VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2, 1997
Editorial
The Study Guide: Foundation of the Course
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts, click
here)
Tenure, Promotion, and Distance Education: Examining the Culture of Faculty
Rewards
Linda L. Wolcott
Trends in Research and Practice: An Examination of The American
Journal of Distance Education
Margaret Koble and Ellen L. Bunker
Toward an Effective Model for Implementing Distance Education
Programs
David A. Keast
Grass Roots
The Learning Council: Corporate Distance Learning in Action
Phyllis Saltzman
Evaluation Method of a Distance Course Using WWW Technology
in Brazil
Mônica G. M. Magalhães and Dietrich Schiel
Interview
Speaking Personally with Frederic Michael Litto
Yolanda Gayol
Book Review
Brave New Schools: Challenging Cultural Literacy through Global Learning
Networks
by J. Cummins and D. Sayers
Kyle L. Peck
Media Review
Best Seat in the Class: A Renaissance Through Technology
Landra L. Rezabek
EDITORIAL
The Study Guide: Foundation of the Course
Michael G. Moore
The foundation of every good distance education course is the study guide, whether in an electronic version or the far more popular form of a printed handbook. I was faced with a familiar problem recently as I worked with a team spending no less than $5 million on instructional video programs. I struggled to explain to them that it would be worth their while to turn their attention from the finer details of their videos and spend more of their time, and some of their money, on developing a good study guide. Academics' (and trainers') excitement at being involved in video production, and also of beginning to explore the possibilities of interactive telecommunication is understandable and should be encouraged. However, if they can also learn to develop a good study guide, they improve the chances that their electronic media will be successful. The fact is that there are many elements of a course that cannot be carried by video, or in interactive sessions as well as they can be communicated in a text. In the future, these may be carried just as well by CDROM, a World Wide Web page, or electronic file transfers. However, by comparison to teaching through a printed study guide, a method which has been tried, tested, and researched over many years in most countries, teaching by these media is in a very primitive stage of development.
Some of the topics carried by the study guide are:
- introducing the course, with a statement
of goals and objectives;
- presenting information, with the instructor's comments;
- giving directions for working with the course text(s)
and supporting reading(s), watching video, and using other media;
- explaining and encouraging good study techniques;
- suggesting practical work or other activity outside the
course;
- advising about the preparation and submission of written
and other assignments;
- explaining the grading scheme, if grades are given, and
other graduation requirements;
- giving self-testing questions to be answered, or issues
to be discussed for the purpose of self-evaluation;
- providing a schedule of when lessons or units are to
be completed, and advice about how to use the time allotted for study;
and
- supplying information about how and when to contact a tutor or counselor.
These different types of information and activities must be organized into a coherent system of lessons, modules, or units. In courses that involve teleconferences, each unit of the study guide may correspond to a separate teleconference. Course developers will find that the best place to work out this structure is in developing the study guide.
The study guide should be written in a relatively informal, conversational tone rather than a literary or scholarly one. Clarification of difficult concepts, personal anecdotes or examples, commentary about points of disagreement with the text or readings, or the raising of questions for students to think about, all help to establish a more conversational atmosphere in the study guide.
Just as the classroom teacher has a repertoire of techniques for drawing attention to certain points of importance, and to planting questions or ideas for bringing synthesis and closure, so all these can be accomplished on the printed page through skillful layout. Important factors include choice of typefaces, indentation, graphics, and headings, all of which have pedagogical impact. One of the most important factors of a successful layout is allowing ample "white space," which literally gives the student "space to think."
The study guide is quite different from a textbook or a book of readings; these are intended to communicate information. While the study guide may also communicate information, its primary purpose is to communicate teaching. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "a tutorial in text." For practitioners seriously concerned with effective teaching, as well as administrators concerned with cost-effectiveness, there is much benefit to be gained from turning some of their attention from the more impressionistic-and usually more costly-electronic media, and investing time and money into the study guide.
Tenure, Promotion, and
Distance Education: Examining the Culture of Faculty Rewards
Linda L. Wolcott
This article notes the outcome of a study that evaluated "the relationship between distance teaching and the faculty reward system." Information sought included: how teaching at a distance is seen as highly important, recognized, and accommodated within the institutional reward structure.
