Library: Articles on Distributed Education

A Study Guide for Distance Education: A Systems View - Version:7/3/97
Introduction: This study guide is intended to help you learn more about distance education, either in the context of independent learning or a formal course. It consists of additional information (including links to relevant web sites) and questions for self-evaluation or group discussion.

Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Distance Education

Chapter 2: The Historical Context of Distance Education

Chapter 3: The Scope of Distance Education

Chapter 4: Research on Effectiveness

Chapter 5: Technologies and Media

Chapter 6: Course Design and Development

Chapter 7: Teaching and Tutoring

Chapter 8: The Distance Education Student

Chapter 9: Administration, Management and Policy

Chapter 10: The Theoretical Basis for Distance Education

Chapter 11: International Perspectives

Chapter 12: The Transformation of Education

Resources

Addressing Student Needs: Teaching on the Internet
T. Kubala, University of Central Florida
T.H.E. Journal, March 1998, Volume 25, Number 8

Adult Learning Styles and Preference for Technology Programs
Birkey, Richard C., and Joseph J. Rodman. 1995
National University Research Institute
"What is the Problem? Learning styles and diversity of student population are often not considered in student recruitment, the delivery of instruction, or program assessment. Researchers suggest that the school culture is often alien and frequently in conflict with the home culture. The premise supporting different learning styles suggests that culture plays an important part in determining how students learn. As our student populations become more diversified, it is important to develop and fine tune training and learning strategies that are sensitive to student differences. This is pertinent as advancing technology affects areas of instruction where the real-life model of the magic wand, the microchip and associated software, challenge our learning preferences in new and unique ways. The adult population is especially vulnerable with well-established learning styles and frequent avoidance of careers that require high computer use."

Alternative Futures for Distance Learning: The Force and the Darkside
by Murray Turoff, April 1997
Abstract
There are forces at work that are going to reshape the practice of distance learning and higher education in the United States. Technology only enters as an opportunity to channel these forces in very different directions. The channeling process is really that of administrative and management practices and policies that govern the utilization of educational technology and methods. While there are desirable futures possible it is becoming evident that many current practices and related economic forces can result in a future that is quite analogous to the "darkside" of the force.

Building Asynchronous & Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring A Course/Classroom Management System Solution
W. D. Graziadei, S. Gallagher, R. N. Brown, J. Sasiadek
May 7, 1998 - Last updated

Computer-Based Distance Education in Higher Education Institutions in Indiana
Dissertation Online
Dr. Biznah Nasseh
Ball State University, Indiana
"The dissertation examines several crucial issues related to faculty and student preparation and experiences teaching and learning online."

Connecting Students and Faculty through Technology, Collaboration, and Globalization at Wake Forest University
Ross Griffith
Wake Forest University is close to concluding the implementation of a novel strategic plan ("Plan for the Class of 2000," 1995) that has received considerable national attention. The Chronicle of Higher Education, for example, featured an article on the fact that Wake Forest is providing all faculty and entering freshmen with IBM laptop computers (DeLoughry, 1995)."

Copyright Law Raises Questions for Distance Education
By PAMELA MENDELS
The New York Times on the Web, February 10, 1999
Find out the latest on copyright and distance education. There are lots and lots excellent links on copyright and education.

Creating Effective Instructional Materials for the World Wide Web
AusWeb 97
"The purpose of this paper is to consider design aspects that can help to improve the instructional effectiveness of teaching and learning through the WWW."

Cultural Studies in Cyberspace: Teaching with New Technology
Dr. David Finkelstein and Dr. Linda Dryden
Department of Print Media, Publishing and Communication, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
ABSTRACT
"A search of the World Wide Web reveals more than a million pages dedicated to culture and/or the study of cultural values. It would be reasonable to assume, therefore, that cyberspace would be a particularly fruitful learning arena for students. This essay presents the results of a pilot cultural studies module using the web being undertaken in the Department of Print Media, Publishing and Communication at Napier University, Edinburgh. It outlines the background and rationale for attempting such a module, explains the software (FirstClass) and methods used, and concludes with initial results, impressions and experiences of students and staff using these new teaching methods and techniques to explore changing cultural and cybercultural identities."

Diffusion of the Internet within a Graduate School of Education
Lorraine Sherry
University of Colorado at Denver

Dissertation: Facilitating Knowledge Integration in Science through Electronic Discussion: the Multimedia Forum Kiosk
Hsi, Sherry, 1997
"This research 1) characterizes design features that promote productive discussion and high student participation, 2) follows students' collective and individual progress in the integration of concepts about heat, temperature, and heat energy, and 3) delineates aspects of the social context that contribute to knowledge integration and demonstrates the unique role electronic discussion can play. It offers specific recommendations for the design of productive electronic discussion based on a comparison of three different discussion formats, enriches our understanding of the knowledge integration process through collaborative discourse, and provides implications for the design of future collaborative learning environments."

