VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3, 1990
Editorial
Editorial
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts, click
here)
Using a Creativity Paradigm to Evaluate Teleconferencing
Thomas E. Heinzen and Susan M. Alberico
An Analysis and Evaluation of Audioteleconferencing
D. R. Garrison
An Instrument for Evaluating the Potential Effectiveness
of Electronic Distance Education Systems
S. Todd Stubbs and Byron R. Burnham
Integrating Telecommunication Systems to Reach Distance
Learners
Charlotte N. Gunawardena
Perceptions and Actions of Distance Educators on Academic
Procrastination
T. W. Wilkinson and T. M. Sherman
Forum
Questions and Research Strategies: Another Perspective
Connie Dillon and Lola Aagaard
Interview
Speaking Personally with Stanley A. Huffman
Margaret Koble
Media Review
Issues in Inter-state Delivery of Educational Programs Using Telecommunications
Technologies
Sally Johnstone
Book Reviews
Online Education: Perspectives on a New Environment
Edited by Linda Harasim
Greg Kearsley
Expanding Access to Knowledge: Continuing Higher Education-NUCEA
1915-1990
Edited by R. W. Rohfeld
Chere Campbell Gibson
Workshop Report
Morten Flate Paulsen and Philip W. Pinder
It was only as we neared the end of the process of assembling the final copy for this issue of our journal that I recognized that three of the titles for articles we had selected, after the usual review by two or more referees, contained the word "evaluation" and either the words "teleconferencing" or "telecommunications." After considering whether to ask authors for titles that would indicate the differences between the articles, I decided there was a message of some importance in the fact that there was such commonality, and that the titles suggested by the authors should be allowed to stand. It is clear, as illustrated by the titles of these articles, that there is much interest in questions of effectiveness in American distance education, especially evaluation of effectiveness of educational telecommunications. It is also clear that there is considerable pressure on scholars and researchers to provide evidence about exactly for whom, when, in what subjects, under what conditions, and in what ways distance education is an effective, especially a cost effective, means of instruction and learning.
As a partial response to this pressure, faculty and
students at The American Center for Study of Distance Education contributed
to the Fall, 1989 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report called
Linking for Learning: A New Course for Education, with a review of the
distance education literature as it pertained to effectiveness. Now we
have decided we can provide an additional service to the field by publishing
the abstracts of that effectiveness literature, together with our commentary,
and this is now available as a monograph from AJDE office.
Leading in this issue of AJDE, Heinzen and Alberico ask an important
and rather unusual question about effectiveness, as they focus on whether
teleconferencing can be used to teach workers to be creative, concluding:
". . . the variables identified elsewhere in creativity literature
as conducive to creative thinking need to be carefully planned into the
teleconference content."
Garrison focuses on audio-conferencing, and reports that student evaluations show learner appreciation for the effectiveness of this medium, which provides not only immediate teacher feedback but also has the power to bring students together in learning groups for dialogue and support. Stubbs and Burnham then deal with the question of the effectiveness of total electronic distance education systems, and they offer an instrument that is intended to assist practitioners in evaluating total effectiveness. Gunawardena uses a qualitative, unstructured research approach to identify the issues post-secondary institutions need to address when planning to adopt and effectively integrate a telecommunication system into an existing organizational structure.
Reading these articles, dealing as they do with changes in curriculum, instruction and educational organization, I was reminded of a recent meeting at which a professor commented that there was need for a journal that would cover the views of those academics and others who were seeking, and committed to, major transformation of our educational system, especially the K-12 system. Surprised, since I believed he knew The American Journal of Distance Education, I said that this journal sought to carry debate about the views and research of anyone who had such things to say about new ways of teaching and organizing education. I pointed out that distance education means profound changes in education and is much more than simply adding on new communications technology to existing educational organization. It seems that he, like many others, has not yet grasped the pedagogical, instructional, and philosophical implications of the learner or learners being more or less permanently separated from the teacher. This separation does result in a profound transformation, not only by opening up educational opportunity to previously unreached populations, not only by changing education from a process that must be squeezed into the years of schooling into a process of lifelong learning, but also by changing the ownership of knowledge and therefore the power and authority relationships between teachers and learners.
I would like to invite anyone who has an interest in transforming education through the use of communications media to send their ideas to this office, either as an article for AJDE or to be shared on the more informal medium of DEOS, the Distance Education Online Symposium that meets on CompuServe.
Using a Creativity Paradigm to Evaluate
Teleconferencing
Thomas E. Heinzen and Susan M. Alberico
The need to create creativity within a rapidly changing workforce is addressed by using a creativity model to evaluate teleconferencing as a means to that end. The model is based on a componential paradigm of creativity developed by Amabile which includes the components of task motivation, creativity-relevant skills, and domain-relevant skills. An additional component of communication effectiveness is included as a necessary component for creating creativity through teleconferencing. A retrospective pre-test/post-test design was adopted for the study after more traditional approaches proved inappropriate for this form of action research. The data indicate that participants across three teleconferences perceived teleconferencing to be more effective than anticipated at motivational (task motivation component of creativity), skills development (domain-relevant skills component of creativity), and communication effectiveness but less effective than anticipated at problem solving effectiveness (creativity-relevant skills component of creativity). The information is interpreted within the context of the cognitive demands unique to teleconferencing and offers guidelines for the design of future teleconferences. (8 references)
An Analysis and Evaluation of Audioteleconferencing
D. R. Garrison
This paper is a description, exploration, and evaluation of a technology that is changing the view that distance education has to be an individual and private learning experience. That technology is audioteleconferencing. After briefly describing the forces in society that precipitated this transition, the characteristics and potential impact of audioteleconferencing are explored. Finally, the results of an evaluation of numerous audioteleconferencing courses over a three-year period are presented. (10 references)
An Instrument for Evaluating the Potential Effectiveness
of Electronic Distance Education Systems
S. Todd Stubbs and Byron R. Burnham
The purpose of this article is to describe a procedure which can be used as a guide for prior selection of Electronic Distance Education (EDE) devices. The procedure, called a Potential Effectiveness Inventory (PEI) estimates potential effectiveness of EDE devices by examining five dimensions of distance education. These dimensions are communication paths, ease of use, realism, time and place independence, and speed. Expert opinion as to the importance of each of these dimensions was measured by a survey and was used in the formation of the PEI. (19 references)
Integrating Telecommunication Systems to Reach
Distance Learners
Charlotte N. Gunawardena
The article discusses the results of a study on obstacles to introducing videoconference-based distance education into a traditional university. It focuses on the issues postsecondary educational institutions should address when they plan to integrate a telecommunication system into the organization. The article also synthesizes recommended practice. (7 references)
Perceptions and Actions of Distance Educators
on Academic Procrastination
T. W. Wilkinson and T. M. Sherman
The article describes a study on the dimension of
academic procrastination in telecommunication-based higher distance education
programs. It reports the results from a survey among 276 distance programs.
The focuses of the survey were on: to what extent academic procrastination
was perceived as a problem, what data distance educators collected on
procrastination, and what strategies they use to combat procrastination.
(11 references)
