Distance Learning: Challenges and Strategies

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Distance Learning Challenges and Strategies

• Compiled by
• Besiki stvilia

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Class Administrivia

• As a class assignment please post your responses
  to the following questions on the Distance
  Education webboard by the Thursday of the week 9
  (March 31st)
• Which of the challenges identified in this week's
  readings is most significant to you as a current
  or future online educator, and, what are some of
  the strategies you currently use or may use in
  the future to meet the challenge?
• Would you like to become a "virtual" professor
  why and why not?

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Class Objectives and Outline

• Class objectives
• To provide an overview of the issues (problems,
  benefits, challenges) surrounding distance
  education over the internet from a teacher's
  perspective.
• To help students to reflect on their own
  perspectives and experiences regarding Internet
  based training and instruction.
• Outline
• What is distance education
• Why it is important
• What are some of the challenges
• What are some of the successful strategies to
  meet the challenges

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Definition of Distance Education

• the process of extending learning, or delivering
  instructional resource-sharing opportunities, to
  locations away from a classroom, building or
  site, to another classroom, building or site by
  using video, audio, computer, multimedia
  communications, or some combination of these with
  other traditional delivery methods
• source Institutional Technology Council (ITC)
  http//144.162.197.250/definition.htm

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NCES Survey
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Changing roles (Hiltz et al)

• From Facilitator to Moderator leading to
  learning
• Cognitive role
• Two way learning process
• Engaging in a deeper level of mental processing
  thinking, reasoning, analyzing
• Persistent communication leads to more reflective
  and high quality responses accuracy becomes very
  important
• Affective Roles
• More nonverbal communication
• More intimacy
• More formal, less humor
• Managerial roles
• More course planning
• More course administration and organization
  leading, controlling
• Searching for a new persona smiley faces are
  not my thing

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Kinds of interactivity

• Between student and instructor
• Among the members of the class as they engage in
  discussions and collaborative work
• Between the learners and the software

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Establish Swift Trust

• Structure clear contributions for each student to
  make
• Help them to cope with technical and task
  uncertainties
• Model and encourage response to each other
  contributions
• Early encouragement of social communications
• Members initial actions as well as their
  responses to one another are critical to trust
  development
• The faculty member must guide this process during
  the students first interactions with the class
  outline

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Design collaborative learning activities

• A seminar where the students become the teachers
• Collaborative exam
• Group projects, debates,

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Generate active participation with software

• Quiz routines
• CMC technologies

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Experiences

• Frustrating experiences
• More time is required
• Typing and technological glitches
• Workload
• Fulfilling experience
• Convenience/Efficiency
• Fun and Challenge
• Communication with students

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Challenges (Schrum et al)

• Access to tools
• Different technology experience
• Give technology training
• Different learning preferences
• Provide information in multiple modalities
• Study habits and skills
• Give more flexibility in assignments require
  participation
• Goals and purposes
• Explicate these goals and motivations
• Lifestyle factors
• Tell students about the expectations up front
• Personal traits and characteristics
• Encourage students to express their concerns to
  be able to work through any difficulties they are
  encountering

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Recommendations (Schrum et al)

• Encourage students to post a short autobiography
• Interact with students on a one-to-one and
  regular basis
• Have students work collaboratively on their
  assignments.
• Establish minimum levels of participation in a
  discussion
• Provide readings that are up to date and
  interesting but at the same time challenging.
• Create some places in an online environment where
  students can ask each other for help and also
  create an open forum where students can ask
  questions directly to a teacher.
• Be flexible in terms of course topics and
  procedures,
• Design an online environment using a
  technologically minimalist approach

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Classroom Learning vs. E-learning
Source Zhang, D., Zhao, J., Zhou, L., Nunamaker,
J. (2004). Can e-learning replace classroom
learning? CACM, 47(5), 75 79.
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Thanks!