Week 8 - A Reflection of Distance Learning

It is hard to believe that another course is coming to a close, just a few more to go, and my master’s program will be complete. As this course draws to a conclusion, I have been asked to reflect on the future of distance learning. As with any advances in society, there are skeptics, people who may not believe change is necessary or that change can bring about improvements. They plead their case, and often they have valid arguments, yet change is inevitable if we humans want to continue to grow. I believe distance learning is an important advancement for our society and that it will not only survive the voice of the skeptics, but it will thrive.

Dr. George Siemens pointed out in the video The Future of Distance Learning, there is a growing acceptance of distance learning. People are seeing that with all of the advances in online communication, for example the ability to talk “live” via video conferencing on the web, distance becomes a relative term. These technologies will continue to advance. More and more people will become comfortable with these tools, and will continue to find ways to take advantage of these advanced technologies. Distance learning is just one way to use these communication technologies to benefit the advancement of self.

I think that as people begin to explore the advantages of distance learning, for example the sheer convenience of learning in one’s own home, and for the most part on their own schedule, more people will gravitate to this form of learning. The skeptics will voice their concerns; the education is not as good, not everyone can learn effectively this way, how do we know that it is the registered learner who is doing the work, etc. Albeit these concerns are valid, they will not stop the growth of distance learning. Much research has been done to explore the effectiveness of distance learning, and the research literature shows that distance education works (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). As Simonson, et al., (2009) states “the keys to successful distance education are in the design, development, and delivery of instruction” (pg. 9).

Educational professionals and instructional designers are instrumental to the growth of distance education. The technological advances will continue, people will continue to become more comfortable using the advanced technologies, and the benefits of distance learning will become more appealing. It will be paramount that the educational experiences of the distance learner are equivalent to the experiences of the traditional learner. Instructional designers and educational professionals must continue to design and facilitate extraordinary learning experiences. These experiences must be designed with all of the best practices for design and delivery utilized. There must be a foundation of integrity and professionalism at the foundation of each educational program.

References
 

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Week 7 - Facilitating Distance Learning

Assignment

Consider the following scenario: A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment. In addition, he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.


Based on what you have learned thus far in this course, formulate a best practices guide for this trainer to follow when converting his program to a distance learning format. Include ideas and tips that could assist the trainer in facilitating communication and learning among his students.

Here is the guide I created - Guide.pdf

Week 5 - The Impact of Open Source

ASSIGNMENT
Select a course from a free Open Course site and write a 1- to 2-page analysis that includes the following:

• Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment? How so?
• Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook?
• Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?

The course I selected was one from Open Yale Courses, entitled “The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845 – 1877”, located at the following web address: http://oyc.yale.edu/history/civil-war-and-reconstruction.

To begin with, I am thrilled with the idea of open courses. I had no idea such a thing was available and I am excited with the possibility that over time I could “take” some of these courses and expand my knowledge on subjects like civil war history, which back in my undergrad days, I had no interest in learning. Open courses like the one I reviewed definitely have a place in a vast array of learning opportunities, specifically self-directed learning, however when it comes to good instructional design for distance learning, the course I reviewed is definitely lacking . Having said that however, one must keep in mind the intention behind making these courses available. Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of courses taught by Yale professors. As stated on their website, Open Yale Courses created a project to “expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn”. It is their intention that the “lectures and other course materials on this site will be a resource for critical thinking, creative imagination, and intellectual exploration”. Given these are courses taught at Yale, being made available to the public for free as self-directed learning, many of the distinctions of a well designed distance learning course are missing.

First let me clarify a working definition for distance education directly from our course text, Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2009), “distance education is an institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors” (p. 7). The course I reviewed does not fall into this definition of distance education because there is no interaction with an instructor or other learners. Education, learning is definitely possible, but the course itself does not appear to be designed inside the parameters of this definition. The course is a face-to-face course that was placed onto the web to give others access to learning about the civil war. For its purpose, a self-directed course on the Civil War, I think it is fabulous. A course syllabus is included so one has direction regarding what will be covered. The course is divided into 27 class sections with videos and transcripts of the lectures, required texts and assigned readings are listed, and films about the war can be viewed. Again, a great self-directed course.

Considering some of the best practices in course design for distance education as outlined in our text, many of these practices are missing in this course. Some of the factors that Simonson, et al. (2009), believe to be important include: student-instructor interaction and student-student interaction perhaps through discussion groups, a variety of teaching and learning strategies and methods that are activity based, opportunities to assess progress through papers, quizzes or exams, and the use of multimedia (print, audio and video). Given this course was designed as a face-to-face course which was then placed on the web, no interaction amongst other learners or instructors is available. Consequently a great way to learn, collaboration with others, is not possible. I do not believe multiple learning strategies were considered. For the most part the course is straight lecture, with incorporated reading assignments. Completing the reading assignments for this course could be quite daunting and expensive given 13 texts and two anthologies of documents are utilized. Although in its origination, papers and a final exam were used to assess progress, this course is self-directed, the learner would have to come up with his/her own way of assessing progress. And finally, multimedia was incorporated into this course, however its primary function was video of the instructor delivering his lectures.

As I stated above, I enjoyed reviewing this course and will likely in the future take the time to go through the different lessons, but it is not a well designed distance learning course. If this course were to be taught inside the definition of a distance education course, it would have to be redesigned, or learners would likely drop out of the course. I do believe it would be quite possible to deliver this course as either a hybrid (face-to-face and online) course or a strictly asynchronous online course, but to be effective an instructional designer would have to redesign it using sound instruction design methodology.

References
Open Yale Courses(2010) retrieved October 6, 2020 from http://oyc.yale.edu/

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.