Distance Education - University of Colorado
This site has a wonderful set of links to articles and other resources on distance education.

Distance Education at a Glance
This 14-part guide details all the various aspects of distance education including such factors as strategies for learning at a distance, print in distance education, distance education and the WWW plus more.

Distance Learning and Telecommunications
Highlights from Syllabus Magazine
June 1998, Volume 11, No. 10

Educational Journeys on the Web frontier: Teaching your students where to go and how to get there
Educom Review, November/December 1998
Ben Shneiderman
"Designing a course is still about choosing destinations and planning how to get there--whether it is French literature or organic chemistry. The professor plans what to do during class meetings and what students must do between them. The traditional strategy was for hour-long lectures to be interleaved with two hours of homework and individual projects. However, many professors are discovering that novel technology-supported strategies are producing higher levels of student engagement and lower drop-out rates.

"Advocates of active learning, inquiry-based strategies, collaborative teamwork and authentic projects make compelling arguments, but integrating these ideas with educational technology is a challenge. This article offers a guiding framework (Relate-Create-Donate) and two specific approaches to integration of the Web into courses (Encyclopedia Of and Open Projects)."
Contributed by Kent Cabreira, ATIE

Evolving a Distributed Learning Community
The Online Classroom in K12
Brad Cox, Ph.D
George Mason University
This chapter appears in Wired Together: The Online Classroom in K-12, Volume 3 (Z. Berge [9] and M. Collins, eds.), © 1997 Hampton Press, Inc., Cresskill, NJ. Reprinted with permission of the Publisher.
ABSTRACT
"Technology can extend traditional teacher/learner relationships beyond the space/time limitations of the brick and mortar classroom. And it can challenge and redefine how teachers and learners have related since antiquity. This chapter describes the evolution of a course in which traditional relationships have been and are being challenged, via internet and television, in pursuit of the elusive potential of a fully distributed global community of empowered learners."

The Future of Online Learning
"Today, and for the last century, education has been practised in segregated buildings by carefully regimented and standardized classes of students led and instructed by teachers working essentially alone. In ten years, this model will be seen in many quarters to be obsolete."

A Futurist's View of the World, Technology, and Education-
Jerome C. Glenn, Executive Director, American Council of United Nations University (video with live interaction via teleconference from Spain) at NUTN© Annual Conference 1998, June 27-30, Boston, Massachusetts
This presentation is delivered by RealMedia(tm) audio and video streaming software.

Highly Interactive Distance Learning
Alfred Bork
University of California
Summary: "This paper proposes a new educational system, based primarily on distance learning at all levels of learning. The major learning medium for all students will be highly interactive multimedia computer based learning material that will allow us to educate everyone in the world to the mastery level. Contact with humans will also be possible. The material will be designed for use anywhere, at any time."

How Many Students Are "Just Right" in a Web Course?
Judith V. Boettcher, CREN
Syllabus Magazine, August 1998, Volume 12, No. 1

The Internet: A Land To Settle Rather Than An Ocean To Surf And A New "Place" For School Reform through Community Development
Margaret Riel
"If it once took the whole village to raise a child, then can we expect a succession of isolated teachers to give students all the skills they need to productive members of society? Schools at present are more likely to exist on the outskirts rather than in the heart of communities. A "school" community is not rich enough to represent the skills and abilities of the "whole" village or villages of today."

Lessons for Developing a Partnership-Based Virtual University
Scott G. Rosevear
It is not a long article, but Rosevear gives 8 concrete suggestions for successful development of the virtual university.
Contributed by Randy Siebold

Learning in Hyperspace
William Winn, Ph.D., May 1997
University of Washington

Learning: The Critical Technology - A whitepaper on adult education in the information age
by WAVE Technologies International, Inc. (University of Arizona)

Leading the Transition from the Traditional Classroom To a Distance Learning Environment
M. A. Nixon, B. R. Leftwich, Western Carolina University
T.H.E. Journal, August 1998,Volume 26, Number

Lessons in Launching Web-based Graduate Courses
S. L. Kroder, J. Suess, D. Sachs
Pace University, White Plains, N.Y.
T.H.E. Journal, May 1998, Volume 25, Number 10

On-Line But Off Course: A Wish List for Distance Educators
Jonathan L. Ross, The University of Calgary
"The use of innovative technologies to deliver distance education programs has made it possible to teach students, certainly more efficiently and potentially more effectively. The World Wide Web continues to gain popularity as an instructional medium for post-secondary institutions. Learners can choose to take courses and, in many instances, entire educational programs from a distance. As the number of individuals wishing to learn on-line gurgeons, it is becoming increasingly important for educators to create on-line learning environments which can accommodate the specific needs of each learner. Distance education programs, while reaching many students who may not otherwise have been able to take school courses, can be more destructive than constructive if improperly designed and delivered."

