VOLUME 5, NUMBER 3, 1991
Editorial
Distance Education Theory
Michael G. Moore
Articles (for abstracts,
click here)
Effectiveness and Costs of Distance Education Using Computer-Mediated
Communication
Ruth H. Phelps, Rosalie A. Wells, Robert L. Ashworth, Jr., and Heidi A.
Hahn
Faculty Perceptions of Interactive Television Instructional
Strategies: Implications for Training
DeeAnn N. Gehlauf, Mark A. Shatz, and Tim W. Frye
The Role of Facilitators in Virginia's Electronic
Classroom Project
D. Michael Moore, John K. Burton, and Norman R. Dodl
A Navy Video Teletraining Project: Lessons Learned
William L. Maloy and Nancy N. Perry
Comparison of Performance and Attitude in Traditional
and Computer Conferencing Classes
Hui-Chuan Cheng, James Lehman, and Penny Armstrong
Student Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Correspondence
Instruction
Suzanne St. Pierre and Larry K. Olsen
Interview
Speaking Personally with Sandra H. Welch
Jinny Goldstein
Book Review
Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice
by John R. Verduin, Jr. and Thomas A. Clark
Kyle L. Peck
EDITORIAL
Distance Education Theory
Michael G. Moore
The recent publication of two books, one by Verduin and Clark (1991) about distance education and the other by Candy (1991) about self-directed learning, both of which include discussion of theoretical work that I wrote in the early 1970s, has led to the suggestion that I might summarize those theoretical ideas in this journal. I was recently invited to give a talk on the concepts of distance education at a conference organized by the State College and University Systems of West Virginia, and found a greater interest than I had expected in ideas about the conceptualization of distance education. Since it is possible this subject might indeed be of some general interest, I will proceed to elaborate on the idea of transactional distance. The subject of learner autonomy, or self-direction, will be given a minor place in what follows; perhaps we can take it up on another occasion.
Over the past twenty years I have enjoyed the interaction with colleagues around the world as we have struggled to conceptualize our new field of study; I hope that what follows will both extend interest in the subject, and also widen the circle of fellow students who will correspond about this fascinating subject.
The Need for Theory
We must not hide the fact that there is a great deal of confusion about
terminology in the distance education field. In particular the use of
the term "distance learning" is troublesome since it suggests
actions of one person, i.e., the learner, that are independent of the
actions of teachers. Yet every so-called "distance learning"
program is in fact a teaching program as well as a learning program and,
therefore, can only correctly be referred to as distance education. The
point is not that the concepts of distance education have not been defined
and explored, nor that there is unanimity among scholars about their meanings.
In this journal there have been several articles that have both contributed
to the progress in conceptualization, and identified the areas of disagreement.
What is needed is more discussion about and understanding of these efforts
to organize our knowledge, as well as more careful and thoughtful use
of terms. Understanding how we "organize our knowledge" means
to understand our theory. That's what theory is: the summary and synthesis
of what is known about a field. It is the reduction of our knowledge to
the basic ideas, presented in a way that shows their underlying patterns
and relationships. Understanding theory makes it possible for us to speak
with a common vocabulary. Understanding it should have the effect of helping
practitioners see where their piece of the action fits and interfaces
with others and thus should lead to better ways of working with others.
The theory also helps us understand what we don't know and, therefore,
is the only guide to research. Research that is not grounded in theory
is wasteful. It might solve an immediate problem, but it doesn't fulfill
its promise. Relating it to theory, however, increases its ability to
solve other problems in different times and different places. In our theorizing
we rise above immediate and local concerns and find out what is general
and long lasting. This gives us a broad perspective that enables us to
analyze the particular instance more effectively; it helps us make decisions
that are guided by fundamental teaching and learning principles rather
than by the pressure of a particular crisis or the dazzle of a fresh opportunity.
Transactional Distance
The first attempt in English to define distance education and to articulate
a theory appeared in 1972 (Moore 1972) and in 1980 was named as the theory
of transactional distance (Moore 1980). Analysis of the literature that
was summarized by this theory led to the important postulate that when
we talk about distance education we are referring to a distance that is
more than simply a geographic separation of learners and teachers. It
is a distance of understandings and perceptions, caused in part by the
geographic distance, that has to be overcome by teachers, learners and
educational organizations if effective, deliberate, planned learning is
to occur.
