Reflecting on the Future of Distance Education

Perceptions of Instructional Design

Distance education is a field that is constantly changing.  With new technologies that are created, people are given new opportunities for distance education as well as experiences that are enhanced by the evolving technology.  As a result, I do not think that distance learning is something that is going to go away.  Instead, over the next 5 to 10 years, I think that distance education will continue to gain momentum and acceptance in both the academic and corporate worlds.  Since 1990, distance education has gone from the edge of practice in the field to a mainstream way of educational practice (Saba, 2005).  George Siemens points out that one reason for the growing acceptance of distance education is that more and more people are having experiences communicating online.  He goes on to say that distance education will be impacted by:

·         New communication technologies

·         Contribution by experts around the world

·         Increased use of multimedia games and simulations (Siemens, 2012).

With today’s generation growing up alongside distance education, they will eventually be in positions for decision making and be comfortable with and accepting of distance education courses. 

10 to 20 years from now, I think that distance education will become common place and accepted.  As a result, as new technologies continue to be developed over time and people that are separated by time and/or space are better connected, the term distance may be dropped.  I do not think that traditional classroom courses will completely disappear, but technological aspects will be incorporated and as a result, the instructors in all types of courses will take on more of a facilitator role. It is important to remember that distance education is not for everyone and some people may learn better in a more traditional format which is why I do not think that distance education will completely take over. 

Improvement of Perceptions

As an instructional designer, an individual has a responsibility for improving societal perceptions of distance learning.  The way that people perceive distance education is greatly dependent upon the way that the course is designed.  There are a variety of good instructional practice principles that give structure for involving students in quality learning experiences.  These include:

·         Communicating with students

·         Collaboration among students

·         Active learning experiences

·         Prompt feedback

·         High expectations

·         Respecting diversity (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012)

If these things are taken into consideration during the instructional design of a course, I think that it will naturally help societal perceptions of distance education.  In general, perceptions that individuals form about things throughout life are often formed by the previous experiences that the individual has had. By taking the time to carefully preplan a distance education program, an instructional designer can help ensure that experiences are successful and as a result, learners will see the value of distance education programs.

Needs for Continuous Improvement

To be a positive force in regards to continuous improvement in the field of distance education, it is important to stay up to date with the changes in technology that take place.  As new technologies are developed, alternative and possibly better learning experiences could be created compared to what an instructional designer may have already developed.  As a result, it is important to monitor and adjust learning experiences.  As a result, as I am created lesson in my current job as a classroom teacher I will try to keep up to date with new technologies as they develop as well as make sure that I follow the guidelines and recommendations for effective instructional design.  When designing experience it is important to make sure that experiences are embedded to make the learner comfortable.  If the learner is comfortable with the learning environment, they are more apt to take to it (Siemens, 2012).

 

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2012). The Future of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Dr. George Siemens.

Saba, F. (2005).  The Future of Distance Education: Research, Conceptual Development and Practice.  Retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/03_29.pdf

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Transitioning to a Blended Course

In recent years, education has been turning away from a teacher-centered approach to more of a student-centered approach.  One method by which this has been done is a blended learning format.  With blended learning, online and face to face learning are combined and between 30% and 79% of the learning is delivered online.  A blended learning format requires active participation of the students through discussion, and discovery (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  It is important to remember that when designing a distance learning course, one that was once completely taught in a traditional classroom might not be able to be used in its entire original form online (Simonson et al., 2012). As a result, care needs to be taken with preplanning along with consideration for the instructional design that goes into creating the blended course.  The attached user guide contains suggestions and considerations that should be taken into account when creating a blended course as well as how the role of the trainer changes from a traditional classroom course.

 

Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

User Guide for Distance Learning

Open Course Analysis

Introduction to Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science is an open course through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  The web address of the course is http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-124-introduction-to-teaching-and-learning-mathematics-and-science-fall-2004/index.htm.  According to the course description, this course is meant to provide an introduction to teaching and learning in the K-12 environment (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012).  Throughout the various learning activities of the course, students examine the opportunities and challenges associated with teaching.

            There are a variety of factors to look at when planning and designing for distance education which are explored in Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education.  Graham, Cagiltay, Lim, Craner, and Duffy (2001) suggested seven lessons for online instruction.  These lessons appear to be guidelines to use when preparing online instruction.  One of these lessons is that instructors should provide clear guidelines for interacting with students (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). The syllabus is what provides the students with guidelines for the course.  In fact, the syllabus is the most important course document that an instructor can create.  In the syllabus, there needs to be enough information so that the students can understand the course structure, expectations and assignments, as well as how they will be assessed (Simonson et al., 2012).  In the syllabus for this course, the instructor does provide a course overview and rationale and overview along with a brief explanation of the course learning activities that the students will be completing throughout the course.  This shows that there has been preplanning because the instructor is able to communicate this information to the students before the course even begins so that students know what to expect.  The syllabus for this course, however, does not explain how assignments will be assessed.

