The Basics of E-learning: An Excerpt from Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design
Distance education can provide a richer and more engaging educational experience than is possible within the confines of the classroom. It requires creativity and innovation in the design and development of Internet-delivered materials, especially since materials may have to stand alone, and in the use of delivery technologies. The same issues of quality and effectiveness that exist in the classroom occur in distance education, often compounded by the delivery mechanism and lack of contact between students and teachers and between peers.
Distance education existed long before the Internet, but it has become more prevalent and has changed significantly through technological advances. All sectors, especially higher education, corporate training, and continuing and professional education, want to take advantage of Internet technologies to provide education, training, and collaboration capabilities to geographically dispersed populations to enhance educational experiences and increase enthusiasm for learning.
This chapter defines distance education and delves into many facets of the use of the Internet for distance education; discusses why distance education has become so popular; and describes how to plan, design, deliver, and evaluate a distance education course or program.
The Definition of Distance Education
Distance education is most typically defined as education that
takes place independent of location, in contrast to education
delivered solely in the classroom, and that may be independent
of time as well. In fact, the definition is quite fuzzy and
is understood and interpreted differently by different groups
and in different contexts. In particular, the definition varies in
the inclusion and role of teachers and peers. While traditional
education places great emphasis on the role of the teacher, in
distance education the teacher can be completely removed from
the learning process. Traditional education also delineates a duration
for a learning situation, with a start and end date, which
is only the case with some distance education.
ASTD, an education-focused professional organization, de- fines distance education in part by how it is delivered, as an Distance education can be characterized as an "educational situation in which the instructor and students are separated by time, location, or both. Education or training courses are delivered to remote locations via synchronous or asynchronous means of instruction, including written correspondence, text, graphics, audio- and videotape, compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), online learning, audio- and videoconferencing, interactive television, and facsimile (FAX). Distance education does not preclude the use of the traditional classroom. The definition of distance education is broader than and entails the definition of e-learning." (Kaplan-Leiserson, n.d.)
There are many terms that are used interchangeably, or with subtle distinctions, including distance learning, online learning, Web-based learning, and e-learning. E-learning, as seen in the previous quote, typically refers to education delivered over the Internet while distance education can more broadly include videoconferencing and audioconferencing delivered over phone lines.
Commonly used terms delineate a subset of distance education. Synchronous e-learning encompasses same-time interaction independent of location, while asynchronous e-learning includes any situation where learners are dispersed in time and location. Most distance learning is actually blended learning, which refers to a mix of synchronous, asynchronous, and classroom.
One of the challenges in planning effective distance education is selecting the appropriate mix of synchronous, asynchronous, and classroom activities, as well as determining the role of teachers and peers. There is a considerable range in the sophistication, quality, cost, and development time of distance education curricula. At the same time, outside of the confines of the classroom, there is the opportunity to rethink and redefine learning activities, materials, and courses.
Distance Education Compared to
Traditional Education
Traditional classroom education serves a valuable role for children
and young adults, where there are many benefits to face-to-face
interaction and where maturity and self-discipline are still
developing. The classroom is often necessary for supervised
practice or for team-building activities that could not readily
take place without face-to-face contact. Distance education is
different from education delivered in the classroom in many
respects besides the lack of proximity. Education in the classroom
is traditionally developed and delivered by one person.
This teacher may or may not have extensive training in how
to teach. In many universities, for example, a professor can be
an excellent researcher but have little knowledge about how
to plan and deliver a lecture. Distance education separates the
development and delivery processes. Development and delivery
may be done by different people, or many people may be
involved in different capacities such as multimedia experts and
technical support people. Even in the case of asynchronous
courses, distance education may be delivered on a Web site
without human intervention or assistance.
Many of the issues from the classroom still exist in distance education, occasionally amplified by delivery through technology. For instance, cheating has always been a problem for educators. Unless cameras or biometric devices are used, the opportunities to cheat are typically greater online. Other issues are similar; for example, a good teacher structures and teaches a small or large class differently, and the same is true for an online course. Arguably the biggest opportunity in moving away from the confines of the classroom is the ability to redefine the notion of a course: What type of interaction is most beneficial to students? What will help them learn the best? Educators grapple with how to rethink education. As John Maynard Keynes said, "The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds" (Keynes, 1997).
