Distance Learning: Evolution, Technologies, and Benefits

Introduction to Distance Learning

Distance learning is a mode of transferring and acquiring education through the use of modern technology between instructors and students who are separated by time and space. It can occur between schools, between schools and colleges or universities, within school buildings and districts, or between individuals (Burke, 2002).

Its earliest prototype was the international correspondence school of the 19th century. In the 1970s, the model reshaped into open universities, and later, in the 1980s, a wave of new technological products emerged—including the videotape, broadcast television, satellite, and cable. In the 1990s, Brey (as cited in Burke) predicted that distance education programs would grow phenomenally that decade, to the extent that most people in the United States would be served by them at a minimal ratio of 1:1, mostly through community colleges. By 1994, 80% of community colleges in the U.S. had begun offering some form of distance education program, and that figure continued to rise through the rest of the decade.

Today, distance education refers to the use of audio, video, and computer videoconferencing technologies as media of delivery. It encourages creativity, active participation in the learning process, an awareness of others' experiences, and prepares students for appropriate involvement in the world they are about to enter (Burke). These activities utilize multiple interactive media—such as sound and video—to enhance active listening, focused attention, and the capacity to work independently (Schlosser et al., 1997, as cited in Burke). Distance learning is meant to meet or enrich the educational goals of an institution and those of its students through appropriate policy, procedures, and programming established before a program begins. Instruction is delivered by computers in either synchronous or asynchronous mode. The synchronous mode is used when the instructor and learner participate at the same time. The asynchronous mode uses recorded instructional materials, such as broadcast or cable television, video, audio, and computer software, among others.

As the scope of distance learning broadens, institutions tend to use and develop an increasingly diversified range of recorded and live technologies (Burke). At one university in 1991, the school provided 40 courses to 3,655 students in more than 75 different locations. According to the institution, an interactive TV system was its primary means of broadcasting courses, although computer conferencing, videodiscs, faxes, audio conferencing, and email were also in use.

The current use of technology as a form of instructional delivery requires a radical shift in educational standards to accommodate new technologies and a change of focus from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered environment. Each program must therefore fulfill the distinct educational goals of an institution and the specific needs of the student. This in turn requires the adjustment and establishment of policy, procedures, and specific programming features before the program begins (Burke).

Evolution and Regional Development

To many researchers and practitioners, distance learning and distance education are used interchangeably to refer to a diverse range of programs, providers, audiences, and media used to transmit information and instruction between teacher and learner in separate locations and/or at separate times (Sherry, 1996). The transfer of knowledge is initiated by the learner rather than the instructor, taking the form of non-contiguous communication between them through print and/or another technology.

Evolution

The prototype of distance learning—international correspondence schools—became the accepted mode in Europe when instructional radio and television were popularized in the middle of the twentieth century, although these schools had been introduced even earlier. Television production technology was mostly confined to studios and live broadcasts in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Cambre, 1991, as cited in Sherry). It was in these studios that master teachers held widely broadcast class sessions. However, those teachers were not always suitable or compelling television talents, and the medium of the time was not the most effective method for holding audience attention (Sherry). This drove the television image toward perceived unfitness and a need for enrichment and radical upgrading in order to become relevant to school work.

The reputation of educational television was surprisingly reversed in the late 1970s when professionally formatted television series introduced new subject matter to students—content not previously taught but proving important and complementary to the curriculum. The change was short-lived, however, and electronic media such as radio and television were again sidelined because of the absence of a two-way communication channel between instructor and student. Over time, interactive communications technologies became increasingly sophisticated and accessible, as evolving distance educators continuously experimented with and developed newer tools. The most popular present-day media are computer-based communications—including electronic mail, bulletin board systems (BBSs), and the internet—telephone-based audio conferencing, and videoconferencing with one- or two-way video and two-way audio via broadcast, cable, telephone, fiber optics, satellite, microwave, closed-circuit, or low-power television (Sherry).

Regional Development

Interest in distance learning is now highest in areas where students are most widely distributed. Every region develops its own type of distance education needs according to local characteristics and resources, target users, and the nature of the organizations providing instruction. Public and private institutions offer independent study programs to self-starters and supply them with course materials and printed materials by post, with some form of teleconferencing or electronic network support and tutorial support via telephone or email.

Distance Learning vs. Traditional Education

Learning from a distance occurs by automation—the distribution of digitized course materials through the internet without the direct involvement of those who originally prepared the materials (Professional Career Development Institute). Present-day views hold that this mode is increasingly inevitable and improves access to knowledge across a much wider audience. Traditional classroom educators, on the other hand, continue to be suspicious of this phenomenon, particularly given the reputation and achievements distance learning has gathered in recent years. Classroom educators must also contend with the fact that more and more private businesses have been offering distance learning courses, including associate, graduate, master's, and doctoral degrees—a development that traditionalists view as a threat to the strength of campus-based schooling.

Some traditionalists object to distance learning because of the absence of personal interaction in the learning process. They argue that this lack of support could lead to poor service delivery by online schools and damage their credibility. However, more and more distance learning organizations have been developing their own educational programs to meet varied student needs while improving service delivery. The trend suggests that an increasing proportion of degrees will be earned through distance learning. Working adults and those with families who wish to pursue or advance their education are drawn to distance learning, seeing themselves as both student and consumer of a product that suits their demand for convenience and flexibility (Professional Career Development Institute).

