Course Reflection: The Future of Distance Education

We learned that distance education is a structured form of education in which the main elements include physical separation of teachers and students during instruction and the use of various technologies to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication (Berg, 2016). Over the years, distance education has been refined at the level of higher education focusing on appealing to adult learners that are full time employees, non-residents, or people in remote regions (Berg, 2016). Distance education is a complex process that requires careful planning, designing and determination of aims to create an effective learning ecology (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic forced nearly 77 million children to learn from home over the past 18 months (UNICEF, n.d). Learning at distance for all levels of education was supposed to be temporary. Bozkurt & Sharma (2020) term this temporary response to full scale remote learning during the pandemic as emergency remote teaching. The distinction is important because the degree to which educators believe in distance education now and in future will play a significant role in the prosperity of distance education in a post-COVID world (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020).

               As positive cases rise, more variants become uncovered and vaccinations no available as yet children at the early childhood stage, I believe that there will have to be some form of distance learning that continues over the next few years. Institutions, teachers, and students will continue to look for flexible ways to repair damage caused by COVID-19 interruptions to learning (Daniel, 2020). Businesses, religious organisations, public and private sector have embraced digital tools to facilitate communication and collaboration which I believe will continue to grow as necessary skills that all persons require in the future. Therefore, a learner going out into the world will need these skills and what better a place to learn them through your educational journey? Dr. Siemens (Laureate Education, n.d) suggests that as communication technologies improve in quality, we will see the educational model around it also ramp up significantly. If institutions put mechanisms in place to supplement face-to-face education or create full contingency plans to be used in a time of crisis to continue their educational and training missions, it will be greatly beneficial (Daniel, 2020).

               Bozkurt & Sharma (2020) suggest that when students return to the physical classroom, people will not remember what educational content was delivered, but how they felt during the process. For distance education to become more widely accepted as a viable means of teaching and learning especially for non-adult learners, there must be buy-in from institutions, teachers, students and the general public. George Siemens (Laureate Education, n.d) purport that when the gap of comfort is bridged, then people naturally take to online learning. There must be additional research and training done at all levels, to understand what is the best format for the various learners or methodologies to determine the combination of methods to create the best learning experience. This is our responsibility as instructional designers. We must see the instructional design challenge as not only the product of instructional design principles and methodologies but also take into account the learners and their support systems to ensure that they are comfortable in the distance education environment. We should show our commitment to support our students, and to institute teaching and learning on the grounds of a pedagogy of care, not on purely didactic and insensitive grounds (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020).

Distance education can serve as a catalyst for change and growth in the education arena. By rethinking our ideas about what a classroom is, what teaching and learning are, where learning can occur, and how to measure it most effectively, we can use the best of what we know that works and discover new ways to facilitate this change (Simonson, Smaldino & Zvacek, 2019). As an instructional designer, it is necessary for us to continue to learn and conduct research on ways that we can improve on distance education to prepare for tomorrow’s educational landscape. We must be well-grounded in learning theories, and instructional design theories but still be open to develop new policies and strategies that meet the dynamic nature of educational needs (Bozkurt & Zawacki-Richter, 2021).

References

Berg, G. A. and Simonson, M. (2016). Distance Learning. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/distance-learning

Bozkurt, A., & Sharma, R. C. (2020). Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), i-vi.

Bozkurt, A. & Zawacki-Richter, O. (2021). Trends and Patters in Distance Education (2014-2019): A Synthesis of Scholarly Publications and a Visualization of the Intellectual Lanscape. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 22 (2),

Daniel, J. (2020). Education and the COVID-19 pandemic. UNESCO. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09464-3

Simonson, M., Zvacek, S., & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.) Information Age Publishing. UNICEF (n.d). #ReopenSchools. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/reopen-schools?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItvzT6t_99AIVF4iGCh1rIQhGEAAYASAAEgIEXfD_BwE

Defining Distance Learning

Before I started this course, my perception of distance learning was any form of learning you did outside of the classroom. Growing up my only examples of distance learning included these courses that were available in the paper that you registered for by pushing out the perforated subject or topic and mailing it back to the company along with the funds for the course. The company sent you the materials, books, apparatus or any other resources that you needed.

