Mid-Term Assignment

LT 741

Distance Learning Systems and Design

Dakota State University

Dr. Dan O. Coldeway

Al Bierschbach

February 17, 2002

At the heart of the debate over whether distance education is a discipline or not depends upon the definition of discipline. If Holmberg’s (1989) definition of, "a clearly defined area of academic study that has caused both research and university teaching." If a person based their argument on that definition, then distance education would be a discipline. I believe that basing the argument on that definition is flawed; therefore I do not believe that distance education is a discipline in itself.

When I looked up the definition in the Merriam-Webster Online Collegiate Dictionary, I did not find Holmberg’s definition present. I agree with Dr. Coldeway (1989) in his point that, "You can teach, be taught, and study a range of topics and areas that are not academic disciplines." In the discipline of Geography, a person can study various topics including Physical Geography and Human Geography. Each topic is clearly different from the other and each is studied and researched on the university level, but both topics reside under the discipline of Geography. Neither topic is itself a discipline. Distance Education is simply a field which lies under another discipline. Devlin (1989) writes, "Distance Education is a derivative field of adult education which itself is not a discipline."

Formal distance education has been around for over a century. Distance education has gone through different phases over its history. Initially there were correspondence courses, then came the Open Universities with the total systems approach, and now we have distance education using computer networks and multimedia.

Picciano (2001) implied in his book that distance learning might have a history as far back as biblical times, when messengers were sent to spread Christianity and explain religious dogma. Formal distance education courses were correspondence courses that were developed as formal education increased and postal systems were developed. In 1840, Isaac Pitman developed shorthand instruction using a letter delivery system that guaranteed delivery of a letter for a penny. According to Moore and Kearsley (1996) language correspondence courses were taught by Charles Toussaint from France and Gustav Langenscheidt from Germany in 1856. In the United States, early correspondence courses were developed in the late 1800’s and offered courses in shorthand and mine safety. Correspondence courses used print media as its primary instructional medium.

Early in the 20^th century, radio was used for distance delivery of classes. It failed do to little interest by faculty and administration, as well as the pressure exhibited by commercial broadcasters. Educational television did not fail like its radio counterpart. It first appeared in the 1930’s and educational programs have been delivered to students of all ages ever since. Teleconferencing and two-way video conferencing were by-products of the emergence of satellite communication in the 1960’s.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, educators began experimenting with new media and new instructional techniques. The University of Wisconsin’s AIM Project was the first to take a systems approach to distance education. The functions of the teacher could be divided among specialists, and delivered through various media. The project planned to use various broadcast media for presentations and interaction was available through the means correspondence and telephone. Even thought the AIM approach to distance education was very good, its structure had flaws, which doomed the project for failure. Three flaws of AIM included: Failure to control the faculty, which resulted in a failure to control the curriculum; failure to control its funds; and failure to have control of credits and degrees for its students.

The AIM project did give people in Great Britain an idea. In 1969 the British government set up a university system with no resident students called the British Open University (BOU). The BOU was a total systems approach to education. BOU has 13 regional and 250 local learning centers in Great Britain, and allows anyone access to pursue a higher education. The Open University approach has spread to many countries in the world, but has not appeared in the United States.

In the 1990’s, the Internet and other computer networks became the new major development in distance education. According to Picciano (2001), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided funds to develop asynchronous learning networks to higher education institutions throughout the United States. These networks provide students opportunities to take courses from various locations and at times which are convenient for the learner.

According to Moore and Kearsley (1996) five approaches to distance education that have been used include:

1) Correspondence Courses (including Home Study and Independent Study Courses)

2) Telecourses

3) Open Universities

4) Satellite Television Networks

5) Computer Networks

Correspondence courses fall into two areas, home study courses and independent study courses. Most home study courses are offered by small commercial schools, which are accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council. These schools offer courses at the vocational level that train beauticians, truck drivers, travel agents, and people from many other occupations. Almost all home study courses use print media distributed by mail, in which a student completes the course materials, takes an exam, and then receives a grade in the mail. There is little to no student-to-instructor contact or student-to-student contact. Home study courses meet the needs of the learner by being very flexible as far as time is concerned. These courses are attractive to students who do not have the time or money to take these courses in a traditional educational setting. Most of these courses can be started at any time during the year, and done in the student’s leisure time. These courses are also attractive for students who do not like very much contact with instructors or with other students.

Independent study courses are correspondence courses that are offered by traditional colleges and universities. These courses are similar to home study courses and primarily use print media, but are likely to use more audiotapes and videotapes, TV broadcasts, and computer programs than home study courses. They are also different in that there is a higher level of student interaction with the instructors. These courses allow college students to get around scheduling problems with their universities, and give another option to those students who would rather not be in a traditional setting. Independent study courses are also offered for high school courses, and students can earn a high school diploma through these means. Students who are involved in these high school courses may not be able to learn well in a traditional setting, or may live in a very remote location, or may take these courses for various other reasons.

Telecourses are courses in which the primary means of communication is recorded video. These involve videotapes of traditional classes that are mailed out to students, or courses that are professionally produced using an instructional design model. Scheduling for such courses can tend to be inflexible, but students may be able to take the same course from various places in the country.

