Module 1 - Evolution of Distance Education

Distance education is rapidly evolving and impacting corporations, higher education, and K-12 learning environments.  Educators and instructional designers should evaluate this evolution and provide guidance and support to steer the development of the concept.  It is equally important to acknowledge that, for a course to attain maximum impact, educators must consider the teacher, the student, and the learning involved (Huett, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman, 2008). 

The diffusion of distance education is reaching the critical mass stage of adoption (Laureate Education, 2008a).  The proliferation of online courses has spread from corporate training programs, into higher education settings and finally into the K-12 environment.  The economics of this concept proved extremely appealing to the corporate structure.  In this environment, employees complete a training module and perhaps an assessment of the material.  This can eliminate travel costs and work loss learning material repetitively required in the workforce.  Corporate training programs included minimal reviews for quality assurance or objective fulfillment.  Bluntly stated, employers did not focus on developing engaging material or expanding the employee’s knowledge base.  The purpose was to deliver a specified content in an efficient manner.  Trainers evaluated the success of a course by the hours of use and the physical presentation (Moller, Forshay, Huett, 2008a). 

As distance education moved into the higher education arena, economics continued to play a pivotal role.  Institutions of higher learning saw distance education courses as a way to expand their client base.  A distance course provided access to students that were far from the physical campus.  Rather than designing programs with the full range of technological benefits, these courses mimicked the offerings of a traditional college classroom (Moller, Foshay, Huett, 2008b).  Expanding that transformation to include the full power of technology is a challenge for instructional designers.  Professors can resist this level of change as it infringes on their domain in the classroom. 

The laggard in adoption of distance education would seem to be the K-12 education level.  There is no central structure of the K-12 group in the United States. This creates a barrier when trying to establish connections beneficial for rapid diffusion.  There is also the potentially false assumption that spending resources similar to classroom budgets on technology courses will produce effective instruction (Huett, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman, 2008).  Distance education has to potential to address issues in public education like overcrowding, inconsistency of content delivery, and teacher shortages.  My district pays critical skills bonuses to math and science teachers for 7^th to 12^th grade because it is difficult to find certified teachers for those subjects. The potential for distance education in K-12 is the greatest of the three groups.  This reflects the late adoption within this group and the opportunities available that distance education can address.

I agree with the assessment of Dr. Michael Simonson that distance education is approaching the exponential growth phase on the diffusion curve (Laureate Education, 2008a).  Acknowledging that the product produced in a distance education course does not have to mimic the appearance of a traditional classroom will help spur on that diffusion.  Equivalency theory posits that distance courses do not have to have an identical appearance to a face –to-face classroom (Laureate Education, 2008b).  The learning outcomes should produce comparable results as a classroom that covers similar content.  That refers to the knowledge gained and not the products the students produce. 

References

Moller, L., Forshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0158-5

Moller, L., Foshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(4), 66-70. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0179-0

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. R., & Coleman, C. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(5), 63-67. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0199-9

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Distance Education: The Next Generation.  Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Equivalency Theory.  Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.