VOLUME 6, NUMBER 3, 1992
Editorial
Teaching in Distance Education: A Faculty Perspective
Leslie N. Purdy and Stephen J. Wright
Articles
(for abstracts, click here)
Faculty: The Neglected Resource in Distance Education
Connie L. Dillon and Stephen M. Walsh
Making the Written Word
"Speak": Reflections on the Teaching of Correspondence Courses
Jay A. Holstein
Classroom, Open, and
Distance Teaching: A Faculty View
Michael Catchpole
Remote Delivery of Instruction
via the PC and Modem Connections: What Have Faculty Learned?
Roger L. Boston
Changing Faculty Roles
for Audiographics and Online Teaching
Charlotte Gunawardena
Interview
Speaking Personally with Sally Haag
Elizabeth Burge
Media Review
Access to Distance Learning: The National Distance Learning Center
Jodi Reed
Book Review
Beyond the Text: Contemporary Writing on Distance Education
Edited by Terry Evans and Bruce King
Helen Buckley
GUEST EDITORIAL
Teaching in Distance Education: A Faculty Perspective
Leslie N. Purdy and Stephen J. Wright
The purpose of this special issue of AJDE is to provide an opportunity for faculty representing a range of distance education methodologies to reflect upon their experiences as distance education teachers. The need for such an issue was first identified in a meeting of the Editorial Board of AJDE at which we were asked and enthusiastically agreed to serve as guest editors for the issue. Each of us has long felt that faculty have not been adequately included in the literature and discussions about distance education and hope that this issue will begin the process of correcting the problem.
When we began discussing the details of the task, we agreed that we wanted to include both a range of distance education methodologies-traditional independent study, telecourses, computer-mediated communications, teleconferencing, audioconferencing, one-way video, two-way audio, and audiographics-as well as a balance of institutional settings and academic disciplines. After talking with the authors for this issue and reading their articles, we believe the validity of our initial commitment has been confirmed: teaching a telecourse at a public two-year college is a very different experience from teaching a correspondence course at a full-service university, which is different yet again from teaching graduate students via audiographics. While all these experiences are classified as "distance education," studying the different perspectives they provide may change our theories, future research, and administrative practices.
Within the expanding field of distance education the focus of most published scholarly articles has been on the technologies used in distance education, their application to conventional classroom teaching, and the acceptance of the media used in distance education by students involved in the learning process. Further, articles that deal with distance education theory, course design, and the implementation of specific forms of distance education teaching to targeted student groups abound. Lacking in almost every case has been any type of comprehensive treatment of the changed role of the teacher or instructor involved in distance education.
Is teaching students through any or all distance education methods really nothing more than adapting traditional classroom approaches, techniques, or styles to situations where communication with the student is via written lessons or computer exchange in asynchronous time formats? Is there nothing more to distance education instruction than putting a camera or microphone in front of instructors and allowing or encouraging them to replicate their traditional classroom teaching style or technique? Or, as we believe, does true distance education imply something much more than a simple modification of what is done in the "live" classroom?
Charles Wedemeyer recognized early the need for a change and modification of faculty role in teaching at a distance. In a 1981 book Wedemeyer states,
What is different about learning via technology today is the scope of learning facilitated by technology, the altered role of teachers and learners, the changed environment for learning necessitated by technology, and the sophistication of the process used in developing instruction that will be communicated by technology. (p. 111)
Writers like David Grossman have argued that the disadvantages of the required changes in faculty roles in distance teaching outweigh the advantages (Grossman 1987). Otto Peters disagrees, stressing the advantages to faculty in the changes in role necessitated in teaching via distance education: "As tutors and consultants have largely been relieved from the task of conveying course matter, they are able to devote themselves to a considerable degree to more demanding tasks, such as aiding motivation, providing individual support, structuring course content for students, identifying problems and establishing connections" (Peters 1983, 108). These views reflect the differing perspectives on the change in faculty role inherent in virtually any form of distance teaching. What this special edition of AJDE seeks to explore is how distance education faculty view these changes. We seek to go beyond statements of theory and let the instructors themselves talk and engage readers in a debate of this important issue.
We asked our authors to explore the issue of whether or not the approaches and techniques they use in their distance education teaching are transferable to other forms of teaching using other media. Are there common skills that can be shared between all distance education teachers? If so, what are they? How do these skills differ from those required to be effective in the traditional classroom? Does it take a special sort of teacher to be effective in the unique situation where student and instructor are separated by time or place or both?