Open universities provide a total systems approach to distance education. The course materials are developed by at team of experts, and tutoring is provided by other specialists. Open universities provide the opportunity for anyone to have access to a higher education by removing various constraints such as: open enrollment regardless of previous education, courses may begin at any time, students may learn at home instead of traveling to a university. In addition to print media, open universities also use audio, visual and computer media to support the learning needs of its students. Open universities meet the needs of the students by very flexible scheduling and by providing tutors and learning groups provide needed interaction for the students. This also meets the needs of the institution because those responsible for developing the course material are not tied up too much with dealing with students on a daily basis.

Satellite television networks use satellite communication technology to broadcast courses to various places around the country at one time. This type of distance education is popular is the private sector for training employees, product announcements and sales meetings. Besides the private sector, satellite television networks are also used by the Department of Defense, universities, colleges, technical institutes, and even at the K-12 level. Satellite television networks can be cost effective by offering the same course at various sites in specialized programs such as foreign languages, math or science. Depending on the unique setup of each situation, this type of distance education can meet the needs of the student by providing a high degree of interaction with the instructor. A problem with this technology for distance education is that scheduling is very inflexible.

Computer networks are the latest approach to distance education. Bulletin boards and electronic mail can help students and teachers interact with each other asynchronously, alleviating scheduling problems for both parties. Online chats allow teachers and students to share ideas with each other synchronously, providing even more interaction than other forms of distance education. With synchronous communication, scheduling can create problems with some students. This type of distance education is used at all levels of education.

According to Moore and Kearsley (1996), "A distance education system should include the components of content (knowledge sources), design, communications (delivery), interaction, learner environment, and management." The knowledge sources component includes what the organization and faculty feel need to be taught by looking at theory, history, and philosophy, as well as taking the students needs into account. The design component involves designing a course using an instructional designer, content experts, media experts, and evaluation experts. The delivery component involves using media to get the point across. The media could include: print, audio recordings, video recordings, radio, TV, computer software and networks, audio and video conferencing. The interaction component involves the interaction of the students with the instructors, tutors, administrators, and other students. The learning environment component deals with where a student will learn, which could be at a workplace, in a classroom, or at home. The management component involves assessing the needs of the learners and whether the learners are getting a quality education.

Each component can be developed and operated separately to a certain degree, but the development and operation of all of the components must be controlled so that they support one another. Thus the quality of the outcome is greater than if each component was developed independently. In a quality system, courses are planned taking into account how they are going to affect other courses, technology is used in harmony with the courses, the instructor discusses with the students what is conveyed in the course materials, and learner support personnel have access to specialists who can deal with issues that arise in the course. Unlike traditional educational settings, the instructional designer is a different person than the instructor, who is responsible for teaching the designed content.

Due to the shortage of math teachers in the state of South Dakota, Madison High School will become a distance education center for high school math courses in South Dakota. The two senior math faculty members serve as the content experts. They have the years of expertise and are current with contemporary practice and literature. They will work with a professional instructional designer to help decide on the course objectives, student exercises and activities, layout of print materials, content of audio and video media, and questions for the student sessions. A graphic designer and a media specialist will be brought in to help turn the result of the meetings of the instructional designers and content experts into high-quality course materials and programs. These materials would include print media, interactive CD-ROM study guides, videos, and other materials for synchronous sessions. These programs will be designed with use of the Dakota Digital Network (DDN) in mind, due to the fact that all of the schools involved are included in the DDN and already have all of the equipment. Thus the students must attend synchronous class sessions at a DDN site.

A math teacher in Madison, who is not one of the content experts, will serve as the instructor and disseminate the content to the students from the Madison DDN site. Regional tutors will be available at the other sites to assist the students in learning the content. These tutors will be responsible for 4 sites each, providing small group interaction and other services necessary for the students to be successful in the distance environment. There will also be a site monitor at each site to assist with discipline issues and to ensure academic integrity during assessment activities during the synchronous sessions over the DDN.

The superintendent of Madison Central School District will serve as the lead administrator for the project. He will be responsible for finances, personnel, and ensuring that the various sites are managed to provide a quality education. A distance-learning evaluation expert will be brought in to evaluate the program and the courses to ensure a quality education is being provided to the students.

References

Coldeway, D.O. (1989). Distance Education as a Discipline. [Online]. Available:  http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol4.1/10g_dialogue_5-coldeway.html, February 17, 2002.

Devlin, L.E. (1989). Distance Education as a Discipline: A Response to Holmberg.  [Online]. Available: http://cade.athabascau.ca//vol4.1/10d_dialogue_2-devlin.html, February 17, 2002.

Holmberg, B. (1989). Terminology and Epistemology: A Comment on Delvin’s Analysis of Distance Education as a Discipline. [Online]. Available: http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol4.1/10e_dialogue_3-holmberg.html, February 17, 2002.

Moore, M.G. and Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance Education: A Systems View. Belmont, LA:  Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Picciano, A.G. (2001). Distance Learning: Making Connections Across Virtual Space and Time. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.