The concept of Transaction was derived from Dewey (Dewey and Bentley, 1949). As explained by Boyd and Apps (1980) it "connotes the interplay among the environment, the individuals and the patterns of behaviors in a situation" (p. 5). The transaction that we call distance education occurs between individuals who are teachers and learners, in an environment that has the special characteristic of separation of one from another, and a consequent set of special teaching and learning behaviors. It is the physical separation that leads to a psychological and communications gap, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner, and this is the transactional distance. Little is known about transactional distance and much research is needed to understand it better. What follows are conjectures that have at least stood the test of over twenty years' discussion among distance education scholars in several countries, and that might be further elaborated and more formally tested.
It now appears that transactional distance is a continuous rather than a discrete variable, a relative rather than an absolute term. In any educational program there is some transactional distance, even where learners and teachers meet face to face. What is normally referred to as distance education is that subset of educational programs in which the separation of teacher and learner is so significant that it affects their behaviors in major ways, and requires the use of special techniques, and leads to special conceptualization. The relative nature of transactional distance means also that within the subset of educational programs that we call distance education programs there are many different degrees of transactional distance. When we recognize that distance education is education, we can apply much that we know about teaching and learning from conventional education in both our theory and practice of distance education. In practice, however, we discover that transactional distance in many programs is so great that the teaching we deliver cannot be just like conventional teaching. On the contrary, the transactional distance is such that special organizations and teaching procedures are essential.
These special teaching procedures fall into two clusters, and what determines the extent of distance in a program is a function of these two sets of variables. These are not technological or communications variables, but variables in teaching and in the interaction of teaching and learning. The two sets of variables are labelled dialogue and structure.
Dialogue describes the interaction between the teacher and learner when one gives instruction and the other responds. The extent and nature of this dialogue is determined by the educational philosophy of the individual or group responsible for the design of the course, by the personalities of teacher and learner, by the subject matter of the course, and by environmental factors. The most important of these is the medium of communication. For example, an educational program in which communication between teacher and learner is solely by television permits no dialogue; the student might make a response to a teacher, but no consequent response by the teacher is possible. A program by correspondence is more dialogic, yet not to the same extent as one taught by computer conference because of the pace of interaction. Even in programs that have been described as having no dialogue, such as when the learner is working with print, audio, or video-recorded media there is a form of highly structured learner-instructor dialogue. In such situations the learner's dialogue is with the person who in some distant place and time organized a set of ideas or information for transmission to, and interaction with, an unknown distant reader, viewer, or listener. At the other extreme, the interactive electronic media permit dialogue that is more dynamic than that between expert and learner using a recorded medium, and such programs are therefore less distant.
The second set of variables that determine transactional distance are elements in the course design; they are the ways in which the teaching program is structured so that it can be delivered through the various communications media. Programs are structured in different ways to take into account the need to produce, copy, deliver, and control these mediated messages. Structure expresses the rigidity or flexibility of the program's educational objectives, teaching strategies, and evaluation methods. It describes the extent to which an education program can accommodate or be responsive to each learner's individual needs. A recorded television program for example is highly structured, with virtually every activity of the instructor and every minute of time provided for, and every piece of content predetermined. There is little or no opportunity for deviation or variation according to the needs of a particular individual. This can be compared with many teleconference courses, which permit a wide range of alternative responses by the instructor to students' questions and written submissions.
Putting together the dimension of dialogue and structure, it can be seen that a typical television program is highly structured and teacher-learner dialogue is nonexistent, so that transactional distance is high. In the correspondence program there is more dialogue and less structure. At the other extreme, the extent of transactional distance is likely to be relatively low in those teleconference programs that have much dialogue and little predetermined structure.
The above discussion should make it clear that the extent of dialogue and the flexibility of structure varies from program to program, rather than from one medium to another. In programs with little transactional distance, the learner receives directions and guidance through both the structure of the course and dialogue with an instructor. In more distant programs, learners have to make their own decisions about study strategies. Even where a course is structured to give directions and guidance, if there is no dialogue, students may decide for themselves whether the instructions will be used and, if so, when, where, in what ways, and to what extent. Thus, there is a relationship between transactional distance and learning style, since the greater the transactional distance, the more autonomy the learner has to exercise. Thus it can be argued that while transactional distance is a characteristic of every educational program, and that programs differ in transactional distance according to the extent of dialogue and structure within them, there is also variability in the transactional distance between teachers and learners within each educational program, resulting from the interaction of dialogue, structure, and the characteristics of each learner.