            There are other factors discussed in the course textbook that demonstrate careful planning and design as well.  This includes:

·         Clearly established learning needs that are built around specific outcome statements.

·         Variety in the teaching and learning strategies that are activity based.

·         Materials address the life experiences of the learners.

·         Participation is encouraged (Simonson et al., 2012). 

 

This open course follows a lot of these ideas to some degree.  For example, in the syllabus, it is clearly acknowledged that this is one of several courses that are for students who do not necessarily major in education but at times add on the course to their program (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012).  Another thing mentioned is that most of the students have had little difficulty with math and science and have demonstrated that on assessments.  While the learning needs are clearly delineated, the outcomes are more difficult to distinguish because they are embedded in other information.  For example, in the syllabus it says, “As a result these courses are designed to provide students with maximum exposure to different teaching and learning styles, and provide them with encouragement and support as they pursue their interests in teaching. The course emphasizes the benefits of a constructivist approach, and the merits of hands-on, project-based, collaborative work. All too many traditional education courses lecture to the students about the virtues of such hands-on constructivist approaches. Instead this course in turn takes a hands-on constructivist approach so that students may experience these methods while they learn about them. This approach sometimes confuses students who are not used to such methods. The second semester explicitly addresses these issues, and students consistently demonstrate understanding of this material in their own practice teaching” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012)  In terms of the outcome, out of all of this text I was able to pull that students may experience methods as they learn about them.  When I have seen outcome statements before, they have been clearly separated so that they can be distinguished.  In addition, the learning is active because the students will be applying the knowledge they obtain through a variety of activities.

While the course does follow recommendations for online instruction that were discussed in the textbook, it seems as though they could have been followed to a deeper degree.  For example, although the course syllabus provides an overview of the course to the students, it does not provide a way for students to contact the instructor which would help to deepen the instructor-student interaction component that was discussed.  In addition, as already mentioned, it was difficult to extract the learning outcomes from the material that was presented in the syllabus.  As a result, this could make it more difficult for students to really understand what they should be able to do by the time that they finish the course.  It is made clear, however, who the target audience is for this course, which is important.  The audience for this course is those individuals interested in becoming teachers. 

Through the activities in this course, the learners are actively involved.  Pulleys and Gears is one assignment where students contrast paper and pencil mastery of content versus hands on mastery.  Flastplants is another activity throughout the course where students examine issues in experimental design and the scientific method.  The Prisoner’s Dilemma project allows students to explore technologies that have become widely used in the classroom and those that have not in addition how best to use technologies in the classroom.  Other activities include teaching mini-lessons, conducting analysis, and observations.  With this course, it is important to note that approximately 10% of class time is spent on lecture materials and the rest of the course time is dedicated to class or group discussions, hands on activities, and student-led exercises (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012).

In conclusion, the Introduction to Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science course contains a lot of the factors and qualities that demonstrates a great deal of preplanning and design has taken place.  As noted throughout this review, however, explanations could have been taken to a higher level with the course and assessment information could have been added so that students know in advance how they would be evaluated.  Overall, I think this would be a course were individuals still getting their feet wet in education could learn a lot.

 

Reference:

Massachusetts Institute of Tecnhology. (2012).  Syllabus.  Retrieved from

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-124-introduction-to-teaching-and-learning-mathematics-and-science-fall-2004/syllabus/

 

 

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and Learning at a

Distance: Foundations of Distance Education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Virtual Tours and Technology Tools

With the current state of many school budgets, costs for field trips have often been reduced, calling on teachers to find other ways of bringing experiences into the classroom.  One way of doing this is through interactive tours.  In scenario 2, a high school history teacher located on the west coast wants to show her students some new exhibits at museums in New York City.  The teacher wants the students to take a “tour” and interact with the museum’s curators.  After the “tour,” the teacher would like the students to choose artwork from each exhibit and participate in a group critique of the artwork.   There are a variety of technology tools that could be used to help make this distant learning experience as success.

To interact with the museum curators in an asynchronous environment, podcasting is one technology that could be used.  Podcasting allows for audio and/or video material to be recorded and stored on the internet so that it can be played back using iPods, MP3 players, computers, as well as other electronics that allow for the playback of audio and/or video (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  There are various benefits to using podcasts.  Using multiple forms of media in a podcast helps to enhance the learning that takes place.  Research has shown that using both audio and visual content helps learning increase significantly.  In addition, the research also shows that online students who use podcasts have shown more effective learning as well as greater satisfaction, autonomy, and motivation compared to students that do not use podcasts (The Technology of Distance Education).  This could be used because students could listen to thoughts and comments regarding the artwork in the different collections by the museum curators as the students look at the different collections.  In addition, the content could be paused or replayed as needed to help student understanding.  One example of podcasts being used in art museums is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery.  American Art staff produces podcasts that feature the voices of artists, curators, museum staff, lecturers, as well as students (Smithsonian Art Museum).  If a synchronous environment is available, videoconferencing is another technology tool that could be used.  With videoconferencing, audio and video is used so that the students and presenter can interact in real-time.  As the curator shows students different pieces of art, students would be encouraged to ask and answer questions as well as share their opinions and ideas (Smithsonian Art Museum). The Smithsonian Art Museum offers a variety of videoconferencing programs like this, showing that it can be successful. 

