VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2, 1987
Editorial
Homogenization of Instruction and the Need for Research
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts,
click here)
Behavior Analysis in Distance Education: A Systems Perspective
Dan O Coldeway
Is Instructional Television Educationally Effective?
A Research Review
Nil Whittington
Behavior Analysis in Distance Education: A Systems
Perspective
Dan O Coldeway
Pacing in Distance Education: Something for Everyone?
Douglas G. Shale
...And Six to Grow On
Dee Brock
Computer Conferencing and
Education: Complementary or Contradictory Concepts
Amy F. Phillips and Pamela S. Pease
A Historical Overview of the Application of Telecommunications
in the Health Care Industry
Joseph S. Anderson
Forum
The Role of the Faculty Member in Distance Education
John Strain
Interview
Speaking Personally with Michael P. Lambert
Nancy Ludlow
Media Review
Networking with the Networks
Gary E. Miller
Software Review
Media Selection Tools
Charles E. Feasley
Book Review
The Foundations of Distance Education
by Desmond Keegan
Becky Duning
EDITORIAL
Homogenization of Instruction and the Need for
Research
Michael G. Moore
In an address at the recent convention of the National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA), Dr. Grossman, director of Independent Study at the University of Minnesota, reiterated his views about distance education, earlier reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education (2-11-87). Grossman's thesis is that the university should refuse to incorporate into its curricula courses produced outside, and should insist on producing and teaching only its own distance education courses. Courses produced outside are usually "well produced, attractive, and inexpensive," often "superior to on-campus courses." However, they change the role of the professor and the nature of instruction. Faculty members are forced to "change from being creators of instruction to being managers of resources and students, and from speaking for themselves to disseminating someone else's views." The externally produced course results in "homogenization of instruction," eliminating disagreements about methods and course content. Conceding the development of courses to an outside agency means a loss of the creative dynamic process that characterizes the traditional university. It is possible to offer off-campus students quality instruction delivered through modern technology, but only if institutions use their own faculty and develop their own programs.
As Dr. Strain comments in the "Forum" section of this issue of A.J.D.E., Dr. Grossman has made a contribution in expressing these and related concerns about the impact of new educational methods on traditional teaching. These are important matters that should not be ignored. Based on the experience of some of us who have been academics on national course teams and have also used nationally produced materials in our own teaching, Dr. Grossman greatly exaggerates faculty impotence both on course teams and in instruction. It is pointless though to counter opinion and assertion with alternative opinion and assertion. These questions must be resolved through research and, it is hoped, through publication in this Journal of these research results.
The claim that courses produced outside the university are often superior to on-campus courses needs to be tested. What types of externally produced courses are superior, i.e., lead to better learning? Are they superior for all students? For students in particular subject areas? For students at every level of college study? For students with particular socio-economic, previous educational, or learning style characteristics? Practitioners and researchers must provide reports of their research on student learning as dependent variable, testing the independent variables of on-campus and externally produced courses, and student-course interactions including those mentioned. Next, is it true that faculty who write and produce externally produced courses contribute to the homogenization of knowledge? This is not a new idea. There is a danger that "Knowledge is regarded as a fairly passive thing," wrote one professor, "unproblematic, something that needn't be considered a subject of debate, rather a commodity presenting problems only in terms of its marketing" (Wood 1981). But need this be so? Is it not possible for distance educators to prepare their courses in ways that do stimulate both debate and knowledge-creating exchanges between professors and students? One guide to writing independent study units explains: "As you are probably used to teaching, don a tutorial hat while preparing your unit and try thinking of the seven to eight hours that students will spend working on it as a day spent in your company" (Watson and Stainton-Rogers 1980). Could this work? In face-to-face teaching it is common to present leading questions to students and to induce general principles from the responses that are based on their particular experiences and circumstances. In programming a study guide for the distance learner might a similar approach be adopted? On the first page of a course about the field of adult education, it is stated: "In a subject so new there is inevitably a great deal of uncertainty, controversy, and even confusion about the dimensions and boundaries of the field, about its theories and concepts, about the most suitable tools for analysis, and even about how it should be defined." The study guide then continues:
How would you define adult education? What activities would you include in this field? What do you think the subject matter should be? Think about these questions for a few minutes and write down a definition. (Moore 1984)
Is this homogenization? It is not easy to encourage knowledge creation at a distance-but homogenization is certainly not inevitable.
