Module 1: Next Generation Distance Education

Everywhere we look there is someone learning online, the informal learning spurred on by the quest for knowledge and the prevailing wisdom is to seek answers on the one resource that contains the most answers: The Internet. We trust that the experts have volunteered their professional advice into helping solve our extra-ordinary problems brought on as part of the modern age. But why wait until there are problems in order to get the learning, shouldn't there be a way to harness the natural drive for knowledge in the more traditional sense of teacher and student roles?

Distance education has the potential to be a liberator, an equalizer, and a savior for dysfunctional corporate training schema, burgeoning higher educational offerings, and dying school systems. Currently there are too many flaws in the varied implementations for distance education to be seen as primary and preferred solution to learner-knowledge needs. The ideas of collaborative or connected learning start to take shape as distance learning is able to bring learners together with content and each other, but are learners skilled enough to manage the resources and opportunities available?

Distance education offers numerous possibilities to also customize the learning experience for the user. The traditional didactic model need not be employed in order to provide memorable and meaningful learning for future projects or for the on-demand learner. The question of quality in the instructional design becomes paramount; the needs of the learner must be met and not the product offering goals of the provider. The mandatory distance education contributions suffer on both the facilitator and the recipient and can be rushed or inadequate for the purpose. It is harder to create a personal relationship to the content provider/instructor through distance education due to its very nature of being distant. New models of instruction have to be devised in order to shrink the distance and give the learner a sense of purpose and orientation toward the learning environment. Some advocates of distance education merely try to mimic the in-person classroom or training experience but the constant comparison automatically drives one to spot the weaknesses.

Instead, distance education must be willing to employ other models such as curation or gamification. The designers and content providers need guidelines for the outcomes and a measurable test on the quality. And most importantly, the understanding of the process of remote learning needs a perception makeover in the eyes of the public, consumers, and providers. The next evolution of learning is upon us and distance education should not be seen as a different variety of learning, but more as an instructional method that can be utilized both in the traditional classroom and by removed learners.


References


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

Moller, L., Forshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0158-5

Moller, L., Foshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(4), 66-70. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0179-0