Focusing the Distance Education Blur

1. Focusing the Distance Education Blur By Dr. Janet Poley

2. Introduction to a New World • The Death of Distance • Being Digital • “Education Has No Borders” • “Education Is for Life” • Lifelong Learning

3. Distance Ed Not New • Land Grant Act 1862 • Agricultural Extension 1914 • Correspondence Courses - 100 yrs • Radio - 1920 • College Telecourses 1950 • Internet Learning - Many forms • Digital Libraries

4. What is Distance Learning? • Planned learning:Objectives, Resources,Communication system, Technology, Assessment • Learners in different location from instructor • Learners achieve defined outcomes within a specified time at an affordable cost

5. Public Higher Education will thrive by: • Meeting lifelong learning needs as mainstream aspect of mission • Incorporating new technologies in sophisticated ways into organization and delivery systems • Hiring, rewarding, and supporting creative faculty doing this • Develop quality niches • Consider international as contributors as well as recipients • Get control on costs of disorganized system of today

6. 21st Century Universities • Virtual Organizations/Universities • The Knowledge Marketplace • Electronic Commerce • Communities of Interest

7. State of the Art • Growing Very Fast - All Universities • Penn State - World Campus - 8000 students - Advisory Board - Turf Grass • Iowa State - 5000 Students - Agronomy - Professional Masters • University of Nebraska - Agronomy, Entomology etc.

8. An Emerging Industry • Standards and Principles • Quality Standards • Growing Universal Access • Same Accreditation • Improved Tools for Teaching and Learning • Reduced Costs

9. Purposes • Serve citizens of the state • Provide diverse educational opportunities • Learning anywhere, conveniently • Improve teaching and learning processes • Continuing education • Increase quality, variety, productivity

10. Delivery Methods • Paper Correspondence • Broadcast - Radio/TV • Computer Based Training - CDROMs • Audio and Video Tapes • Internet1/Web (Asynchronous) • Internet2 (Synchronous) • Hybrid

11. The ADEC Consortiumhttp://www.adec.edu • Largest Distance Education Consortium in the U.S. • Founded in Agriculture • Headquarters - University of Nebraska - 60 University Members Plus International Partners

12. Outside the U.S. • British Open University • International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) - ADEC is a member • University of South African • Growing Fast in Many Countries

13. “Technology does not drive change. Technology enables change. It’s our collective cultural response to the options and opportunities presented by technology that drives change.”- Paul Saffo

14. Other Programs • Private Sector: University of Phoenix, Western Governors University • Consortia: ADEC, SREB, Sloan Foundation Consortium, eArmyU • Private Course Aggregators: WebCT (developed in Canada) - Blackboard, eCollege and others

15. Media Research - U.S. • Internet - 100 Million - 60% of U.S. • T.V. - 98% of U.S. homes • Cable - 67% • Telephone - 94%

16. World Wide Web • 50% male • More new users female • 43% - college degrees (pop: 31%) • Average salary twice U.S. average

17. Number of web pages • 500 million today • Most in U.S. followed by Australia and few European countries

18. Two important trends • Explosion of potential to communicate instantly and massively • Ability to create communities of choice - Marshall Goldsmith 1998

19. “The model to replace industrial age education isn’t clear yet. But the idea that a person stands in front of the room stuffing information into learners like grain into a duck is changing to the idea that teaching is about being a wise companion and advisor.”- Paul Saffo

20. Principles • Design for effective learning. • Support the needs of learners. • Develop and maintain the technological and human infrastructure. • Sustain administrative and organizational commitment.

21. Quality, affordable learning opportunities at time and place convenient for learnerAccess and Success

22. What’s Not Working - Access Issues: • Underserved Communities • Rural • Low Income

23. Profiles of “The Least Connected” (from 1997 Census)

24. “These technologies are really much more about creating and managing new relationships than creating and managing old information or new information.”- Michael Schrage

25. The WWW and Community • “The Web would be entirely different if it had been based on a more dynamic metaphor than the publishing metaphor.” • “How would the WWW be different if we talked about designing things to support conversations rather than designing to support posting?” • - Michael Schrage

26. New Strategies and Blurred Lines • Programs • Courses • Modules • Learning Objects

27. "Winners and Losers" in Distance Education • First Mover Advantage • Competition • International • Private sector

28. Importing and Exporting Programs • The World is Waiting for our Programs • how to find a niche • getting to homes, learning centers and workplaces

29. Developing A Knowledge Marketplace • Reciprocity • Diversity of Products • Sustained Offerings • Quality • Price • Convenience

30. Special Challenges • Intellectual Property • Interinstitutional Agreements • Electronic Commerce and Business Systems • Faculty and Learner Support • Organizational Change and Capacity Building • Cost of Technological Infrastructure

31. Specific Projects • University of Texas • http://www.utexas.edu/cc/cit/facweb/ showcase.html • Classroom of the Future • http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/modules.html • UNL Deal Lab • http://deal.unl.edu

32. Workshop Learnings • Formulate Learning Objectives • Work with Learning Domains • Apply Key DE Principles • Use the IMPPACT Model • Characteristics of DE • How to organize teaching for CDRoms and Internet

33. Learnings (Cont) • Matching Tests/Objectives • Classifying Assessment Procedures • How to Define Visualization • Without DE you cannot have worldwide cooperation • Design and delivery Learning module • How to use courseware

34. Focusing the Distance Education Blur By Dr. Janet Poley