Distance degree discussion forum

This popular mode of education frees learning from the constraints of time and space. Welcome to Earth University.

There's a time and a place for everything. And so it was with postsecondary education. But things change. The information age has sparked a new trend in education: learning anytime, anyplace.

Students traditionally have gone to a specific classroom, on a specific campus, at specific times in order to take academic courses. Most still do so, but a growing number of students--many of them adult learners--choose distance learning. In this mode of education, the students and the instructor are separated by space or by both space and time.

Many providers of postsecondary education now offer courses, or even complete degree or certificate programs, via distance learning. These courses may be delivered using the World Wide Web, e-mail, standard mail, telephone, prerecorded video, live video, special software, or other means.

Using technology to free learning from the limits of time or space makes education available to more people. Some of those already in the labor force may find distance learning the only option for upgrading skills, finishing a degree, or pursuing another degree. Distance learning helps many adult learners balance the demands of work and family with their pursuit of more education. Even so, older adults don't have a lock on learning in this way. Some younger, more traditional college students also find advantages in taking a course or two via distance learning.

This article explores the what, why, and how of distance learning:

* What it is

* Why someone might choose it

* How students evaluate course providers.

Internet-based instruction is emphasized be cause it has grown so rapidly in recent years, but other types of distance learning also are explored. A concluding section suggests sources of more information for those who prefer offline resources or who do not have Internet access. The sidebar on page 10 highlights some statistics on distance learning in postsecondary education.

Defining distance learning

The term distance learning applies to a variety of learning situations. Sometimes students and instructors in different places interact using live, two-way video. More often, both time and space separate the learners from each other and from the instructor. The vehicles used for learning range from the U.S. Postal Service to the latest Internet-based technology. Almost all distance learning relies on more than one means of exchanging information across time and space.

Above all, remember that distance learning has more to do with learning than with distance. As Burks Oakley, associate vice president of academic affairs at the University of Illinois, puts it, "I never use the words `distance learning' because, really, it's distanceless learning. It's providing new access to education." Providing this new access should not change the character of learning--just its looks. The status of lectures, the means of interacting, and the methods of evaluating students' work are three features common to the many faces of distance learning.

To lecture or not to lecture

In a distance learning con text, instructors may lecture via non traditional means, or they may not lecture at all. Examples of these alternatives illustrate some arrangements that fall under the category of distance learning.

Lecture. In some distance learning courses, students see and hear their instructors lecture from afar. This requires a broadcast system of some kind. In other courses, instructors prerecord lectures for later viewing, perhaps using conventional videocassettes or Web-based streaming video.

Janet Taylor took several courses through the television-satellite broadcast system of Utah State University Extension while earning her bachelor's degree in history. These courses relied on one-way video and two-way audio for live lecture and class participation. At a scheduled time, students assembled at multiple university extension sites around the State. The instructors lectured at one site, but the students at the other sites could see and hear instructors on a television monitor. Each student also had a microphone at his or her desk.

"A whole class might comprise 25 to 80 people," Taylor says. "I took a couple of courses where there were about 10 people at my local site, a couple where there were 2 or 3 people, and a couple where I was the only one."

Although separated by distance, the various groups of students could follow the lecture and even ask questions. "When you click on your microphone to talk" Taylor says, "everybody in the classroom system can hear, so you feel like you have a group of students all in the same classroom, even though you can't all see each other."

David Goldberg, professor of general engineering at the University of Illinois, teaches two separate sections of a graduate course on genetic algorithms: one in a traditional classroom, the other via distance learning. For the oncampus version of the course, Goldberg gives classroom lectures, which are recorded with a digital camera. In the distance version of the course, students use a common Web browser to view and listen to the previously recorded lectures via streaming video. The video plays in a small window, and a slide show recreating classroom visual aids displays in a larger window. The slides advance in sync with the video lecture.

Lecture notes. Often, instructors who do not lecture provide written information that resembles lecture notes. These notes may include more detail than students might record when taking their own notes in a traditional classroom lecture. Distance learning courses increasingly offer written materials on Web pages to complement textbook readings and other assignments.

Tasha Overton and John Tanner have taken several online distance learning courses without receiving lectures of any kind. In place of lectures, they had access to Web pages with course content. "Basically, you have lecture notes," says Overton, who recently completed a bachelor's degree in computer and information science through the University of Maryland University College. "The course modules are in note form, and the notes go over everything. Then you have your assigned reading, and some teachers add extra notes of their own."

Tanner describes a similar setup for the three courses he has taken online while pursuing an associate of arts degree from Brevard Community College. He sees an advantage in presenting courses this way. "Everything that's covered in an online class is written down, so it's all accessible," Tanner says. "In a regular class, you can always look back at your own notes, but if you didn't take a note on something the teacher said in class, then you're out of luck."

The means of interaction

Any good course offers more than a lecture and some notes. Learning requires students to interact with each other and with the instructor* To enable this interaction, distance learning courses rely on electronic discussion boards, e-mail, chat rooms, the telephone, or some combination of these and other methods. Using various technologies allows for discussion, instructor feedback, and group projects.

Discussion. For courses in which both time and space separate students from each other and from the instructor, electronic discussion boards often provide the main forum for class discussion. "It's a place a teacher can post a series of topics for discussion," says Robert Saturn, a candidate for a master's degree in business communication at Jones International University. "At your own leisure, you go to the site and write a response. Your classmates also write responses. You comment on their responses, they comment on yours, and you have a real back-and-forth dialog."

The discussion boards also allow students to seek aid. When Overton had trouble getting her computer programs to compile for a class in data structures, she turned to her school's discussion board and to e-mail. "I posted [a message] to a new discussion group, and people responded, saying they were having the same problems," says Overton. Suggestions were offered in this venue, and some of her classmates followed up with e-mail messages.

In that case, three students helped Overton through the rough spots, but instructors also participate in the discussion groups. The instructors offer explanations, make suggestions, and moderate student discussions.

Goldberg finds the discussion boards most useful to address issues that students have in common. He thinks e-mail works better for specialized problems, but not always. "There are times when students have tough questions," he says, "and there's no substitute for hopping on the phone and talking to me." For these times, some schools offer students a toll-free number.