My father tried drafting. I remember them sending him a drawing desk, stencils, templates, cassette tapes and more. He spent hour after hour, week after week, perfecting how to draw lines and plans. Now he has built about 6 houses and 3 apartment buildings, all from this distance learning course. As the years went by my idea of distance learning merely changed its medium. In our present day if my father had to do that course he may be required to watch a series of online videos, which may be found in some learning management system (LMS) that would track his progress. He may have to submit assignments online or take online quizzes. He may have to use computer aided design software instead of drawing on a table and paper but the essence would be the same; he would be learning using the structured materials and resources that were designed for a learner to reach their instructional goals.

This course has enlightened me that distance learning is just one side of the distance education concept. In our video resource for our first week, Dr. Michael Simonson provides a definition of Distance Education as:

Formal education that is institutionally based, where the learning group, the teacher, the students, and the resources, possibly, are separated not only be geography, but sometimes by time, sometimes by intellect, and where technologies, instructional media, and communication technologies are used to link the resources, the teacher and the learner (Laureate Education, n.d).

From this definition, I have extrapolated that distance education covers not only distance learning but also distance teaching. My definition of distance learning has become more specific where I would say distance learning is personal or self-study undertaken when a learner is separated by geography and/or time from the learning group, the teacher and specific resources.

The learner may receive instruction or guided through learning experiences through distance teaching. Distance teaching I believe is the where the teacher or instructor guides the learner through the course or sequence of learning activities either synchronously, asynchronously or both.

As the world tries to deal with the rise and fall of COVID-19 cases, the discoveries of variant strains and the resultant closures of education institutions, I believe that distance learning will see a definite rise in its applications from K-12 to higher education and business. What I believe will increase is the research on how best to support distance teaching and learning at the various stages. Moller, Foshay & Huett (2008) suggest that instructional design professional, perhaps in partnership with academic researchers, can play a key role in making sure that distance education initiatives truly serve the needs of students. They further state that little research currently exists to inform decisions about online learning in K-12 schools (Moller et al, 2008). With the uncertainty of the future of the pandemic, I think this type of research is not only exciting but absolutely necessary.

References

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

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.

Program of Study Form

Course Number	Course Title	Course Credit
EDUC 6105	Organizations, Innovation, and Change	3
EDUC 6115	Learning Theories and Instruction	3
EIDT 6121	Multimedia Design and Development	3
EIDT 6122	Multimedia Design and Development II	3
EIDT 6100	Instructional Design	3
EIDT 6110	Advanced Instructional Design	3
EDUC 6125	Foundations of Research	3
EDUC 6135	Distance Learning	3
EDUC 6145	Project Management in Education and Training	3
EIDT 6510	Online Instructional Strategies	3
EIDT 6511	Assessments in Online Environments	3
EIDT 6910	Capstone: Practical Application of Instructional Design	3

Course Reflection

 

Now that this course has come to the end, I am a bit saddened. I think that if I had taken this course at a less busy time in my life, I would have done much better. I remember in our previous course, we looked at the challenge of balancing home, work and social commitments when studying online and I find myself in that exact situation. In our last week we looked at motivation and I know that I have had to dig deep within myself and not give up on this course despite meeting the deadlines and participate in course activities was a challenge. I had to agree with Keller (1999) noting that self-directed learning environments pose greater challenges to learner motivation. I had to look inwardly at my self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986) and believe that I had the ability to succeed (Huett, Moller, Young, Bray & Huett, 2008).

I think that this course in Learning Theories and Instruction is very critical for educators and instructional designers because it seeks to not only explore and reveal how we as educators learn, but also how we can seek to understand our students’ learning needs. This is important so that we can provide dynamic and interesting learning opportunities, provide them with better support, inspire them to create, elaborate and express themselves as well as try to motivate them to succeed.