A Nation Online: How Americans are Expanding Their Use of the Internet
February 2002
NTIA and the Economics and Statistics Administration have published A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use Of The Internet. This report is based on the September 2001 U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey - a survey of approximately 57,000 households and more than 137,000 individuals across the United States. As such, the data in this study are among the most broad-based and reliable datasets that have been gathered on Internet, broadband, and computer connectivity.

New Students--New Learning Styles
Schroeder, Charles C. 1996
"As faculty, we have generally espoused the common belief that students learn and develop through exposure - that the content is all-important. We have been accustomed to a traditional learning process where one who knows (the teacher) presents ideas to one who does not (the student). Many of us prospered under the traditional lecture system, where the focus was on coverage of material through teaching by telling. This approach may work for us but it may no work for the majority of today's students. Students are changing dramatically, and we need to respond to those changes. What happens, for example, when the learning is not on the same "wavelength" as the teacher - when the connections simply aren't there? If we believe that what we are teaching has real value, then we can benefit from understanding the effect of how we are presenting it and to whom."

"Not-So-Distant Competitors: How New Providers Are Remaking the Postsecondary Marketplacw"
Ted Marchese
From the 1998 May AAHE Bulletin
"Quite suddenly, in just two or three years, American higher education has come face-to-face with an explosive array of new competitors. On campus, the surest conversation-stopper today is 'University of Phoenix.' To some academics, Phoenix looks like the first-sighted tip of an iceberg. But it probably won't be the one that sinks whole ships. Bigger bergs are forming. Charting them is difficult. To find these "new providers," we sought them out on the Web. Here's what we found."

Online Instruction: Ed Meyen talks about the benefits of online instruction. - New!
Melissa Burgos
SCR*TEC
"I think it's a great way to look at what we're all about in teaching and that is: 'what you teach.' Unfortunately, many people get hung up on, 'how you teach.' You can teach bad content and be very effective at it. You can be entertaining, you can use all of the principles and you teach them all of the wrong things. This way you can really examine the content and that creates a level playing field. That's not to suggest that online instruction will replace traditional instruction, but I think there's a real place for it and for many people it will become the instruction of choice, not for all that they learn, but for a substantial portion of what they learn. --Dr. Ed Meyen"

Online Education: New Paradigms for Learning and Teaching
Greg Kearsley , Draft: 5/16/98, Virtual Education Foundation

Ownership of Electronic Course Materials in Higher Education
Dan L. Burk
This article appeared in CAUSE/EFFECT Volume 20, Number 3, Fall 1997, pp. 13-18. Permission to copy or republish requires written permission from the author. For further information, contact Dan Burk at 201-642-8829 or burkdanl@lanmail.shu.edu.

"The introduction of sophisticated information technology to higher education is now forcing faculty and administrators to reexamine the traditional allocations of ownership interests in course materials. This article has been prepared to alert educators and administrators in higher educational institutions to the issues surrounding ownership of electronic course materials. In particular, this article focuses on the allocation of copyright ownership in electronic course materials between faculty and their sponsoring institutions. The article reviews relevant copyright basics, the work-made-for-hire doctrine, and options for contractual allocations of copyrights. The discussion includes a series of criteria that should be considered in formulating an institution's intellectual property policy."

The Pedagogy of Web Site Design
Dr. E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University
"This paper concerns the design and pedagogy of a virtual course on European history. It is not a how-to guide, for there are plenty of those. Nor is it a study of various on-line history courses, for there are too few of those. Rather, it is a report from the trenches, a consideration of how static Web pages contribute to the creation of a successful online course."

Preparing for Virtual Commerce in Higher Learning
Donald M. Norris and Mark A. Olson
CAUSE/EFFECT Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 1997, pp. 40-44
"Virtual commerce in higher learning involves the online development and management of, participation in, and payment for learning activities by postsecondary learners. Virtual commerce in higher learning will figure to be an important component of the 21st-century learning environment. Today, most colleges and universities are not yet developing the core competencies and pilot projects necessary to engage in virtual commerce. We believe the time is ripe for such initiatives. Waiting for tomorrow may be too late."

Relate-Create-Donate: A teaching/learning philosophy for the cyber-generation
Ben Shneiderman ben@cs.umd.edu, Professor, Department of Computer Science
University of Maryland
Draft November 23, 1997
To appear: Computers & Education

Role of Reflection in the Renewal of Teaching
by Norma Henderson
"A significant part of renewal is being a reflective practitioner of one's teaching. Reflection may focus on a particular course, a set of courses, specific content areas of a discipline, or on teaching as a piece of who one is. Reflection can be a time of rest and a time to recoup -- to rethink one's priorities, one's joys and satisfactions, one's dissatisfactions -- to create balance in one's existence, not only assessment of the present but also expectations for the future. The reflective process can affirm our practices, raise questions and pose problems about the disciplines, content, teaching/learning strategies, ethical practices and philosophical issues. The time and energy spent in reflection can lead to discernment which can lead to action -- a self-renewal and public renewal."