Turning from the correspondence study guide to television, among techniques used to make television more interactive are: use of questions prior to viewing of a sequence that requires analysis and then an answer; vicarious question-asking where members of the filmed audience ask questions of the speaker; filmed group discussion; and broadcast notes that aim to promote active viewing (Dallos 1980). What other methods have been tested?
Clearly there are important differences between these attempts
to stimulate learners' ideas and to sensitize the learner to the problematic
nature of knowledge, and the approach that would be used in a traditional
face-to-face educational environment. In particular, in the distance modes
of instruction, we must commit a response to the learners' ideas in anticipation
of those ideas. The course writer will not be able to create new ideas
in conjunction with the learners, as can, and sometimes does, occur in
face-to-face teaching. But just as no ideal form of face-to-face teaching
has been invented not even the famous log with the learner on one end
and Mark Hopkins on the other (or even Mark Twain on the other as we mistakenly
stated in our last issue!) so there is yet no proven form for facilitating
discourse and dialogue by print or television or any other medium. We
do not know to what extent it is possible or in what ways it might be
possible to communicate disagreement about methodology and course content
and the dynamism of evolving ideas. The question has yet to be researched.
We need to hear the results of the efforts of practitioners and researchers
to use their media for these purposes. Can empirical evidence be produced
to substantiate the charge that distance education "homogenizes,"
or the alternative view that such homogenization is merely a failure of
particular course writers and not an inherent weakness in the methods
of instruction? If "creation of new ideas" were defined as a
dependent variable, it would seem possible to design a field survey to
demonstrate the relative efficiency of distance education materials and
conventional courses in teaching creativity. A related study might evaluate
alternative course design techniques for effectiveness in achieving this
objective.
Research is also needed to test the roles of instructors in distance education,
especially Dr. Grossman's thesis that they are reduced to disseminating
others' views, to the subordination of their own. Many of us who have
been instructors using print, audio, and television materials in face-to-face
meetings as well as teaching by correspondence, have found no systematic
difficulty in relating our own emerging ideas to the information and ideas
expressed by other authorities in print or on tape. We have not found
our adult students give less consideration to our views, or are inhibited
by media authority when developing their own. (It has frequently been
known for students to be more inhibited by the authority of face-to-face
instructors!) The following is the experience of one professor of social
psychology who writes about using a videotape program. He says that to
use a tape, or even part of a tape, as if there is an inflexible interpretation
of its learning objective or a particular route through its concepts,
is to court disaster (at lease in social science broadcasts). A videotape
seems often little more than a moving Rorschach projective test for students.
Each group I have encountered seem to want to establish their own points,
or their own anxieties, confusion, etc., over the material and related
course content. The tutor must quickly realize the 'open field' nature
of the television image and the rich association connections it has for
individual learners. A tutor's skill lies in generating and defining "leads"
(questions, comments, asides) supplied by the group, which somehow express
their collective emergent identity and concerns. It is these subtle leads
which have to be turned to pedagogic ends. (Winfield1982)
Again we ask, what empirical evidence is there that instructors who use video, audio, and print courses in face-to-face settings, or instructors in independent, correspondence teaching are forced into a passive rather than a Winfield-approach to teaching? Could a survey be designed? Could not participant observation confirm or refute Grossman's thesis on this issue? If indeed instructors are found behaving in the manner he suggests, what are the implications for research into the procedures for selecting instructors and the methods used in training them?
It is incumbent on both those who design distance learning materials and those who use them in interface with learners to ensure that the criteria of good instruction are met. For academic courses, (and usually but not necessarily for courses in professional, vocational education) an important objective will be the development of the learners' abilities to criticize, question, and analyze the ideas of others, and to synthesize and create ideas of their own.
If this does not occur, the solution is not a retreat to institutional parochialism. Few institutions will spend the million dollars that are required for distance education course of high quality, unless of course they can be assured of a market large enough to justify such expenditures; i.e., a national market. There is a place for cheaper, locally produced courses, but there is also a vitally important place for high-quality, expensively produced, nationally distributed courses. These excellently produced courses can only be successful, however, if there is equally excellent local instruction, and student support services. It is up to the local institution to help central organizations to design programs in ways that enhance learning and then to teach them excellently, according to the highest standards of instruction. There is also a critical, urgent need for research, developmental testing, and reporting of experiences that will contribute to the design and use of materials in ways that achieve the highest of academic standards. The American Journal of Distance Education therefore urges readers to submit their ideas, opinion, and above all, their research findings on these issues.