The History of Distance Education
Distance education started in the 1800s with a for-profit school
developed by Sir Isaac Pitman for rural residents in Bath,
England. Correspondence classes became an alternative for
people needing education or training who were not able to attend
or did not have access to a traditional program. There have
been many notable instances of early distance education playing
a major role in people's success; for example, in the 1920s
Edwin Shoemaker took a correspondence course in drafting
and co-developed the La-Z-Boy recliner, which started an entire
industry.
Following correspondence courses delivered by mail, radio became the next delivery vehicle, and it is still commonly used in developing regions where access to the phone or Internet is limited. Instructional television became common in the 1950s and 1960s and, like radio, is still in use. While instructional television never achieved the success anticipated in those decades, arguably the most successful offshoot has been the very popular Sesame Street-type shows and the cable in the classroom programs for children. And certainly, television is still a delivery vehicle in the sense that educational videotapes are still being produced.
As computers became more widespread, computer-based training (CBT) distributed on CD-ROMs became common. Web-based delivery followed in the 1990s. John Chambers, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cisco, predicted in 1999, that "Education over the Internet is so big it is going to make e-mail look like a rounding error." This growth, while not as rapid as predicted, has been fueled by travel reductions, by the increased need for professional development in the workplace, and by perceived cost reductions.
Perspectives on Distance Education
For many years, popular media have created falsely optimistic
or gloomy scenarios about distance education. Peter Drucker
predicted that big university campuses will become relics. "Cyberuniversities
will replace brick-and-mortar . . . . It is as large
a change as when we first got the printed book" (Lenzner &
Johnson, 1997). Other predictions have involved the demise of
the classroom. However, distance education does not remove
or eliminate the need for the classroom, in the same way that
e-commerce does not eliminate stores, e-mail does not eliminate
phones, and information technology (IT) does not eliminate paper.
In epidemiology, after a critical mass is reached, a small
change tips the system leading to large effect (Gladwell, 2000).
In distance education, this tipping point seems to have been
reached in the past fewyears. It is nowcommonly accepted that
distance education is a viable alternative to classroom education
and, despite spam advertising nonaccredited online programs,
much of the d´eclass´e impression left by distance education's origins
in correspondence schools no longer lingers. At the same
time, there is considerable debate about whether online courses
are effective and whether online degrees are valued. To address
the former case, in No Significant Difference (n.d.), hundreds of
studies since 1928 argue that teaching through remote instruction
is as good as traditional methods. To address the latter,
there are distance education programs with excellent reputations,
but, at the same time, there are many that offer a degree
for a fee (Neal, 2003).
There are a number of factors that affect the adoption rates of an idea, practice, or object (Rogers, 1962): relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Looking at each of these factors, it is clear that distance education offers advantages and challenges. Relative advantage asks how much better the innovation is. Distance education at its best can offer education that surpasses most classroom education and, even when not of the highest quality, can offer educational opportunities not otherwise possible. However, distance education at its worst is as bad as the worst classroom experience and, unfortunately, the worst of distance education includes unaccredited programs offering online degrees for a fee. Compatibility asks how consistent it is with what already exists. Much distance education is quite consistent with the classroom but it can go much further, for instance, with simulations and discussions. Complexity asks how difficult is it to understand or use, and the primary difficulty is the skills and technical knowledge that are beyond what is required in the classroom. Trialability looks at how well can it be tried on a limited basis, which is quite easy since many programs offer sample or trial courses. Lastly, observability asks how visible to others the results of using it are, where a well-designed online program should be as good as or better than the classroom equivalent.
The Popularity of Distance Education
Many factors have contributed to the popularity and growth of
distance education. Some are organizational, such as the desire
to reduce cost or increase reach, and others are societal, including
the all-too-pervasive enamorment with technology—just
because it can be done it should be done. Another is the desire
to improve the quality of education, but there is little data
to substantiate this to date (No Significant Difference, n.d.).
Cost savings are one of the most common motivators for starting
a distance education program. Cost can be saved by reducing
learner-related expenses, such as transportation to school, or by
reducing institutional expenses, such as those for classrooms or
buildings. However, it can be expensive to set up technology,
develop courses, and compensate faculty, so the costs may just
shift.
