Moore and Kearsley's contributions to distance education theory

Moore & Kearsley

Research and Studies of Effectiveness (a Summary)

Brief Summary of Reading

The purpose of this reading is to comment on the status of research into distance education and the technologies utilized. The authors present questions that have been answered as well as some that need to be answered. Numerous examples of research studies are presented throughout the chapter.

Effectiveness has been the main target of most research into distance education. Eleven examples of the main areas of effectiveness research are bulleted such as "How effective is teaching at a distance in terms of learner achievement and learner satisfaction?

Within these general areas of research lie more specific researchable questions, and the author presents a list of eleven of the 150 that Dirr (2003) created. (Moore and Kearsley)

The General Situation Regarding Research

Eighty-five per cent of journal articles are descriptive reports or case studies, and many of these suggest a lack of knowledge of theory. Many questions are redundant.

Effective research involves asking the previously unanswered questions and gathering data that can be generalized beyond a specific case.

The two types of technology-effectiveness research -- descriptive case studies and comparative achievement studies -- are relatively ineffective. A case study focuses on one researcher's results with a particular group. The comparative studies compare teaching using one technology vs. another. It achieves better results but the randomization technique of assigning students to a group is rarely used.

Summarizing many of the research studies, using these techniques, into metastudies provides a compendium of what has been learned. Six metastudies are listed. There is little point in gathering data to see if distance learning is as effective as classroom. Many studies already show that as a fact.

Beyond "No Significant Difference"

Most of the metastudies show that the environment in which learning occurs and the technology of communication between teacher and learner are not predictors of achievement. The differences within groups are more important than the differences between groups. For instance, what kind of learners within a group learn best in one environment or from one technology or teaching strategy. A list of 9 studies follows.

Effective course design involves questions such as how academic content can be most effectively structured and presented for study by the distant learner. The authors list eleven research questions that can be asked about design techniques, and list seven course design studies.

There are two approaches to designing courses -- the course team model and author-editor model. There are many unanswered questions about the effectiveness of these models, in particular, the course team. There is one example of a study that compared the two approaches, but there has been very little research done in this area.

Five studies are presented regarding what technology to use. Experience has shown that the "best" technology varies from student to student and that a mix of media is best. A useful line of research is into how different media reinforce each other. Many studies exist over thirty years that students can build on for proposing new research.

Six questions are listed regarding how to be an effective distance teacher, and eight examples of studies of teaching strategies in distance eduction delivered online.

Cost Effectiveness

Primary questions involve strategies to produce the best results at the lowest cost.

Table 10.1 summarizes the variables that determine the effectiveness of distance education which require further research. (Moore and Kearsley)

As part of cost effectiveness studies, calculating the savings due to lower travel or hiring fewer teachers has never worked because of the political sensitivity of addressing hiring practices, and travel expenses are passed on to students anyway. (Moore and Kearsley) Three examples of cost-effectiveness studies are presented.

The standard assumption is that it is rarely possible to provide programs that are high quality and cost effective unless done on a large scale due to the up-front costs of setting up production facilities, web production, broadcasting and recording, etc. These front fixed costs are higher than those of the conventional university. Two studies are listed that examine, for the most part, the costs of faculty time.