Distance Education

A Personal Definition of Distance Education


Mention the term “Distance Education” and my mind begins to process information and experiences that have evolved with newly acquired knowledge. My previous definitions included one online resource for classroom discussions, turning in coursework, and looking up related literature. Producing a link to any other site was new to me one year ago. Today, I copy and paste URLs onto MS word documents, blogsites, online classrooms, and emails. Today, I relearned to apply a skill I learned less than a year ago and, namely, to post mind maps onto a blog site. Technical know-how seems to define the limits and possibilities for my online learning opportunities as I continue forward along this path to becoming a skilled Instructional Designer.

My definition of distance education prior to beginning this course (EDUC-6135-2 Distance Learning) was never really well defined. In retrospect, I had not considered the components used in today’s definitions, or at least those components expressed in the references for this writing. But, if I had to define distance education prior to beginning this course, I would define it as “Teaching and learning via online resources using a structured course plan”. As you can tell, I overlooked or took for granted, the institutional, administrative, and supportive components that are needed for conducting online education. Four components, however, are reported as necessary for defining modern day distance education. First, the program must be institutionally based. The second component is separation of the teacher and student, both geographically and in time (asynchronous). The third and fourth components are interactive telecommunications and the sharing of data, voice and video learning experiences (Simonson et al, 2009, page 32). It appears to me that our present course provides all four components and thus qualifies as distance education. As an aspiring Instructional Designer, I feel very fortunate to be challenged with learning to use current and future online resources for developing training modules. Distance education has evolved over the past 160 years , growing from a postal service dependent method to one that is hi-tech dependent, especially with internet resources without which a distance learning program would be impossible, in my opinion (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). The definition for “Distance Education” seems to have evolved with the technological advances in space age electronics and telecommunications.

E-learning or online courses present even more challenges to the Instructional Design (ID) profession. Moller, Foshet, and Huett mention that “The challenge for the ID profession is not only to evolve the field, but also to assure that the products of sound professional design practice lead the e-learning enterprise”(2008). I interpret this to mean that the fundamental principles of effective instructional design are essential to the instructional design process, no matter what new or future technological innovations or delivery systems are used. M. David Merrill (2009) makes a similar argument. He mentions that online technologies for instruction must provide an effective learning experience, efficiently, and by engaging the learner with application of newly acquired skills. He coins the phrase “shovel ware” in reference to the shoveling of information onto the internet and passing it off as instruction (Merrill, 2009).

Merrill’s warning on “shovel ware” seems applicable to what may be seen with “corporate e-learning implementations” where “effectiveness is either naively assumed or not particularly valued” (Moller et al, 2008, page 70). This attitude on the part of corporate management could have “five potentially profound impacts” on the ID profession. These include quality, needs assessment, return on investment measurements of outcomes, knowledge management, instructional design system methodologies, and the revision of learning models (Moller et al, 2008, page 71). These opportunities exist today within the post-secondary adult education industry in El Paso, Texas, where instructors are recruited more on the basis of professional experience in a respective field than on the ability to provide instruction. Developing online instruction for such topics as learning theories, events of instruction, and student assessment models could have a positive impact on effectiveness of adult training programs in this region.

Moller, Foshet, & Huett (2008 ) suggest that the ID profession may not be recruited for developing e-learning initiatives by private schools. They mention the "case"method where a private school might require faculty to develop online courses using “what has worked in the classroom environment”. I agree with them that this method will not provide the quality learning experiences that distance education should deliver. I’ve been an instructor teaching adult level courses in post-secondary schools the last 14 years. Utilizing online resources is not a common practice within the industry. My observation is that utilization of online resources is the exception, with most instructors resistant to the idea. My goal is to establish a well structured and effective online in-service training program for vocational school instructors. My first attempt at this was during my employment with a local school whose instructors I had helped train with course content delivery. I employed a Wiki (pbworks) and started with a discussion on leadership as the first of a planned list of topics leading to classroom management. The resistance was what surprised me the most. Holding asynchronous in-service sessions did not go over too well. I didn't take the time to present convincing rationale for promoting participation. One reason for the resistance that I encountered is that the training was being conducted "off the clock",without pay. This may very well be one of the main reasons why seasoned instructors will resist changing to an online setting.

References:

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Merrill, M., D. (2009) Video, Merrill on instructional design. http://leelearning.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/merrill-on-instructional-design/

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson. Chapter 2, "Definitions, History, and Theories of Distance Education" (pp. 31–40