Defining Distance Learning

If someone would have asked me last week how long distance education had been around, I probably would have answered about 40 years.  I remember as a young child being in my elementary school classrooms and watching educational television and thinking how neat it was to be taught by someone other than my teacher standing in front of me.  I sat and listened earnestly as the television teacher, as I had called her, would talk and demonstrate the lesson for the week and looked forward to my weekly TV learning.  I can remember looking in matchbook covers and finding the advertisements for this course or that course, and I had not remembered that little fact until Dr. Simonson mentioned it in our media course (Laureate Education, n.d.).   Back in my childhood, my mind could not even fathom taking a class or for that matter an entire degree on the computer.  At that time, computers were in a fantasy world, and the World Wide Web was about 15 years away.  Once the educational television programs disappeared, there was very little in the way of distance learning that was presented to me.  I traveled along the academic path in traditional school settings.  My professional career had smatterings of distance learning in the way of video presentations, but that was all.  It was not until I joined with my current employer that the world of distance learning began to open up.  But even within the distant learning space inside of my organization, that has morphed and changed over the years.  What once was done in a classroom setting, has now transformed into online or e-learning.  What once was simple PowerPoint leanings, has evolved into sophisticated multimedia presentations. 

My definition of distance learning prior to beginning at Walden University would have been any learning done in the absence of an in person teacher, either formal or informal learning.  I would have classified watching a YouTube clip as distance learning, along with pod casts, tapes, and videos.  While distance learning is not self-study, it is formal education in which the learner is separated by geography, and possibly time, but linked through technology (Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S., 2012, p. 33)

As you look back over the history of distance learning, and the changes in format and delivery, there is a definite correlation with technology, and I feel that is one of the biggest drivers of change in distance learning.  From the early beginnings with the mail service, to the telegraphy, radio, television, telephone, VCR, satellite, modems and, the Web, learning at a distance has evolved to what we have today.    Because technology is always changing, distance learning has had to adapt.  Prior to the computer and the Web, much of the distance learning was one directional.  Either by radio or television, the learner listened or watched and learned from that medium.  Today, technology has allowed multi-layered communication not just with one person, but with people around the entire globe.  No longer is a class restricted to the number of seats in a particular room. Technology has allowed an interactivity that would not have been possible just 20 years ago (Sherry, L., 1996).   Today distance learning is growing exponentially (Laureate Education, n.d.).   In a techno driven society, learners can learn just about anywhere and on anything.  Smartphones, tables and PC’s make distance learning more available than ever before.  Delivery method though is just one change.  There has been a large shift from just delivering information to teaching material for understanding.

In my professional career, I have noticed a much larger emphasis on the evaluation piece in distance learning. How does one know that the learner actually understood and extracted the intended learning objectives?  Huett et al. indicated that it wasn't enough to just repackage a classroom lesson into a media driven lesson (Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J., 2008, p. 67). The whole approach to learning and teaching has to be carefully designed to ensure that learning does take place.  My employer has moved more to a problem based learning solution for teaching and training, and it has made tremendous strides in filling in the knowledge gap.  Much like Walden’s approach, the information is not spoon fed to the class participants.  Learners have to go out and find the information, thereby creating the stronger bonds of learning.  This is a huge paradigm shift in our corporate culture.  This methodology has definitely shaped my view of distance learning and its effectiveness.

My revised definition of distance learning is the use of technology to bridge distance and time between instructor and student while participating in a structured learning event.  My vision for the future of distance learning is a bright one.  I see corporate cultures moving away from the classroom based learning environment.  It makes complete sense from a cost perspective, and a portability perspective.  As advances in technology help to drive down costs, I see more and more mobile devices being used for learning, not just in schools, but also in business education settings.  No longer will employees have to sit in a cubicle.  Remote work and remote learning will become more popular.  With the growth of distance learning, I see the field of ID also growing to accommodate the needs of primary, secondary and corporate education to make sure that courses present knowledge in such a way that is enhanced by all of the technological tools available.

Resources

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Distance education: The next generation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.

Sherry, L. (1996). Issues in Distance Learning. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 1 (4), 337-365.

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