VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3, 1998
Editorial
The Global Distance Education Network
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts,
click here)
Assessing Distance Learners' Satisfaction with Instruction: A Quantitative
and a Qualitative Measure
Annette C. Sherry, Catherine P. Fulford, and Shuqiang Zhang
Beliefs of Certified Public Accountants toward Distance
Education: A Statewide Georgia Survey
Kathy J. Perdue and Thomas Valentine
Academic Advising in Baccalaureate Distance Education
Programs
Robert F. Curry, Roger G. Baldwin, and Martha Smith Sharpe
Being Unreal: Epistemology, Ontology, and Phenomenology
in a Virtual Educational World
Roy Lundin
Interview
Joint Vision 2010 Initiative: Speaking Personally with Kenneth P. Pisel
and John C. Shulson
Karen Brooks
Book Reviews
Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education
by A. W. Bates
Sally M. Johnstone
Distance Learners in Higher Education: Institutional
Responses for Quality Outcomes
edited by Chère Campbell Gibson
Don Olcott, Jr.
EDITORIAL
The Global Distance Education Network
Michael G. Moore
For people who need to know about distance education, the World Wide Web is a wonderful new tool. It provides access to the world's libraries and other information sources, including numerous distance teaching institutions around the world, to anyone with access to a computer, modem, and telephone. This is especially important for policy makers and practitioners in rural and other isolated environments. For the first time in history, educators in developing countries have access to information on equal terms with their counterparts in the most developed areas. However, there are three problems that currently make the Web less valuable than it may first appear.
The first problem is that most of the truly valuable information resources about distance education are not available in this medium. Most research and scholarly materials were, and continue to be, published and available in hard-copy text in journals or books, and most internal institutional documents that might be useful models for practitioners are also not available electronically.
The second problem is that while the Web carries a vast volume of information, little of it has been organized; the user has to spend many hours and be very patient and dedicated to plow through masses of information in pursuit of what is useful. Finally, since there is no control of what is published on the Web, unlike previous publication outlets, a great deal of what is published is of dubious and sometimes inferior quality.
This month sees the unveiling of a new resource aimed at overcoming, or at least beginning to overcome, these problems in regard to finding quality information about distance education on the Web.
The Global Distance Education Network (GDENet) is a Web-accessible collection of documents about distance education, particularly distance education related to human development in economically underdeveloped societies. These documents have been carefully selected from the world's resources in this field and are organized in what is believed to be a logical, coherent, and user-friendly system. This resource is intended to provide policy makers and practitioners, particularly those in developing countries, with quick and straightforward access to critical information on any aspect of distance education as a strategy of economic and social development.
GDENet has been organized by a team at the WorldBank as part of the Bank's new knowledge management system. The team has attempted to gather, organize, and disseminate information about long-established practices in distance education as well as news on cutting edge innovations, particularly those relevant to development and for developing countries.
Developing the Network
In Phase One of what is conceived as a three-year, three-phase development,
the GlobalDistanceEducationNet team has conducted a year-long, global
literature search. A set of approximately 300 key knowledge sources has
been selected. These knowledge sources consist of articles and chapters
by leading authorities on distance education, as well as examples of good
practice, case studies documents, and knowledge tools gathered from the
world&127;'s premier distance teaching organizations. These items
have been organized in a knowledge taxonomy developed by myself, consisting
of four domains: teaching-learning, management, technology, and policy.
Each domain consists of twenty-eight subsets, each a different area of
knowledge. A particularly demanding activity has been obtaining permission
from copyright owners for these intellectual goods to be placed on the
Web. The WorldBank team was assisted by the International Center for Distance
Learning at the British Open University in carrying out this task. After
being selected, documents were electronically processed for placement
on the World Wide Web by Communications Development Inc., a Washington,
DC firm specializing in Web management.
Plans for Further Development
Phase Two of the GlobalDistanceEducationNet development plan calls for
the establishment of regional nodes in different parts of the world, thus
making it a truly global network. At a meeting held at WorldBank Headquarters
on June 10-13, 1998, an agreement was reached in principle, and plans
were laid for implementing this regional system. Representatives of distance
education organizations in Costa Rica, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
South Africa, Spain, and the Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Learning
attended the meeting. During 1998-1999 these Partner organizations will
set up Web sites using the GlobalDistanceEducationNet taxonomy. Each partner
will populate its site with knowledge resources derived from and representing
the best distance education practices in its particular geographic region.
Links from the GDENet core site at the WorldBank to each Regional site
will enable information seekers anywhere in the world to obtain access
to a global pool of sources, with navigation through the collection facilitated
by pointers in each domain of the knowledge taxonomy. To ensure high quality
in the items selected, each region will establish an editorial board,
and representatives of all partners will together comprise the editorial
board for the core site.
GlobalDistanceEducationNet is a dynamic system. Items in the pool of resources will be changed on a quarterly basis as a result of a systematic scanning of new resources by teams in the Partner and core institutions and also by GDENet users. Sites will present materials in various languages, beginning with English, Spanish, and Chinese. Complementary services to be developed in 1998-99 include asynchronous listservs and synchronous discussion groups.
