The Present and Future of Distance Learning

Abstract

Distance learning is not new; but the arrival of the personal computer, the expansion of the Internet, and the willingness of national and regional accreditation agencies to consider other than traditional instructional milieus has encouraged the rapid development of online courses. It is useful to remember that the personal computer which has been critical to the development of Internet-based on-line learning is only about 20 years old; and the systems are becoming faster, more powerful, smaller, and more affordable. At one time, I held the title of Supervisor of Pre-college at the University of Nebraska Extension Division. In those years, high school correspondence programs at Nebraska hosted to 18,000 enrollments per year. These included students who wanted courses not available in their home district (enrichment), students located in rural and international locations where high school instruction in English was not available (a form of advanced standing), students who for health reasons were homebound, and students who, for one reason or another, had to make up missed or failed high school work (remediation). Enrolled also were working adults who had not completed a high school education before joining the labor force or the military. Other than the on-line feedback provided by most of today's web-based programs, instruction was very similar to that of today. Courses were written, mostly by experienced secondary school teachers, to meet text book standards or state curriculum guidelines. The instructional materials normally consisted of a syllabus, textbook(s), study guides, and occasionally laboratory items or 78 rpm records (for foreign language instruction). Instruction was provided, largely, by experienced, certified, secondary school teachers who often authored course syllabi. For the most part, the faculty worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days per week, in large rooms equipped primarily with desks and chairs. US Mail delivered the lessons that were distributed to the faculty. Some faculty wrote long criticisms and comments on the worksheets; other treated the lessons in a very perfunctory manner (based presumably on the premise that learning took place when the student wrote the lesson-not four to six weeks later when the lessons were returned to the student). My personal experience with modern distance learning includes completing a course in 19--offered through an organization in New York named ConnectEd and managed through a computer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The course was entitled Introduction to Telecommunications, the textbook related to something called Managing High Tech Real Estate, and the faculty member was an attorney living in San Francisco. The students were from the United States and United Kingdom; One was the stage manager for the road production of Cats. He would sign in from various cities (Denver, New Orleans, Dallas) as the course progressed. In recent years, I have had the responsibility for teaching one week of a graduate course entitled Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Development at the University of South Alabama. The topic of my week relates to why the principles of instructional design have not had more impact in the higher education classroom. When considering the future of distance learning, it is useful to consider the various types of learners who will be motivated to take advantage of these opportunities. A typical on-line customer today is the working person who wishes to upgrade his/her skills or who want to increase his/her employment opportunities. There is no substitute for the traditional four years of on-campus life for most 18-22 year old students, or for that matter, for their parents. The opportunity to extend adolescence is valued by learners and their parents alike. However more young people are becoming aware of the opportunities provided by the on-line model in terms of enrichment, advanced matriculation, and full alternatives to the traditional model. …