While we are cognizant of the need to let readers determine for themselves the significance and commonality, if any, of the faculty experiences contained in these articles, we must be permitted one observation. Overwhelmingly, we believe, the faculty writing in these pages speak of a fundamentally altered role for the teacher who instructs at a distance. They talk about having to "let go" of old, deeply ingrained notions of what the teacher's role in the learning process should be. It is not that the technology underpining distance education drives the system but rather that fundamental changes in teaching style, technique, and motivation must take place to make the new "classrooms" of the present and future function effectively. This, in our judgement, is one of the many messages emerging from these stories.
We wish to thank Professor Michael Moore and his editorial and publishing staff for their encouragement and support of this project. Special thanks to our authors, who eagerly stepped forward to share their experiences as distance education teachers.
References
Grossman, D. 1987. Hidden Perils: Instructional Media and Higher Education.
Washington, D.C.: NUCEA Occasional Paper 5.
Peters, O. 1983. Distance teaching and industrial production: A comparative interpretation in outline. In Distance Education: International Perspectives , eds. D. Sewart, D. Keegan, and B. Holmberg, 95-113. London: Croom Helm.
Wedemeyer, C. A. 1981.
Learning at the Backdoor: Reflections on Non-Traditional Learning in
the Lifespan. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Faculty: The Neglected Resource in
Distance Education
Connie L. Dillon and Stephen M. Walsh
Through review and synthesis of the literature, this article
analyzes the research on faculty in distance education. Change theory
is used as the organizing framework for this review and analysis. The
article describes the characteristics of faculty who teach at a distance
and analyzes such factors as incentives for distance teaching, leadership
issues, training needs, ownership, and compatibility with traditional
academic values. Review of the literature reveals that leadership is the
most neglected factor in the development and implementation of distance
education. In contrast, institutions put primary emphasis on training:
within the literature, faculty development is defined primarily in terms
of training in specific techniques or technologies. The authors conclude
that institutions must not only provide training, but, more importantly,
work to develop an organizational atmosphere that encourages and supports
faculty growth and development.
Making the Written Word "Speak": Reflections on the Teaching
of Correspondence Courses
Jay A. Holstein
This article presents an analytic description of the author's
experience in teaching correspondence courses and probes some of the fundamental
differences between communication via the spoken word (i.e., teaching
in a classroom) and the written word (teaching correspondence courses).
Focusing particularly on the problem of communicating with clarity in
a situation in which immediate checks on understanding are impossible,
the author describes his method for suffusing the flexibility of speech
into student manuals for correspondence courses. The goal of this effort
is creation of a text that transcends time and space by engaging readers
in 'conversation' with the author.
Classroom, Open, and Distance Teaching: A Faculty
View
Michael Catchpole
This article compares and contrasts a faculty member's experiences
within three instructional delivery systems: classroom teaching, open
learning, and distance delivery. More specifically, the author describes
how British Columbia's geography, combined with the changing needs of
students with jobs and families, encouraged him to explore open and distance
methodologies for students unable to attend regular classes. Any educational
transaction may be seen as having two key features: provision of course
content to students and provision of opportunities for student- instructor
and student to student interactions. New communications technologies,
by facilitating both processes, are lessening differences in the interaction
potential of classroom, open, and distance teaching.
Remote Delivery of Instruction via the PC and Modem
Connections: What Have Faculty Learned?
Roger L. Boston
Modem delivery provides an educational context in which
students may be at any distant location, yet connect their personal computers
at convenient intervals via telephone and modem to a college's host computer,
thereby asynchronously communicating with their instructors and fellow
students. On the basis of his several years of experience as an instructor
of credit courses by means of modem delivery, the author reflects on the
differences in character between the traditional lecture/lab approach
and this newer form of educational delivery. The article includes background
on the implementation of the system, describes the unique aspects of this
form of delivery, compares the interaction potential of modem and traditional
delivery, cites the unique skills needed by successful instructors and
students, and discusses the problems and frustrations encountered as well
as the effects of experience with modem delivery on traditional classroom
teaching and personal teaching style.
Changing Faculty Roles for Audiographics and Online
Teaching
Charlotte Gunawardena
In this article the author reflects on her experiences and professional growth as a distance teacher in two settings: in a graduate course at a distance using audiographic conferencing and computer-mediated communication (CMC) and in a multi institutional computer discussion introduced as part of a traditional face-to-face graduate class. The discussion of these two experiences explores and analyzes the unique skills needed for distance teaching in each situation; the significant challenges, rewards, and frustrations; the quality of the learning experiences; the ways in which distance teaching differs from traditional classroom teaching; and the impact of distance teaching on the author's teaching theories, practice, and professional growth. On the basis of these experiences she concludes that support systems for distance teaching coupled with opportunities for professional development are essential to sustaining facultymotivation and recruiting new faculty to the distance teaching enterprise.