Time savings is another often-stated reason for distance education's popularity. Certainly, for the learner, there can be a reduction in time to get to class. For asynchronous e-learning, there is greater flexibility to take a class at optimal times for the learner based on preferences or schedule constraints. While this potentially removes learner fatigue, when a student is in class based on the class schedule rather than personal preference, it can increase time bankruptcy, when what used to be leisure time is now spent on an online course. Time savings also crops up in the reduced time between identifying a need to learn something and finding and taking a course.
Increased accessibility is another factor contributing to the popularity of distance education. Accessibility includes providing more learning opportunities to diverse students independent of location, provided the students have technology skills, access, and support. This includes students with disabilities for whom an online course is easier to take than one offered in a classroom. When an online course includes peer interaction and discussion, all students can benefit from the increased diversity possible. Lastly, online courses can provide increased access to experts, for instance, when an acknowledged expert can easily offer a guest lecture to a course and is more willing to do so because no travel is needed.
PLANNING A DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAM
Developing a small or large distance education program requires
planning in order to elucidate and meet goals. The planning
steps are to build a team; make sure the team is educated sufficiently
about distance education best practices; and engage as a
group in strategic planning, scenario building, and requirements
analysis. Even if these steps are done in a cursory fashion, they
help with team-building and with informing implementation so
it is clearer what is likely to lead to success and what the stumbling
blocks might be. The most common mistake of distance
education initiatives is to start by evaluating or even selecting
and purchasing technology; this should follow the phases of
planning.
A planning team should consist of people responsible for decision making, budgeting, and managing and implementing the program, with representation from human resources, IT, and so on as appropriate for the organization. The facilitator may be an outsider, who offers a broader perspective from being involved in overseeing other programs, or an insider, who is knowledgeable about the organization and its politics. Sometimes a participatory approach, involving target students and faculty, is desirable, since their perspectives can be helpful. The team should be educated in distance education and should develop a shared vocabulary.
A strategic plan describes how to bridge the gap from the current to the desired state, and provides a well-structured, systematic view of a distance education initiative (Driscoll, 2001). The planning process is often driven by an external force, such as the expansion of an initiative or competitive pressures, but planning is beneficial in all situations. In the planning process, the team articulates and assesses the current state, looking at the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
It selects a planning horizon, which is typically about 2 years, to implement the plan, but may select an additional, shorter horizon of perhaps 6 months to pilot a few initiatives in order to test the waters and get early feedback. The team defines the desired state it hopes to reach and describes this in mission and vision statements that relate to the institution's strategic direction. It determines the resources, constraints, and budget and develops a realistic schedule and project plan. If the distance education program is internal, it is valuable to determine the readiness of the organization (Readiness Assessment, n.d.).
Market research and a competitive assessment (Competitor Analysis, n.d.). help in identifying best of breed and understanding what has been successful for other institutions—or what has failed and why. They help shape the distance education program and determine the target learner population. A good example of this is the extensive assessment the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) did that led to OpenCourseWare (MIT Open- CourseWare, n.d.). In the analysis, they discovered that many for-profit online programs were failing to make a profit, which led to the idea of putting courses online for free (Shigeru Miyagawa, personal correspondence, 2003).
Not only have many of the programs they looked at since failed, but MIT ended up with more in grant money to fund their initiative than their most optimistic estimates of the revenue a for-profit program would generate. In addition, the publicity they received is invaluable. Once the target population has been defined, a needs assessment helps in understanding what is likely to work for the target population and can prevent failure based on erroneous assumptions. The very diversity among students that can enrich online learning also presents challenges with respect to designing courses that take into consideration the learner population.
Age, background knowledge, technical knowledge, and comfort and experience using technology are just a few student characteristics that can affect an individual's online learning experience. While no two learners are alike, in traditional classes variations among students are typically easier for an instructor to gauge. While differences in technology savvy may impact to some extent the range of tools a student might use to complete a task in a traditional course, students who are not comfortable with technology can feel intimidated and fall behind very quickly in the online world. These issues, compounded by cultural differences, potential language barriers, and potential wide variation with respect to geographic location (and the resulting time differences), can make defining and designing courses for a target population complex. Careful planning, however, can address many of these issues while meeting additional challenges that may not be so easily addressed in a traditional setting (e.g., leveraging technology to accommodate disabilities).