What determines the success of distance teaching is the extent to which the institution and the individual instructor are able to provide the appropriate opportunity for, and quality of, dialogue between teacher and learner, as well as appropriately structured learning materials. Frequently this will mean taking measures to reduce transactional distance by increasing the dialogue through use of teleconference, and developing well structured printed support materials. Unfortunately what is appropriate varies according to content, level of instruction, and learner characteristics, especially the optimum autonomy the learner can exercise. Much time and effort therefore has to be devoted to understanding the needs of learner populations, and individual learners, to analyzing the content to be taught, to determining the exact learning objectives, the type and frequency of learner exercises and activities and evaluation procedures, and the relationship between the learner and instructors. In other words, much care should be given to determine both the structure of the program and the nature of the dialogue that is sufficient and appropriate for each set of particular learners and, ideally, each individual learner. There are no quick or ready-made answers to the question of how much dialogue or structure is needed and desirable for effective learning. Nevertheless, addressing this question is likely to provide a better basis for making decisions about when and how to use media and other resources than any other strategy available at the present time.
References
Boyd, R., J. W. Apps, et al. 1980. Redefining the Discipline of Adult
Education. San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.
Candy, C. 1991. Self Direction for Lifelong Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Dewey, J., and A. F. Bentley. 1949. Knowing and the Known. Boston: Beacon Press.
Moore, M. 1972. Learner autonomy: The second dimension of independent learning. Convergence 5 (2): 76-88.
Moore, M. 1980. Independent study. In Redefining the Discipline of Adult Education, ed. Boyd, R., J.W. Apps, and Associates, 16-31. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Verduin, R., Jr., and T. A. Clark. 1991. Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Effectiveness and Costs of Distance Education
Using Computer-Mediated Communication
Ruth H. Phelps, Rosalie A. Wells, Robert L. Ashworth, Jr., and Heidi A.
Hahn
A portion of an Army resident course was converted
for distance study via computer-mediated communication (CMC). Students
and instructors communicated with each other using computers at home,
thus creating an "electronic classroom." Test scores, completion
rates, student perceptions and costs were compared to resident training.
Results showed CMC performance is no different than resident, and completion
rates and costs are less than resident instruction. (24 references)
Faculty Perceptions of Interactive Television Instructional Strategies:
Implications for Training
DeeAnn N. Gehlauf, Mark A. Shatz, and Tim W. Frye
Perceptions of the effectiveness of various instructional
strategies utilized in interactive television classes were investigated.
Instructors who had experience teaching interactive television courses
at Ohio University were surveyed. The results showed that the instructional
methods most frequently used in interactive televised courses were those
methods associated with traditional classroom instruction (e.g., lecture
and overhead notes). The instructional methods deemed as effective for
interactive television courses were much more audio-visually oriented
(e.g., videotapes and slides). Instructors also indicated a desire for
training prior to entering interactive television classrooms. The implications
of the findings for future research and the development of training programs
are discussed. (10 references)
The Role of Facilitators in Virginia's Electronic
Classroom Project
Michael D. Moore, John K. Burton, and Norman R. Dodl
This paper provides background information about the
statewide delivery of televised instruction to schools with a satellite
downlink in Virginia. It presents the project history, guidelines for
classrooms and facilitators, description of actual facilities, and the
role and selection of local facilitators. Finally, the article reports
conclusions about the project based on an independent investigation.
A Navy Video Teletraining Project: Lessons
Learned
William L. Maloy and Nancy N. Perry
Video teletraining (VTT) is a distance learning technology
with great potential for restructuring the schooling process. This article
describes the approach the Naval Education and Training Command took,
and the issues it faced in designing an implementation plan for a Navy-wide
video teletraining system. "Lessons learned" in the areas of
policy, instruction, management, and system architecture are discussed
and generalized in terms of their implications for other organizations
who may be planning VTT systems. Finally, the need for this nation to
fully exploit VTT's potential is addressed. (9 references)
Comparison of Performance and Attitude in
Traditional and Computer Conferencing Classes
Hui-Chuan Cheng, James Lehman, and Penny Armstrong
The article describes a study of the effectiveness
of computer-mediated communication (CMC) used in a graduate-level instructional
computing course in Indiana. In spring 1989, twenty-five regular on-campus
students and twenty-eight off-campus in-service teachers took part in
the study. The off-campus group comprised both correspondence students
and CMC students. The study compared the three student-groups' achievements,
time-on-tasks, and attitudes. In conclusion, the article suggests that
computer conferencing can be an effective teletraining device for academic
institutions. (6 references)
Student Perspectives on the Effectiveness
of Correspondence Instruction
Suzanne St. Pierre and Larry K. Olsen
The article reports a study on students' perception of instructors and instructional impact in terms of student satisfaction with the delivery of college credit correspondence courses. The findings were based on a student perception questionnaire that was mailed to 700 random students who completed college-credit courses via correspondence study from The Pennsylvania State University during a one-year time period. (12 references)
