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.