Seeing Things As They Really Are
By Robert Lenzner and Stephen S. Johnson
"Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book." Peter Drucker in a Forbes interview.

Statistical Analysis Report:
Distance Education in Higher Education Institutions
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
October 1997

Teaching in Hyperspace
Paul Lefrere, Ph.D., May 1997
The Open University, United Kingdom

The Technology Source
Online & print journal with articles on online learning.
The purpose of The Technology Source (ISSN 1532-0030), a peer-reviewed bimonthly periodical published by the Michigan Virtual University, is to provide thoughtful, illuminating articles that will assist educators as they face the challenge of integrating information technology tools into teaching and into managing educational organizations.

Technology Counts 2002
How virtual schools and online instruction are transforming teaching and learning.

Universities Embrace Distance Learning for Busy Professionals
by Pamela Mendels, July 29, 1998
New York Times on the Web

Untangling the Web: Applications of the Internet and Other Information Technologies to Higher Education
David McArthur, Matthew Lewis
October 31, 1997 - A RAND research study
"In just a couple of years, the Internet and World Wide Web have transformed communication, scholarship, and business. But what potential do they hold for changing higher education -- the place where this technology, once called the ARPANET, originated over twenty years ago? Will they help universities reduce costs in the face of often-dramatic budget reductions? Will distance learning (dissemination of educational material and information through electronic and hardcopy media, rather than face to face), digital libraries, and new 'virtual universities' make education available to students cheaply, and at any place or time? Or might the Web threaten higher education more than save it? Will nimble for-profit providers, who now increasingly use the Internet to deliver corporate training, soon turn to the education market and compete with traditional colleges and universities? If so, how might higher-education institutions respond to this challenge? How will they acquire the hardware and software needed to offer high-quality educational services at prices they can afford? And how can faculty quickly adapt to styles of teaching and learning that, for example, emphasize, interactive mentoring instead of traditional lectures?"

Using Technology to Enhance the Effectiveness of Chemistry Courses
Harvey Moody
"Computer applications such as spreadsheets, molecular modeling, and data acquisition are essential tools for teaching chemistry. These educational tools, used wisely, could provide the key to unlock a treasure chest of chemical knowledge for students."

Virtual Classrooms and Communities
by Lisa Neal
In Proceedings of ACM GROUP '97 Conference, November 16-19, 1997, Phoenix, AZ
Abstract: "This paper describes how collaborative technologies, including a corporate intranet, email, videoconferencing, audioconferencing, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), NetMeeting, Virtual Places, WorldsAway, and other Internet-based conferencing tools, can be used to teach classes to geographically-dispersed participants. The paper covers the motivation for virtual classrooms, the selection and use of delivery technologies, deployment strategies and issues, participant feedback, and the Virtual University that evolved from the initial distance learning classes.

"We found that the use of a variety of collaborative technologies accommodated the multiple aspects of communication in the class, providing richer communication than any one technology alone and fostering the sense of community that was important to the success of students in class. The virtual classroom provided an effective and cost-saving alternative to face-to-face instruction, allowing us to reach more students in more locations than we would have without distance learning."

Virtual Classroom Technologies for Distance Education: The Case for On-line Synchronous Delivery
Compiled and edited by Dr. Barry Ellis Past Professor of  Distance Education, University of Calgary, Partner and President, DETAC Corporation (Distance Education Technology And Consulting), Alberta, Canada
LearnLinc is featured as a way to do synchronous instruction.

Virtual University
A group of three papers presented on this topic at the Internet Society 98 Conference in Geneva, Switzerland are posted here.

Welcome to Virtual University: Why is cyberspace sucking the college experience into a black hole? 'It all comes down to money'
By Cornel Bonca

Web-Enhanced Learning Environment Strategies for Classroom Teachers
Barbara Grabowski and Tiffany Koszalka, Pennsylvania State University
Paper presented at the INET 98 Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, 21-24 July 1998
Abstract: "This paper presents a model for conceptualizing the components of the WWW and merges resources with six sound pedagogical classroom practices. Six Web-enhanced learning environment strategies result from this merger. The resources, the pedagogy, and the strategies, along with examples, are explained in detail."

What Happened at California Virtual University
Dr. Stephen Downes
Find out why the bold plans for CVU failed. Surely we need to learn from their mistakes!
Contributed by Arun Tripathi

William Graves - On the Emerging Knowledge Economy
"William Graves is president of COLLEGIS Research Institute, founder of the Institute for Academic Technology, and member of the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors."
Contributed by Kent Cabreira, ATIE