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)

• 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 150 years old
• University of London offered External Degree
  Programs in 1840
• Emerged due to Technology
• Communication Transportation
• Correspondence Courses used world-wide
• China has similar program today with 1,000,000
  enrolled

5
Nippers 3 Generations of DE

• Paper-Based Instruction
• Integrated Media
• TV programs printed material
• Radio broadcast
• Videotape and postal system
• Two-way Communication
• Video conferencing
• Internet-based technologies

6
Terminology

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

7
Distance Education and You

• Universities have started to require web sites
  for courses
• York University required on-line materials in
  all courses
• Faculty Struck
• Businesses are askingfor just-in-time
  education via DE

8
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

9
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

10
Role of Instructor

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

11
Profile of the Distant Learner

• Distracted (job, family, hobbies)
• Older
• Responsible
• Motivated
• Self-motivated (continuing ed)
• Corporate motivation
• High Expectations

12
DE Resources

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

13
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

14
Virtual Classrooms

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

15
Turnkey ASPs

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

16
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

17
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
18
Problems with DE

• Technology doesnt work
• Servicing remote students
• Instructors dont respond to email
• Keeping electronic resources up to date
• Loss of F2F nonverbal communication
• Hampered (?) discussions

19
Issues Good, Bad, Ugly

• VTs President Steger VT is at the cutting
  edge of a new way to educate -- there will be
  winners losers
• Want to Reach new Clientele
• Hard-to-reach students
• Adult learners (life-long learning
• Corporate trainees

20
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

21
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...

22
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

23
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