Defining Distance Learning

The definition of distance learning is always changing because the way people learn and what they are learning constantly changes. As new technologies, discoveries, procedures, and adaptations in business evolve, learners must also evolve with those changes. The demand for an adaptable learning model comes with the changes to the learner-audience and the changes to the content being presented. Technology, in best case scenarios, can facilitate the evolution of learning when applied appropriately and effectively. For some professions or industries, the changes in distance learning are more prevalent and evolve quickly. Fields that rely or use technology and/or are communications-based have changed more rapidly as they must mirror the changes in their industry and how their customers communicate. For others, the changes happen more slowly. Fields that rely on more hands-on skills, situation-specific training, or labor-intensive activities have been slower to embrace distance learning as the practicality of distance learning has not kept pace with the need for direct instruction.

My personal definition and observations of distance learning before beginning this course has simply been to learn from afar. The phrase ‘distance learning’ implied to me that there was a physical separation between the learner and instructor. When I was in high school, several classmates enrolled in a distance learning course to learn a foreign language. I don’t remember what language it was now, but it was the Spanish or French offered at the school. The instructor was at another high school a few counties away and the content was delivered either through VHS-taped lessons of the instructor presenting the material or it was delivered through a live-video feed to a conference room. During college, I enrolled in a print-based correspondence class.  The instructor was in Louisiana and I resided in Pennsylvania.

Up until this week and reading the resources for class, I had never really considered the time separation as an element of distance learning. I’m not sure why; it just didn’t occur to me as part of the definition of distance learning. It may have something to do with my teaching physics and the ‘time is relative’ concept. After exploring this week’s resources, the physical separation is a definite part of distance learning, but there are other factors that help to define distance learning. On page 33 of the course text, distance education is described as having four main parts; “institutionally based”, “separation of teacher and student”, “interactive telecommunications”, and sharing of learning experiences through data, voice, and video (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright and Zvacek, 2012, p. 33). Each component of this definition clarifies my thoughts on what distance education and distance learning should be based on. Institutionally based education adds a degree of acceptance and accreditation to the learning process. I have many hobbies and study material online and through books, but my learning for those interests are self-guided, self-directed, and not provided through any kind of educational institution. Although the learning may occur at a distance, it simply self-directed study and would not qualify, by this definition, as distance education. 

I was also surprised to learn the definition or explanation of what qualifies as interactive communications. Students and instructors must be able to interact and communicate during a course so that the instructor can provide feedback and both the student and instructor can assess the student’s progress. In terms of distance learning and in today’s society, I erroneously assumed that the interaction had to be communicated through digital means (computers, email, cloud-based materials, etc.). The method of the communication does not strictly matter, as long as there is some form of interactive communication available to students and instructors.

In the weeks ahead, I am quite certain that my definition of distance learning will continue to evolve. At this moment, I will say that my definition of distance learning closely mimics those presented in our resources this week. There is a need for the content to be supported by a reputable educational entity; geography and possible time will separate learners from instructors; content, comments, and feedback are provided through an interactive communications method; and there must be a component of students sharing new knowledge and learning experiences through a form of data exchange (including multimedia and digital forms). Each component identifies a structural component of distance learning.

The future of distance learning is bright, with a chance of cloudiness. By that I mean that there are endless possibilities where distance learning and instructional designers can go, but a few things need to improve along the way. Instructional designers and distance learning are considered new and somewhat untested, mostly because of the incredible leaps in technology and the tools available for educational purposes. There has been a rush to embrace these technologies, and in that rush, correct instructional methodology and practice has sometimes suffered, resulting in less than adequate examples of what is possible with instructional designers and distance learning. My hope for the future is that there will be a codification in education of what distance learning actually is and how it is best used and implemented. Distance education is growing exponentially, as noted by Dr. Simonson (Simonson, n.d.). This growth can only be sustained by industry, business, and education if it is more widely understood, improved upon, and supported. Distance education cannot be used (in K12) solely as a type of safety net for non-traditional school students (Simonson, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman, 2008). It should be used as a best-choice means of education, dependent on the learner needs, the content constraints, and the instructional design methods used to develop the curriculum. The future of distance education is bright, but it is tempered with the need to proceed with high quality standards and methods.

References

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

Simonson, M. (n.d.). Distance education: The next generation. [Study video]. Retrieved from sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/defult.learn?CourseID=6290464&Survey=1&47=7309287&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1.

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

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