The Future of Distance Learning

According to Dr. Siemens (Laureate Education, n.d.), distance education is experiencing growing acceptance in our society. This acceptance of distance learning is related to the growing diffusion and inclusion of the internet and communication technologies for personal use. Americans are becoming accustomed to experiencing satisfactory communication that is other than face to face. Dr. Siemens feels that distance education will increase as the technical capabilities improve and become even more integrated into the daily lives of Americans.

Taking into account our increasing use of internet technologies for communication and our very mobile society, I believe that distance learning will not only grow in acceptance in the next 5-10 years, but that in 10-20 years distance learning will overtake traditional education to become the standard for learning. All over the country, election time brings yearly pleas for more education funding in order to support decreased classroom size, increased staff and maintenance of aging physical plants, I feel that at some point soon society will determine that the traditional classroom model will be unsustainable. Coupled with seamless and integrated technology, distance learning will become the norm. I visualize day care centers where children are engaging in distance learning under the watchful eyes of the daycare staff, or children will engage in learning from their own homes, seamlessly connected with remote instructors who are specialists selected to meet the learning needs specific to that child.

Adult education will become more integrated into the workplace as employers offer custom courses at the workplace designed and delivered in conjunction with local or distant universities. Distance learning will become recreational as well as occupational as people learn for their own personal gain or pursue learning to obtain a degree.

Instructional designers are being educationally prepared to design and develop instruction that uses a variety of delivery methods including distance learning. As economic forces motivate educational institutions to save money, instructional designers can present new and more cost effective ways to deliver instruction through distance learning. Instructional designers must be prepared to present not only the best ways to deliver instruction using new technology, but also to demonstrate the economic value of each means of instructional delivery.

In my current role, I am responsible for the corporate education department. This department is responsible for the delivery of health information technology and corporate compliance training for an entire healthcare system. Although distance learning can be very expensive (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012) , in the healthcare business classroom training can be very expensive when salaries and staffing needs for healthcare staff are taken into account. I am currently working with the manager of my education team to research and implement distance learning technologies that will ultimately provide better instruction for our care providers and save the organization millions of dollars in training costs associated with delivering instruction to over 20,000 employees and thousands of contract physicians. In addition, I am working on a healthcare instructional design/education summit that will produce new literature and knowledge for the healthcare training and education sector.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). The future of distance education [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Converting Classroom Courses to Blended Learning

Enhancing Your Classroom Program through Distance Learning

Blended learning can provide advantages not found in classroom training. Certain elements of classroom-based education can be enhanced in a distance learning format. A distance learning environment allows the opportunity for learners who are less verbal to interact equally in the courseroom. In addition, the distance learning environment can allow more time for reflection, leading to richer discussions and a deeper exploration of topics. The distance learning environment places a decreased burden of travel and time. However, you will need to carefully plan for a transition of classroom curriculum to a blended learning delivery format.

This guide will walk you through the steps of how to convert a classroom instructional program into a blended learning format using principles of best practice.  At a high level, you can divide best practices for distance learning into the following three categories: instructors, technology, and content design.

The Changing Role of the Trainer

Your role, as an instructor or trainer, will change from to that of a facilitator of a course. As such, it will be important to understand exactly how the class will be structured and what activities the learners will encounter during each section of the course. As a facilitator, you will be responsible for monitoring student activity and keeping students engaged and to ensure that learners are involved in course activities (Piskurich, n.d.).

Facilitating Communication and Learning among Students

One of the advantages of distance learning is that the courseroom format allows for equal participation for all students and allows quieter students the opportunity to participate that may not happen in the classroom. You can increase courseroom learning by ensuring that students are actively engaged in course discussions and projects, this can be done through course design such as requiring a certain type and amount of discussion responses or by assigning group projects. As a facilitator, you can stimulate discussion by being present in the courseroom and by presenting stimulating questions or discussion topics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek, 2012). 

PrePlanning Strategies to Consider

When you are converting a classroom-based course to a distance-learning course, you will need to address technology issues as well as course resources. You will need to analyze the learner audience and the technical abilities of the learners as well as the technical demands that the course will require. Before you begin to design the structure of the course, you will need to understand what the distance learning technology can and can’t do (Pickurich, n.d.). In addition, you will need to plan for course resources- the resources will need to be in digital format and in a format that is common and familiar to students. You will need to plan for where to locate the course resources so that they can easily be accessed by the students and updated by you, the course facilitator.

Converting a classroom course to a blended learning course will require you to analyze and redefine your role as an instructor, to understand the capabilities and design of your selected technology, and to use identified best practices to engage your learners in the new course format. By following the considerations provided here, you can successfully convert your classroom course into a blended-learning course.