Through Web resources such as GDENet information and research
about distance education can become available to an ever widening population.
Please visit the site and give your feedback, including suggestions for
materials that may be useful for other visitors to the network. For more
information on GlobalDistanceEducationNet visit the Web at:
http://www-wbweb4.worldbank.org/disted/
Assessing Distance Learners'
Satisfaction with Instruction: A Quantitative and a Qualitative Measure
Annette C. Sherry, Catherine P. Fulford, and Shuqiang Zhang
In order to assess distance learners' satisfaction with their instruction the authors evaluated two approaches to student evaluations for use in the area of distance education. The physical separation of learners from instructors in distance education bring with it actual and perceived problems; therefore understanding interaction in distance education is important. The following two studies were done by the researchers: "A study of the psychometric quality of the interaction survey-a quantitative measure of interaction-was initiated with eighty-four university distance learners. Also studied was a qualitative, interactive, formative evaluation approach, Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), in which a facilitator gathers data about instruction from students".
The two studies were conducted at a major university
located in the western part of the United States that had a history of
early and on-going preoccupation with in distance education. Sherry et
al. use as a guide Moore's (1989) "taxonomy for interaction, both
evaluation approaches reveal students' reactions to specific and multidimensional
factors that affect their learning in this milieu". The results of
the study indicated that both methods of evaluating distance learners'
were effective.
Beliefs of Certified Public Accountants toward
Distance Education: A Statewide Georgia Survey
Kathy J. Perdue and Thomas Valentine
Perdue and Valentine note that their study of certified public accountants (CPAs) in Georgia was to see their views of the use of distance education to obtain continuing professional education (CPE); they note that there had been little research in that area before. Professionals in many areas need to pursue further education to acquire updated information in their fields. Accounting is an area in which information is changing rapidly; only five years after information is acquired in this field, only fifty percent remains relevant. Since CPE is mandatory for CPAs, distance education is an important option.
A literature search began this research project, followed by an analysis of the literature, then a 25-item questionnaire was prepared. The purpose of the survey was the measurement of three sets of variables: "professional and personal characteristics; perceived effectiveness of distance education for CPAs collectively; and perceived effectiveness of specific distance education media".
The results showed that CPAs in Georgia find
that distance education is an effective way to learn and that they have
the technology necessary to be involved in distance learning. The data
resulting from this study indicate (from a practical point of view that
it is a good time to increase the availability of distance education to
CPAs. It is important for program planners to consider these results.
Since CPAs are required to have continuing professional education, the
researchers believe that there would be receptivity to distance education
in order to meet this professional requirement.
Academic Advising in Baccalaureate Distance Education Programs
Robert F. Curry, Roger G. Baldwin, and Martha Smith Sharpe
Curry's study was based on his doctoral dissertation
"Academic Advising in Distance Education" that examined advising
practices in distance education. Data were collected from US distance
education universities that had at least one baccalaureate program using
electronic delivery of instruction. Eighty-nine surveys were sent to institutions
meeting the above criteria. Only three previous studies could be found
that focused on academic advising in US distance education programs: (Beitz)
(1987) Fornshell, 1993, and Trent (1993), all suggesting that academic
advising is potentially an important part of student support services.
Means of communication most often used for advising: real-time telephone
conversations were the most frequently used, 55% rank these as the most
common means of communication, and 94% ranked them in the top three; in-person
communication, 26% ranked this as second most common; and written correspondence
by mail was third most common at 11%. These three forms of communication
between advisor and student were reported by a majority of the institutions
as the most frequently used forms of communication between distance learners
and their advisors. Curry recommends that it is important for advisors
to pursue ways to develop a personal relationship with their distance
advisees, that all academic advisors should have both an advising handbook
and campus referral directory to aid in giving clear and correct information,
and lastly, that individual advisors and the advising program itself should
be evaluated.
Being Unreal: Epistemology, Ontology, and Phenomenology
in a Virtual Educational World
Roy Lundin
Lundin's article is based on a concept advanced by H. G. Wells in 1938 in "World Brain/World Mind" in which education was the main focus. Wells' concept was based on options available in 1938; he envisioned the best thinking and information available in one location as a World Encyclopedia to "provide access for informed decision-making". He imagined this as hard copy since today's options for open learning with flexible or online databases were not a consideration. Lundin's article looks at flexibly in educational programs and how they are delivered in "terms of the possibilities now available for extending the body and the mind through electronic communications. Issues are raised regarding what is true and the nature of reality in the virtual world of the Internet". "Since the publication of Wells' book, and particularly during the last fifteen years or so, the development of a global Virtual World Brain via the Internet has taken place. Although this is significantly different from Wells' original concept, much of his original thinking still applies".
There is a major difference from what H. G. Wells envisioned and the current phenomenon of the Virtual World Brain/World Mind which can possibly include everyone, even children with computer access, whereas Wells imagined "an elite group of thinkers contributing to an authoritative collection of best knowledge". A critical point of this article is that an educated public needs to be selective in the use of the Internet; since there are few external prohibitions or regulations, individuals need to develop their own discriminating skills to be able to judge the "authenticity, quality, validity, authority, and reliability of information".