I never realised the complexity of the learning process. I remember instances with my mother that left me puzzled; she needs to write things down before she can do them. She prefers to follow written instructions so that she can learn through her own experience instead of following the verbal instructions of someone else. We all learn in various ways and respond either negatively or positively to different strategies and styles. Instead of saying that she is using archaic methods of information gathering, I can more aptly say she may have a linguistic intelligence or she may have a learning style that is more verbal or in some diagrams the read and write style. Not wrong, but merely a different style than my own. This was what I found most striking in my journey through this course.

As an instructional designer, one has to be able to design programs that will seek to not only take into consideration varying learning styles and intelligences but without specifically designing an individual course for each person, appeal to a broad spectrum of learners utilizing more modern teaching techniques and materials. Before we adopt the change in our mode of delivering information however, we must fully comprehend the different learning theories that attempt to explain how we all learn.

This course has taken use through the accepted and researched theories explaining how humans learn new skills, concepts and retain knowledge. Theories such as behavioural, cognitive, constructivist, social learning and connectivism have shown us the progression of educational research that seek to allow instructional designers to offer a balanced and broad approach to learning. This is in an effort to reach the maximum number of learners and provide opportunities for them to develop, grow and learn new behaviours which takes time, practice and involves change (Schunk, 2012).

This course has also shown that the learning theories must be matched appropriately with the subject matter. Depending on the target group of learners, the subject and the circumstances, different learning theories may be applied to different teaching subjects (Pange, Lekka, Toki, 2010). As educators we must incorporate the best practices and educational theory in lessons. We must also provide means for students to be a part of their own learning as well as evaluate the programmes that you offer to see how they are received in the classroom, whether traditional or online. In this current era, it is also important to move away from the chalk and talk framework but seek to utilize current technologies and web tools to arouse the learners interest (Laureate Education, n.d.), offer differentiated instruction, promote communication, collaboration, and creativity in order for the pursuit of instruction that is engaging, while not being intimidating.

Finally the course has deepened my understanding of my own learning process. It has led me to access my own learning style and made me evaluate whether or not my method of learning or studying has been an effective one. I learned that I am a visual learner and that I best retain information if it is presented in a graphical or visually appealing way.

Teachers are learners for life and going through courses like these help us to retool and improve our skills set and inherently improve the quality of education we provide. As good teachers we must continue to learn about our subject matter, our pedagogy and ways to encourage student learning (Schunk, 2012). I think that this course will help me going forward to design better instructional plans and programs that are effective, student centered, interactive and engaging, that take into account the varying learning needs, styles and intelligences of my students.

 

References

Huett, J., Moller, L., Young, J., Bray, M., & Huett, K. (2008). Supporting the distant student: The effect of ARCS-based strategies on confidence and performance. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), 113–126

Keller, J. M. (1999). Motivation in cyber learning environments. International Journal of Educational Technology, 1(1), 7-30.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Motivation in learning [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Pange, J., Lekka, A., Toki, E. I. (2010). Differnt learning theories applied to diverse learning subjects retreived from https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042810023426/1-s2.0-S1877042810023426-main.pdf?_tid=a653ceda-31cf-44e6-ae27-ae1f30b4da80&acdnat=1545718660_73250cc8aae8031711609dcc0fbbc08f

Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective. Boston: Pearson.

Fitting the pieces together – Assignment 1 – Week 7

How has my view on how I learn changed since week 1?

Even though throughout my training as a teacher I have been exposed to theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Skinner, I did not appreciate the difference in learning theories, learning styles and intelligences that all play a role in my learning process. I have always seen myself as a visual learner, taking the VARK questionnaire has supported that perception of myself. One of the suggestions from the results that I am looking forward to try is colour coding things. I hope that it helps me with my self organization.

I think that understanding ones own learning style is of great benefit, as an instructional designer, it is something that I would advocate for my students to understand their learning process and potentially reduce their stress by finding better ways to study and retain information.

