
  -- there will be winners losers
• Dr. Mack appointed Associate Dean for Information
  Technology (1 Jan. 2004).
• Want to Reach new Clientele
• Hard-to-reach students
• Adult learners (life-long learning
• Corporate trainees

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The Good...

• Link students from diverse backgrounds
• Augment Instructional Repertoire
• Online handouts spend less time on class
  administration
• Chat, discussion, email, new kinds of
  interactivity
• Improved participation
• Lower tuition ??? (e.g., Red Deer College)
• The No Significant Difference Phenomenon
• no significant difference in grades or learning
  levels between distance and traditional students
  
• http//distancelearn.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.
  htm?sitehttp//teleeducation.nb.ca/nosignificantd
  ifference/

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The Bad...

• Do More with Less
• Open Universitys per degree granted are about
  half of a conventional University
• Fewer faculty, lower overhead
• Competition for Students (i.e., Tuition)
• Building Mega-Universities
• Cashing in...Diploma Mill (Institutions that sell
  paper diplomas and educational credentials
  through the mail or online without regard for
  actual educational effort or achievement)
• Accreditation (Distance Education Training
  Council or DETC)

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The Ugly...

• Dwindling resources for Education
• But its not cheap, unless you lose faculty
• Commercial Courseware is Coming
• Lehman Brothers DE market potential in the
  hundreds of billions of
• Universities will fight loss of Higher
  Educational Monopoly
• Focus will shift to Certification

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Summary...

• Distance Education is here to stay
• As information technologies improve so would DE
• The world as their (universities and
  corporations) market
• Resistance is futile, so get use to the concept
  of DE
• Pedagogy First, Technology Later
• We dont want technology to get ahead of
  pedagogy

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Follow-up Online Resources

• Annenbergs Top 10 Distance Learning
  Resourceshttp//www.learner.org/edtech/distlearn/
  topten.html
• Distance Ed at a Glancehttp//www.uidaho.edu/evo/
  distglan.html
• Handy references
• Discusses Evaluation

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Terminology

• At a distance
• at different locations
• F2F
• Face-to-face instruction, one place
• Synchronous
• students and teacher(s) interact in real time
  (e.g., TV)
• Asynchronous
• Information made available and accessed at
  different times (e.g., e-mail)

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Turnkey ASPs

• Extension of Courseware software
• Instant online Campus
• e.g., Blackboard, Eduprise, VCampus,
  eWebUniversity,eCollege,etc.