A recent survey compared web-based and classroom-based learning by measuring student opinions and experiences. No significant differences were found in terms of interaction. Distance learners expressed more satisfaction with the responsiveness of the instructor than did classroom learners. Sixty percent said they found online forums beneficial, and 56% of those said the forums helped with their assignments. Almost half (47%) expressed interest in taking another distance learning course, and interaction with web-based course materials was also more frequent than with classroom-based materials (Professional Career Development Institute).

Another survey examined pre-test and post-test scores, age, preferred learning styles, homework grades, research paper grades, final examination scores, and final course grades of distance learners and classroom learners. Significant differences were found in post-test scores, final exam scores, and age, but not in pre-test scores, research paper grades, homework grades, or final course grades. Overall, the finding was that distance education can be just as effective as traditional face-to-face classroom education. Distance education scored higher on final exam scores, post-test scores, and average student age. The conclusion was that neither method is superior to the other, meaning that distance education is not inferior to traditional instruction and can therefore serve as an acceptable alternative.

Theories, Philosophies, and Design Criteria

Theories and Philosophies

Theoretical frameworks affect the manner in which knowledge is communicated in distance education and how students perceive and apply new knowledge. There are two opposing views in instructional design. Symbol processing is more commonly used than the situated cognition alternative. Symbol processing is computer-based and premised on the transmission of a fixed body of information. The teacher presents and translates an abstract idea into a concrete image for the learner through a medium; from there, the student perceives, decodes, and stores the idea. This model was refined with the introduction of two additional factors (Horton, 1994, as cited in Sherry): the student's physical and mental set-ups. The physical set-up consists of the student's environment, situation, and other sensory circumstances. The mental set-up consists of memory, associations, emotions, inferences, reasoning level, curiosity, and interests. From these inputs, the student forms his or her own image and integrates it with previous knowledge and abilities.

The situated cognition view is derived from constructivist principles that guide the learner in constructing an internal representation of knowledge. This view holds that both social and physical interaction combine in defining a problem and forming a solution (Sherry). In applying constructivism to a lesson, the focus must shift from the traditional transmission model to a less rigid, interactive, and evolving one.

Desmond Keegan (Schlosser and Anderson, 1994, as cited in Sherry) advanced a distance learning theory that artificially recreates the teaching–learning interaction and reintegrates it into the instructional process. It simulates the traditional classroom by means of intact live classrooms and a unique two-way audio-visual interaction. A Norwegian model combines mediated distance teaching with local face-to-face instruction (Rekkedal, 1994, as cited in Sherry). The distance educator has also undergone a refinement, evolving from a communicator of a fixed body of information into a facilitator of learning who meets the distance student through the most effective available media.

Recent systems allow a high degree of interaction between instructor and learner even when they are separated by thousands of miles. Students can now hear and see their teacher, and the teacher can respond to student comments and questions in real time. Furthermore, virtual learning communities can be formed in which students and researchers throughout the world participate in a class and communicate at any hour to share information, observations, and knowledge.

Design Criteria

The first design criterion encompasses the full range of customary stages of design, development, evaluation, and revision. These stages address not only the goals and characteristics of both teacher and student, but also specific content requirements, technical requirements, and constraints (Sherry).

The second criterion is interactivity. While students have argued that the accessibility of distance learning is more important than dialogue, Millbank (1994, as cited in Sherry) showed that a combination of audio and video in corporate training resulted in a retention rate among trainees that increased from 20% to 75%. Porter (1994, as cited in Sherry) further demonstrated that the efficiency of independent learning materials was enhanced when combined with interactive communication technology and teacher mediation. According to Porter, interactivity extended to connections between the student and the distance teacher, the local teacher, aides, facilitators, and other students. Garrison (1990, as cited in Sherry) maintained that without connectivity, distance learning would degenerate into its prototype—the international correspondence school—in which the student becomes autonomous and isolated, procrastinates, and eventually drops out. Effective distance learning should achieve the ideal of an authentic learning experience grounded in the connectedness of student and instructor (Sherry).

The third criterion is active learning, in which the student adopts the learning goals as his or her own. This depends on the student's perception of the relevance of both the medium and its message (Saettler, 1990, as cited in Sherry).

The fourth criterion is visual imagery. Instructional television has a particular power to captivate and motivate viewers. However, caution must be taken to ensure that this power does not distort the curriculum by drawing attention away from instruction and toward the entertaining features of the medium. White (1987, as cited in Sherry) stressed that oversimplification and superficiality could result from the presentation of powerful images, and that students should learn to distinguish quality information from junk information, detect sensationalism and persuasion, and understand the ways technology shapes the information it transmits (Sherry).

The fifth criterion is effective communication. The designer should use images that produce a similar idea in the learner within the context of the learning environment and the learner's prior experiences. In dealing with individual differences in receiving a message, the designer must tactfully use organizers to create appropriate context, selecting effective images and appropriate objects with relevant features to transmit the same idea to different learners (Sherry).