As a teacher you learn the curriculum and develop lessons over years, but understanding the learning theories, and applying the appropriate methods based on subject matter is crucial in designing the best learning experience. One of the key revelations for me was the idea of multiple intelligences; being able to identify the areas that I am most dominant in and ones that I can work on based on the situations that I am placed in.

I think that the theory of connectivism is an interesting one and I will look at this more as I look at the various learning theories. The study of connectivism seems to be fairly new but will be more of a hot topic with the increase of online and digital learning.

 

What have I learned about my learning preferences?

A learning theory is a framework that describes how individuals learn or acquire new behaviours. Various theorists have developed several theories of learning such as

• Cognitivism / Cognitive Theory
• Behaviourism / Behavioural theory
• Constructivism / Constructivist theory
• Humanism / Humanistic theory
• Connectivism / Connectivist

I think that each theorist has part of the whole picture when it comes to learning, for me I would say that each theory explains how I have learned at various stages in my life. For example, the manners and social behaviours that I have acquired can be attributed to behaviourism. Cognitivism is the theory that would attributed to my early learning at school through reading, writing and tutoring.

My learning style is predominantly visual. I need to see it in order to make sense of it. I also need to hear and interact with the concept so that it is cemented in my mind. My martial art instructor always told me that I need to see a technique done, have it done on me and then explain how to do it to someone else in order to fully learn the technique. I think he was right.

What role does technology play in my learning?

Technology plays a significant role in my learning, from being the most significant means of searching and sourcing information, to storing information, analyzing that stored information, creating and presenting information as well as transferring and sharing information.

Technology is a tool just like a pencil, a ruler, a chalkboard; it acts a facilitator during learning activities. Technology however has advanced to the point where it provides not only tools to make certain work easier but allows a user to be immersed in an environment, connect with people and resources from around the world and run complex analyses on data from multiple sources to generate meaningful output.

As an educator, I believe that technology has a role to play in my learning when I use it to facilitate the learning experiences of others. As a teacher you first should know the material that you are leading students to understand. Technology provides that medium to first learn and then allows an educator to create not just one but multiple ways to illustrate a concept which provides that avenue for individualized and differentiated instruction (Waddell, 2015).

References

David L, “Summaries of Learning Theories and Models,” in Learning Theories, January 24, 2018, https://www.learning-theories.com/.

Waddell, J. (2015). The Role of Technology in the Educational Process. Retreived from https://edwp.educ.msu.edu/green-and-write/2015/the-role-of-technology-in-the-educational-process/

Connectivism

This week we had to create a mind map to illustrate the network connections that we have created to acquire knowledge. We were to think about our networks provide us with information and support, and how we access different people and technologies to help us learn. The image above is my My Mind Map.

How has your network changed the way you learn?

My network definitely has changed the way I learn. The various inputs have allowed me to realise that there is alot of information out there on almost everything. Many varying opinions on any topic. What the various avenues have helped me to do is filter out some of the noise of all the information and hone in on just the information that is relevant for me at any given time.

The offline area of my mind map I thought was important to add since that area has helped me in terms of my support system. There are times that I find it hard to focus or stay with studying but they provide support and motivate me to continue.

Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?

I believe that video resources best facilitate learning for me. I find it hard to acquire knowledge from simple text as reading for long periods of time give eye and head aches. I find that video or audio resources allow you to not only get the information but hear the intonations of persons when they speak. You can grab some of the salient points from the highs and lows of their tones. The persons voice tends to be more memorable for me especially when it is time for me to recall.

I also find that tools that allow me to jot down ideas and bring them together in coherent fashion help me to organise my thoughts.

How do you gain new knowledge when you have questions?

Usually when I have questions, I believe that someone else has already asked that question. I tend to use search engines to get the answers to the questions that I have, however sometimes I realise that the questions that I have are not always posed in the way I form them in my head. Many times in order to gain knew knowledge I have to find ways of phrasing my questions differently to get the answers that are out there or follow the trail of partial answers which can lead me to the knowledge I originally sought out to gain.

