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WHAT IS DISTANCE LEARNING?
HOW DO I FIND A GOOD ONLINE PROGRAM?
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE CLASSES?
WHAT IS THE "DOWN SIDE" OF ONLINE CLASSES?
WHO IS THE ADULT LEARNER?
DO I HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL DISTANCE LEARNER?
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WHAT IS DISTANCE LEARNING
Distance Learning (DL), or Distance Education (DE), is simply learning over a distance, usually from home, work, or a conveniently located off-campus site. DL allows adults to earn college credits or entire degrees without ever leaving home.
There are a variety of formats used, and sometimes more than one is used in any given course. For instance, distance learning may occur by surface mail or email interaction, video tape recordings, interactive or cable television broadcasts, satellite uplink and downlink communications, or with other internet technologies such as message board, chat rooms, and desktop video or computer conferencing. Whether you're a visual or auditory learner, you'll find a method to complement your learning mode.
Online courses have many things in common with traditional classes - there are still instructors, classmates, course materials and assignments. But the online environment offers much more flexibility. You can work on the course material at your convenience, any time of day. Working in the comfort of your home, there's no need to worry about traffic, travel time, and parking to "get to class." You are in more control of your schedule, deciding how best to fit the course into your calendar, rather than arbitrarily working family, job, and other activities around a predetermined class time.
Studies indicate that online learning can be effective. Thomas Russell of North Carolina State University reviewed research on all types of distance learning and concluded that there was "no significant difference" between inside- and outside-classroom education. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which funds the development of university online courses, came to the same conclusion. Says program director Frank Mayadas, "If the same professor is offering the same course and has offered it online and on campus, the results are equivalent and even tend to favor off-campus learning." Arizona State University compared test results of its online M.B.A. students with those enrolled in the traditional program and found that the online students scored higher.
"Anybody that says online education is just another promise is ignoring what online education is already doing," says Bob Kerrey, president of the New School in New York City and former senator from Nebraska. "It's allowing people to learn in ways that were impossible before." The models vary greatly. The U.S. Army War College's two-year program in strategic studies requires book reading, paper writing, and thoughtful Internet discussions among its 300 participants. Meanwhile, Harvard Business Online uses spreadsheets, case studies, and video clips to teach a quick course on finance for managers. With programs like Harvard's, students can move at their own pace and take time to review lessons. Students don't just receive information online, say advocates, they wrestle with knowledge and make it their own.
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HOW DO I FIND A GOOD ONLINE PROGRAM
Luckily, there are some shortcuts to finding a good online program. One way to find the best is to limit your search to providers approved by one of the six regional accrediting bodies, the association of the specific field you plan to study, or a state agency. Accreditation assures you that the institution has qualified faculty, sophisticated instructional materials, and a well-stocked library. However, as with all things Internet, the situation is more complicated than it appears: A lack of accreditation doesn't necessarily mean a lack of quality. For example, the University of Phoenix mainly employs adjunct teachers. That means the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business won't give the stamp of approval to its M.B.A. program, but the National League for Nursing passed its nursing program because that organization does not require a staff of tenured, full-time faculty.
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WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE CLASSES
Online classes offer a high degree of flexibility. Although there are deadlines to be met each week, the student has a great deal of freedom as to when s/he visits the "virtual classroom" and prepares assignments for presentation. Studies have found that online learning experiences can be equally or more effective than traditional classroom instruction. Additionally, the level of interactivity is actually increased in an online environment, so that students get more one-on-one attention from the instructor and have more dialogue with classmates than when in a typical classroom setting. Finally, in an online class, every student's "voice" is "heard" and cannot be interrupted.
Some proponents of online education argue that its ability to foster thoughtful discussion-through E-mail, chat rooms, and discussion boards-may be the technology's greatest strength. At the well-regarded Walden University, which has been offering Ph.D.'s online since 1993 to students some of whom have gone on to teach at Yale University, serve in the Bush administration, and head up companies, faculty prepare weekly discussion topics for chat rooms and participate in extensive E-mail conversations with students. Other schools, like the University of Baltimore, ensure student-professor interaction by requiring students to log on at least three times a week and grading them on their contributions to the discussion boards. At the end of such courses, there can be over 3,000 postings on group discussion boards. For Wendy Sahli, 30, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland-University College, getting gobs of individual attention from a professor via E-mail was one of the best aspects of her online coursework: "In traditional classrooms, class time is precious. (With E-mail) I feel like I can ask the instructor questions without distracting the other students."