Scenario building is a facilitated, systematic process to define the experience of the various communities, learners, teachers, support staff, and other people impacted by or impacting a distance education program (Neal, 2000). It does not focus only on what happens when taking or teaching a course, but looks at everything that precedes, follows, and impacts what happens when taking or teaching a course and determines what is needed for members of these roles to be successful in their role. The process involves a number of steps: determining who will be involved in developing, delivering, supporting, administering, or taking courses, and prioritizing these to order the next phase.
Starting with the most important perspective, usually that of the student, the relevant demographics, characteristics, skills, needs, constraints, and motivators of members of that category are outlined. This may include computer and Internet literacy, work or study environment, and other time commitments. The group then determines what happens when a representative of that category, or persona, carries out his or her role, i.e., taking, teaching, or supporting a class. The result of the scenario-building process is a list, which is then prioritized, of the needs and requirements from that role's perspective for the distance learning program. Subsequent perspectives are usually easier to consider after the first, and the entire process leads to requirements analysis and planning for the program.
Media analysis follows scenario building, providing recommendations for the delivery of capabilities that meet the needs of the target learner population as well as the other constituents (IHETS, n.d.). These recommendations may include asynchronous technologies, synchronous technologies, and learning management, possibly integrated with existing educational and Internet capabilities. The media analysis task includes a detailed requirements analysis. Together with the strategic plan, this forms the basis for selecting the right capabilities to meet the vision and needs on a distance education initiative. The process of media analysis requires careful selection of the optimal technology and training mode out of the myriad available. It is not enough to simply incorporate the most recent technological advances into a course - this does not guarantee an optimal learning environment. Media analysis can be performed in prioritized steps, where any program is constrained by cost, deadlines, market, technology or bandwidth issues, and so on.
The first decision is whether face-to-face interaction is needed, and, if so, whether it should be for the entire course, to kick off or end the course, or intermittent. The reasons for having face-to-face interaction are for sensitive topics, developing relationships, or supervised practice. The second decision is what the desired level of supervisory involvement should be and in what capacity. Possible roles include instructor, facilitator, moderator, subject matter expert, tutor, mentor, or coach. A person in one of these roles can provide or reinforce learning, support students or facilitate interactions among students and can do so in an proactive manner or in a passive manner, for instance, by being available to answer questions. This is very different from the prominent role that a teacher plays in classroom education, and self-paced online courses may not provide anyone in a supervisory or teaching capacity.
The third decision is the amount and type of peer interaction. While the classroom is rarely a solitary place, some courses integrate more teamwork and collaboration than others. In an online course, the range is from a solitary, self-paced course to a highly collaborative and interactive course in which group projects and discussions play a major role. The advantages to projects and discussion are the support and context students provide for each other, as well as the enhanced learning that can result. The disadvantages, and one of the reasons that the self-paced style is sometimes preferred, is that the more interactive style requires technology to support collaboration as well as ongoing human guidance and support.
The fourth decision, course delivery, leads directly from the previous one: determining whether this will be a synchronous, asynchronous, self-paced, or blended solution based on how much of and what types of interaction will be supported, as well as scheduling and time zone issues. It is also at this point that it makes sense to determine if courses will have start and end dates or be open-ended and how content will be accessed— online, offline, or both. Some thought may go into what material students retain following a completion of a course—whether synchronous sessions are archived, for example, and students retain access to these sessions. The final step is to determine the course style and components. This includes how information is conveyed, for example, through lectures, discussion, and online materials; what the look and feel and interactivity these materials will have; the extent to which materials will be developed from scratch or repurposed from existing materials; the extent to which courses will be tailored or adapted to learning styles; and what students are expected to do, for example, projects, simulations, and tests, and how these will be conducted. While many aspects of course design may be determined by the nature of the courses, assignments and testing may be determined in part by the type of program, since a degree-granting program requires evidence upon which to assign grades.