In what ways does your personal learning network support or refute the central tenets of connectivism?

According to Siemens, “connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired and the ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. Also critical is the ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday” (Siemens, 2005, para. 24).

The central tenets of connectivism are:

• Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

My personal learning network supports the connectivism theory because it is diverse, has specialised nodes and information sources. There are some elements of non-human appliances. My offline sources are avenues which must be nurtured in order to maintain connections for continual learning. When one area does not have the information I need, I have to use the knowledge I have to find alternative areas to source the information. In using this problem-solving method of searching for information, it forces me to see connections between various concepts to better internalise the information I am receiving. Lastly the areas which I gather information from usually keep information dated so you know what is up-to-date and current. Also subscribing to Blogs and RSS feeds helps in getting up to date information that I would have to seek out, instead that information comes to me directly.

Connectivism I think illustrates the concept of going to University for the first time. By the time you leave University, those courses you took in first year, especially when in an Information Technology related field like myself, are almost obsolete. Connectivism helps you to learn how to learn, it shows the process of how to acquire information, scrutinize it and absorb what is useful, and repeating this process over time adding to ones prior knowledge base to keep up to date in the current information climate to make better informed decisions.

Week 2 – Evaluating and Identifying Online Resources

This post will seek to identify some resources on the brain and learning, information processing theory, and problem-solving methods during the learning process.

Week 1 – Application Blog

This week our tasks were to :

1. Setup our own blog account, make it public and enable the option to provide a link for an RSS feed.
2. Search for and bookmark various blogs and resource sites related to Instructional Design or training in our workplace setting.
3. Write a blog entry that provides a brief overview of the type of content that can be found on each of the three instructional design blogs or resource sites you bookmarked earlier, and embed hyperlinks to those sites within your blog entry. Thoughtfully critique the usefulness of each site and reflect upon how the site might serve as an ongoing resource as you work in the instructional design field.

 

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5 Instructional Design Strategies for Creating Better E-Learning

This site is dedicated to providing instructional design and learning design related resources, tools and content for professionals in the field so that they can be successful in their career and education (Instructional Design Central).

This particular post highlights 5 instructional design strategies suited for E-Learning programs. The author makes several interesting points regarding the proposed move of the corporate sector to have their methods of training to the cloud by 2020.  With this in mind it is key that instructional designers not only understand the topic of instructional design but ways in which they can create a more user friendly, engaging, streamlined and refined learning environment.

Walden in their Masters in Instructional Design course actually makes use of the suggestions highlighted here especially through the use of Learning through Scenarios, Micro-Learning, Multimedia and Quiz-based Recaps.

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Instructional Design Tools to the Rescue

This blog also highlights some of the tools that can be used to enhance an instructional design program. One interesting note is that many of the instructional design blogs and sites have illustrated that the instructional design industry is growing in its popularity because of the corporate world using eLearning as a medium deliver online curricula to their employees.

This site focuses on some of the current tools that can be used to make content and lessons to be more interactive. One of the tools I can now add to that list is a blog. Walden has several resources that indicate the types of blogging tools available.

 

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Instructional Design for Beginners – What Motivates People To Learn?

This blog spoke to me the most because it looks at the Motivational Design. Motivational design refers to the process of arranging resources and procedures to bring about changes in motivation. This resonated with me because of the several factors that I face daily that hinder me from immersing myself in my current learning environment.

The blog speaks to ARCS Model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) and how it can be used to enhance instructional designers programs especially for adults. It also provides links that delve more deeply into the ARCS model.

The last section of the blog also speaks to an area identified in the earlier links where it was identified that learning becomes more meaningful when the learner can gain some reward. The reward that is illustrated in this blog is charitable, where playing a game and getting the correct answers triggers donations to the World Food Programme. This type of tool can be one that engages the learner on not only the cognitive or fun level but also at that human emotional level.

References

https://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/aboutinstructionaldesigncentral