The method used for this study was a qualitative approach. It is based on an earlier study of the evaluated reward practices in the area of distance education "at forty-five institutions that comprise the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET)." The study under consideration here evaluated four research institutions that had taken part in the first part of the study. The data were amassed through semi-structured interviews. Thirty-two people participated; they were faculty and administrators from the four participating research universities. The author believes this approach yielded a "rich description" of distance teaching and its rewards.
A summary of the findings follows:
- Distance education occupies a marginal status."
- "Distance teaching is neither highly valued
nor well-rewarded as a scholarly activity."
- "Distance teaching is not highly related
to promotion and tenure decisions."
- "Rewards for distance teaching are dependent on the academic unit's commitment to distance education."
Results of this study point to the following:
distance education should be made more cohesive, universities should critically
evaluate the present faculty reward systems, and universities would do
well to consider having mentors for junior faculty who may have the interest
and energy to apply to distance education.
Trends in Research and Practice: An Examination
of The American Journal of Distance Education 1987 to 1995
Margaret A. Koble and Ellen L. Bunker
Koble and Bunker did a review and analysis of articles published in the AJDE from it's inception until 1995. The authors based their analysis on Porter's "Forum Analysis" which provided a template of questions. The study was limited to the major refereed articles in nine volumes of AJDE. The basic unit of analysis was author, information about the author and the abstracts. The secondary unit of analysis covered ACSDE policy and procedure papers, editorials, and Center staff interviews.
Since the AJDE was first published in Spring 1987 it had
as its expressed purpose "to disseminate information and act as a
forum for criticism and debate about research and practice of distance
education in the Americas". Articles were classified into 7 categories;
Theory, Policy and Development comprised the largest category with 25.6%,
followed by Media and Delivery System (Effectiveness/Evaluation/Methods)
with 20.9% of the articles. There was a sharp increase in the number of
articles on media, with a similar pattern in the presentation of findings
on evaluation and effectiveness. Articles in the next most commonly represented
categories were: Institution, Staff, and Management, 15.5%; Student Psychology,
Motivation, and Characteristics, 14.7%; Faculty Participation and Instructional
Process, 10.9%; and Course Design and Curriculum Development at 10.1%.
Trends noted include: change in emphasis from correspondence study to
telecommunication technologies and interaction in distance education,
expansion of initial emphasis "on the delivery of higher and continuing
education for adults", to be inclusive of secondary students. There
was an increase in articles concerning faculty concerns, but a lack of
articles on student administration and student support issues.
Toward an Effective Model for Implementing Distance Education Programs
David A. Keast
Keast notes that postsecondary education institutions face a large number of "challenges and constraints". These educational institutions must offer more varied services to students who are quite diverse culturally, geographically and in socio-economical status. What makes this situation even more challenging is the need to use resources that are far from abundant. There is only one constant: the ever-present need to adapt. An example of this is reported in the article wherein a partnership between three postsecondary institutions in Alberta, Canada, namely, the University of Alberta, Fairview College, and Kayas Cultural College is discussed. This partnership offered a selected small number of beginning level Faculty of Arts courses; courses were most often delivered using synchronized, multi-point video-conferencing to up to six locations. The sites were remote northwestern areas of the province; a little more than 70% of the students were Aboriginal. All of the courses originated at the University of Alberta campus.
The focus of the partnership is mostly administrative. Four
methods were used to collect data, namely, "written surveys, interviews,
observations of classroom instruction, and document analysis. The respondent
groups for the study included students, administrators, instructors, and
on-site support staff." Keast believes that the methods employed
need to be viewed as "the management of innovation".
The emphasis should be on more than "the efficiency of technological
functioning" in the planning and carrying forward of systems of distance
education or else you are only evaluating a single dimension of a process
that is multi-dimensional. A more service focused approach takes into
account, in addition to technical procedures some other areas critical
to students' success. These include administrative, tutorial, teaching
aspects, etc, all of which are "intimately linked with educational
accountability."