References

Piskurich, G., Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Facilitating online learning. [Online]. Retrieved from Walden University.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Click here to download a print copy of this blog for your personal use.

Instructional Design and Open Source Learning

It is important to carefully plan for any type of education, whether the delivery method is distance learning or classroom learning.  According to Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012), there are considerations involved in the design of distance education, and that when the process is followed, students will learn. Just as a chef skillfully blends and balances various items to create a tasty and appealing meal, the instructional designer must careful consider the technology, the content, the learner, the method of instruction, and the course environment. When any of these elements are not considered, the success of the course may be impacted.

Open learning is an initiative that provides learners the opportunity to acquire new knowledge for personal learning without cost. Does not-for-credit open learning provide the same type of robust learning that is provided by for-credit classes that are delivered through distance learning?

Harvard University provides an open learning initiative that is accessible to anyone with a computer and internet connection: http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative.  The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization is one of the open learning course offered by the Harvard Open Learning initiative, http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization.  

Smaldino et. al (2012) list five considerations as essential to the design and delivery of successful distance learning. I will compare the open learning course The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization with the five essential considerations for successful distance learning.

1) Identify and understand the learners

The course, The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization, is a recording of a class that was delivered by lecture in the classroom. The course does not make an attempt to identify the secondary audience of learners who are viewing the recording, but was rather designed for the primary classroom audience.

2) Determine the primary content of the course

The primary content of the course was designed for the original classroom audience and it appears that the secondary audience of distance learners must fit into the content, rather than having the content fit into the purpose and needs of the distance learners. The course site lists the primary content of the course through links to syllabi and clearly defines and highlights links to lecture materials.

3) Determine delivery method and instructional strategy

The lecture series was packaged in way that would improve the delivery to distance learners. Embedding the video into a presentation screen allowed for easy display of notes and other classroom information. However, there was no interactivity with the secondary audience, simply a recording of interactivity that occurred during the classroom lecture sessions.

4) Understand the environment through which learning will be delivered

In order to prepare for a smooth distance learning experience, the video of the classroom lecture was resized to lessen the impact of delivering video to the learner accessing the course through an internet connection. The course navigation was fairly intuitive and each section of the course was clearly identified with links and descriptions. In addition, a link was provided for access to the course syllabus. The video controls allowed the learner to adjust volume and control the speed and progress of each video section. Any person that is able to navigate the internet is able to manage the functionality of the online course room.

5) Determine the evaluation plan

The instructional strategy for these open courses is to take the classroom lecture and deliver it asynchronously through the internet. There is no learner interaction or activities and no evaluation of the course required.

After a careful review of the course The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization, delivered through the Harvard Open Learning Initiative course site, it is clear that the course delivery format was clearly and carefully designed so that any learner with some ability to navigate the internet could access the desired course modules. However, the learning content was simply a recorded presentation of classroom sessions, delivered asynchronously through the internet. This learning strategy precludes any interactivity between the learner and the course, providing a unilateral learning experience with no feedback or evaluation. However, for learners that desire information for personal learning and enjoyment, the Harvard Open Learning Initiatives provide a trouble-free means of gaining knowledge.

 

Harvard Open Learning Initiative, http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization (n.d.) Harvard Open Learning Initiative, http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/ancient-greek-civilization

Considerations for Distance Learning

One of the benefits of distance learning is that training can be delivered to multiple locations at any time. However, creating a distance learning course is not quite as straightforward as you might think.

In order to meet the safety training needs of a biodiesel manufacturer, an asynchronous training delivery method is best suited to deliver instruction to round the clock shifts of employees. To meet the learning needs and effectively delivery the necessary content for this organization, the distance learning technologies must be carefully selected so that they will function as needed, and that the course provides the optimal learning environment with elements such as interactivity that foster learning (Beldarrain, 2006).

The learning requirements for safety training at the biodiesel manufacturer included:
• Asynchronous delivery
• Incorporate multiple machines and processes
• Step-by-step processes
• Engaging for employees
• Skills/knowledge demonstration and validation
• Tracking and monitoring of learning progress

In order to fulfill the learning requirements of this organization, the distance learning must include web 2.0 tools such as video, wikis and blogs to increase learner engagement (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zyacek, 2012). Often, blogs are used to review and track student learning (Beldarrain, 2006). A search of the internet provided many organizations that sell safety courses designed to satisfy OSHA and other safety requirements http://www.osha-safety-training.net/, and http://slidesandnotes.blogspot.com/2011/02/case-study-of-ibm-employee-training.html. In addition, my organization provides healthcare-focused safety and security videos that are available asynchronously through the organization’s intranet and learning management system. These courses include video, written case studies, and assessments of learning. The system tracks the activities of each learner and sends out reminders when the training is due and past due.

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2),139–153.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.