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WHAT IS THE "DOWN SIDE" OF ONLINE CLASSES
Online classes tend to be more rigorous and fast paced than their classroom counterparts. A semester of work can be condensed into six to eight weeks. At least the same number of hours of students' time per week is required, the main difference being that the time spent driving to and from a campus location and the time spent in a classroom will be spent on class related activities and projects. In many online classes the weekly total time dedication will exceed that of a traditional class. This is due to the condensed nature of online classes.
There are certain challenges that need to be considered before taking on online class. Oral presentation skills are not developed through distance learning as effectively as campus-based instruction because of virtual classroom formats. Interpersonal skills, such as conflict resolution, team building and group leadership, are more successfully developed in face-to-face situations than in the DL environment. Social interaction and exposure to different people, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds might not be as fully experienced. Drop-in services, such as career centers, can be less available through distance learning, or are accessed electronically.
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WHO IS THE ADULT LEARNER
The adult learners in today's society are considered a rapidly growing population. They are professionally active adults who are often educating themselves and their children simultaneously. Many adult learners seek higher level degrees and updated knowledge to expand their professional opportunities. They are seeking information updates or a change in their long-term career situation through educational achievement. Studies have indicated that adult learners look at education from a consumer perspective. They tend to be more selective about how and where they receive their education. They care about price but also about the responsiveness of colleges to their unique needs and questions. Therefore, they may shop around among the many undergraduate and graduate colleges that offer distance degrees.
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DO I HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL DISTANCE LEARNER
At minimum, the student choosing to take an online class must have the following skills and technical capabilities:
- Access to the Internet
- An e-mail address
- General knowledge in Internet browser settings and configuration, e-mail and file attachments, uploading and downloading files
- Use of a word processing package
- Ability to conduct on-line research
Distance students should be thoroughly comfortable manipulating the Internet and not frustrated by inevitable technical glitches. They should be willing to spend an hour or two a day sitting in front of a screen. Distance learning requires a great deal of written communication, either when submitting homework or "talking" with other students and professors via e-mail.
A successful online learning experience requires certain abilities that may be different from the conventional classroom skills. With the increased flexibility and the absence of prearranged face-to-face classroom sessions comes the additional responsibility for more self-direction and self-discipline from participants. You will have to manage your own time. And while the class usually does not meet at a specific time, there are still deadlines for assignments and expectations to keep up with weekly material in order to participate in class discussions.
While there are several questionnaires online that can help with self evaluation (please see Resources), the following questions can be helpful:
- When committed to doing so, do you complete assignments and meet deadlines?
- At some point during an average day, can you find one or two hours to engage in dialogue, discussion, reading, research, or thinking?
- As a professional with substantial experience, do you think you'd enjoy the give and take that comes with helping others learn, as well as learning from, and collaborating with, learning team classmates?
If the answers were yes, then you're likely to do well in an online learning environment.
The next thing to examine is how you learn best. Because the Internet is so flexible, courses can be created in a variety of shapes and sizes, from streaming-video lectures in real time to instructorless simulations to E-mail-heavy university courses that require students to read books. Students can pick the format that best suits them. "Without question, adjusting to differentiated learning styles is one of the greatest benefits of online learning," says Carol Vallone, chief executive officer of WebCT, a company that provides the technical backbone for hundreds of universities' online courses. The company has even developed a program that modifies how content is delivered to different students in the same class based on their learning styles.
Distance learning demands students who can work independently without a lot of prompting. "We're not in the business of motivating you to learn," says Frank Mayadas, Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Asynchronous Learning Networks in New York, New York. Sitting in a classroom with a professor asking questions is a powerful inducement to be prepared. Sitting alone with a pile of assignments, and no professor in sight, affords the temptation to put off doing the work.
"You have to be able to stay on task. It's easy to lose interest when you're not interacting with others," suggests Patricia Sullivan Lynch, a distance learning student taking a University of California Extension, Berkeley course in integrative biology from her home in South Salem, New York. She has a passion for the subject and so is able to squeeze in assignments between caring for her three children and starting a business called Sea Wonders, which brings marine education programs to camps and schools.
The successful distance learner must be able to accomplish tasks in small pieces rather than big chunks of time. It's like fitting an education into the cracks of your life. Lack of this skill is one of the major reasons why students drop out.
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