To help with the discussion component, a threaded online discussion forum could be used.  With a threaded discussion, the teacher posts questions that are related to the content being studied.  Students then posts comments and thoughts that they have relating to the question in a discussion area that is provided (Simonson et al., 2012).  The class should be broken down into smaller groups for discussion in this manner, however, rather than a whole class discussion forum.  Bentley and Waters (2006) established various guidelines for successful threaded discussions.  This included creating subgroups of 10-15 students for the discussion (Simonson et al., 2012).  This means of discussion is also beneficial because students can post as they think of ideas rather than trying to remember something until another day to be able to share with the class.

As I was looking around the internet, I found one example of a virtual tour that shows the actual inside of the museum and you can maneuver through the museum with clicks of the mouse and audio is also included.  This particular virtual tour is from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and can be viewed at http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/.  Also, the Smithsonian Art Museum which has virtual tours and videoconferencing programs that were discussed can be viewed at http://americanart.si.edu/visit/about/.

 

Resources

 Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

 Smithsonian Art Museum. (ND).  Retrieved from http://americanart.si.edu/visit/about/

The Technology of Distance Education. (ND). Laureate Education, Inc.

Distance Learning...An AHA Moment!

Distance learning is an interesting topic.  I had my first encounter with distance learning in 2007 when I enrolled in my first online graduate program.  I was offered a full time job working for a non-profit organization as soon as I received my Bachelor’s degree but knew that in order to become a teacher like I wanted to, I needed to pursue a master’s degree and with working full time, going and sitting in a college classroom again would not work for me.  This made me look into online master’s degree programs.  As a result, I defined distance learning for myself as a learning experience that was caused by the physical separation of the learner and instructor.  As a result, distance learning for me was completely virtual and self-centered.  I initially thought that by using distance learning, I would be doing course readings and completing assignments that would then be evaluated by the instructor since the instructor and myself were separated geographically.  I had never thought about interacting with the instructor and other students in the class through discussion forums or group projects.

As I have been taking classes through distance learning and learning more about what distance learning really is. I have had to reshape my definition.  I have not needed to throw out my initial definition, but rather after experiencing distance learning over time and learning more about it, I need to add to my personal definition.  In the reading for week one of this class, distance learning was defined as “institutional-based, formal education where the learner group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).

Some key components that I had to include in my definition that were originally omitted include the fact that distance learning must be institutionally-based.  It is not an independent study but rather an academic learning environment.  As such, the learning is conducted through an institution (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  This could include colleges and universities, or even companies in the business world.  The other important aspect that I left out was the fact that interactive telecommunications are what connect the learning group and the instructor (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  This communication can be either synchronous or asynchronous.  Distance learning has more to it than just reading course materials and submitting assignments for evaluation.  It is important for learners to interact with each other which could include group projects, discussion boards etc. in addition to interacting with the resources and instructor.  One thing to keep in mind is that the interactions need to be relevant (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  I was involved in a hybrid distance learning experience before where this was not the case and as a result, the experience did not seem to reach its potential.  During the web based component, we would learn one thing and then when the group met face to face, something different was discussed, creating disconnect between the two course components.

Distance learning has evolved a lot over the years and with the changes in technology that continue to take place rapidly, distance learning will continue to change.  With new technology that continues to be developed, such as smartphones and I-Pads, distance learning courses can be more accessible than before because people can always have the course at their fingertips.  The evolution that is taking place with distance education and the technologies that goes along with it is an important piece in how to engage learners since they first started to be gathered in school buildings.  If a commitment is going to be made to provide education in this type of format, restructuring is needed which will require distance education instructional designers to collaborate with teachers and the school system (Huett, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman, 2008).  This statement can be applied to higher education and the corporate world as well.  The learning experiences need to be engaging and relevant just like they would be if they were going to be delivered in a face to face situation. 

In closing, through my experiences with distance learning and the things that I have learned, I have had to add to my definition of distance learning to fully encompass everything that distance learning has shown to me over the years.  No longer do I view distance learning as something that I am in by myself.  Instead, through the use of different forms of technology, I have the ability to interact with a variety of resources and individuals through the learning community of each class to increase my knowledge on subject matter that is presented.

Resources:

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), 63–6 7.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Welcome

Hi! My name is Earl Kenyon and I would like to welcome you to my distance learning blog. This blog has been created for the course Distance Learning through Walden Universtity where I am a student in the Master's Degree program for Instructional Design and Technology. This blog will be added to throughout the course in response to various reflective prompts regarding distance learning.  Happy reading!