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Distance Education

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Title: 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

6
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

7
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
8
Distance Education and You
  • Universities have started to require web sites
    for courses
  • Businesses are asking for just-in-time
    education via DE

9
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

10
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

11
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.

14
DE Requires Resources
  • Multimedia
  • Print
  • Audio cassettes, streamed, interactive
  • Video tapes, TV, satellite, web
  • Local Components
  • Labs, instructors, groups
  • Proctored exams
  • Mailed materials

15
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

16
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

18
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
19
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

20
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

21
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/

22
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)

23
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

24
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

25
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

26
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)

27
Turnkey ASPs
  • Extension of Courseware software
  • Instant online Campus
  • e.g., Blackboard, Eduprise, VCampus,
    eWebUniversity,eCollege,etc.
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