References
Dallos, R. 1980. Active learning and television. Teaching at a Distance
17:39-44.
Grossman, D. 1987. Hidden Perils: Instructional Media and Higher Education.
Washington, DC: NUCEA Occasional Paper 5.
Moore, M. 1984. Concepts of Adult Education. Milton Keynes: The
Open University.
Thorpe, M. 1979. When is a course not a course? Teaching at a Distance
16:13-18.
Wason, P., and W. Stainton-Rogers. 1980. The art of course angling. Times
Higher Education Supplement, 23 May. 16:13-18.
Wood, G. 1981. Pearls of wisdom and blobs of knowledge. Teaching at
a Distance 20:13-23.
Winfield, I. 1982. Some developments in the use of videotape replay facilities.
Teaching at a Distance 21:83-86.
Behavior Analysis in Distance Education:
A Systems Perspective
Dan O Coldeway
Distance education is a growing area of educational application.
The growth of distance education has encouraged an increase in research
and theory related to distance education and distance learning. This paper
discusses the relationship between behavior analysis, instructional systems
design, and distance education. In doing so, the paper suggests that these
three areas could articulate to form a model of distance education that
has extensive empirical and theoretical support. By utilizing this research
and theory base, distance education could profit and grow extensively
without expending additional resources to develop distance education into
a new discipline of instruction. (27 references)
Pacing in Distance Education: Something for Everyone?
Douglas G. Shale
Pacing has been touted as a solution to the ubiquitous dropout
problem; essential to academic credibility; and an administrative necessity.
The proposition is advanced that discussions of pacing are often at cross-purposes
because the means of pacing are confused with the ends that are to be
served. Furthermore, the language used in these discussions is usually
sufficiently general to reassure all concerned that they are talking about
the same means and the same ends when in actuality they are not. A number
of illustrative situations are developed to demonstrate the importance
of being very clear about why one would consider introducing some form
of pacing; how one could identify those forms of pacing that would support
the end desire; and how one might think about making trade-offs amongst
alternatives. (19 references)
...And Six to Grow On
Dee Brock
This article looks at the history of the PBS Adult Learning
Service (ALS) and draws from this analysis useful insights about and future
trends for the use of telecommunications. Five major elements account
for acceptance of ALS: (1) the demand for quality education delivered
conveniently to adults; (2) timing; (3) local partnerships plan; (4) responsiveness
to the needs of local partnerships; and (5) quality courses. Current trends
work toward overcoming three primary obstacles in using television for
distant learning. Lack of commitment from the top is a barrier, but more
and more CEOs are taking seriously the issue of television. Negative faculty
attitudes constitute another problem; however, research indicates that
increasing numbers of faculty are teaching through television and are
liking it. Dual use of series and development of alternative delivery
systems, such as cable, ITFS, and direct satellite broadcast, are helping
surmount the problem of limited space on television channels. (4 references)
Computer Conferencing and Education: Complementary or Contradictory Concepts
Amy F. Phillips and Pamela S. Pease
This article describes an exploratory study of the use of computer conferencing in a top-level management course. Neither the organization nor the conferencing system used is identified, for the sake of confidentiality.
Seventeen students-all male-holding high-level positions in business and academia, returned a survey form. The primary reason for enrolment was an interest in the computer- mediated communication process itself. Respondents seemed to enjoy using the computer, but added that it was not "a magic substitute for or improvement over other written media." The educational value received mixed reviews from the students. Although the system was acknowledged as useful for the diffusion of new theories and knowledge and for getting insights into new subjects or views, there was dissatisfaction with the structure and learning strategies used.
Several experienced participants felt that the system lacked
good mechanisms for making new members feel comfortable in entering a
conference or making old members feel it worth their time to reiterate
their ideas to new students.
One major barrier to increased participation was the lack of a mechanism
by which each person receives personal attention from the organizational
leaders. (15 references)
A Historical Overview of the Application of Telecommunications in the
Health Care Industry
Joseph S. Anderson
For numerous industries in the U.S., teleconferencing is an effective educational communications medium. The literature supports this premise by suggesting that there is no difference between audio and/or audio-video based communications, and that of traditional face-to-face interaction as it relates to learning outcomes. However, there is a widely held misconception in the health care industry that, from a clinical perspective, teleconferencing provides an inferior substitute for face-to-face interaction. The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with case examples of the application of distance learning past and present uses of teleconferencing as a viable alternative for receiving professional educational programming which may be otherwise difficult to obtain. (10 references)
