VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1, 1994
Editorial
Audioconferencing in Distance Education
Michael G. Moore
Articles
(for abstracts, click here)
Practicing What We Preach: Creating Distance Education Models to Prepare
Teachers for the Twenty-First Century
John F. Lebaron and Charles A. Bragg
What Library Schools
Teach about Library Support to Distant Students: A Survey
Marie A. Kascus
Verifying Key Theoretical
Concepts in a Dynamic Model of Distance Education
Farhad Saba and Rick L. Shearer
Factors Underlying Distance
Learner Satisfaction with Televised College-Level Courses
Paul M. Biner, Raymond S. Dean, and Anthony E. Mellinger
Interview
Speaking Personally with Alan G. Chute
Melody Thompson
Book Reviews
The Emerging Worldwide Electronic University: Information Age Global Higher
Education
by Parker Rossman
Karen L. Murphy
Distance Education: Staff
Handbook
by Harold Markowitz, Jr.
Peter S. Cookson
Managing Distance Education
Courses
By Elizabeth Houdek
Peter S. Cookson
EDITORIAL
Audioconferencing in Distance Education
Michael G. Moore
A participant in an international audioconference recently asked me to discuss some of the advantages of audioconferencing as a medium for distance teaching. My response was based on my belief that audioconferencing is an undervalued method of communication in distance education. It is a method I have been practicing for more than twenty years in several countries and that I use continuously today. When asked to explain my enthusiasm for the medium, I offered the following comments:
I define educational audioconferencing as using the telephone to link distant learners with each other and with an instructor. At each site microphones and loud speakers are used, and multiple sites are joined through a telephone bridge. Let me give you five reasons, illustrated by reference to my own practice, why I think audioconferencing should be considered for your educational and training purposes.
The five reasons can be condensed into one sentence: Audioconferencing is a learner-centered, relatively inexpensive, robust, and flexible medium that can be well integrated with other media in a distance education program. Let me address each of these characteristics of audioconferencing in turn.
First, audioconferencing is pedagogically learner centered. This is probably the most important characteristic of audioconferencing and, to people who have not experienced it, the most surprising thing about the medium. Because audioconferencing is learner centered, programs designed around an audioconference can be of better quality than conventional face-to-face programs. Audioconferencing is learner centered because it provides all learners with the opportunity to be active participants in the learning experience. As a teacher, my top priority is to teach students to be actively involved in the program. The fact that I am not in the room with them both encourages and compels them to be actively involved. One of my main roles is to plan and to conduct interaction among the participants. This element of learner centeredness and interactivity is particularly significant in teaching subjects of high conceptual content, and follows a basic principle of adult education: drawing on the experience of the adult learner. In teaching about education, for example, what I typically do in my audioconference classes (most of which last for at least three hours), is introduce a subject and then set a task, or a problem, or a question for distant groups to discuss or investigate, or in some other way to work on independently. Then I bring the groups together and conduct a period of comparing and contrasting the results of group activity, in this way leading the participants in a discovery of knowledge. My teaching is based on a series of carefully selected questions and a process of inter-student interaction and guided discovery. Of course, this approach is more appropriate with some subjects than with others. When the input of content experts is needed, they can be "brought in" from any place where there is a telephone. One is not dependent on the expertise that happens to lie within a particular geographic region. One course I taught involved guest speakers from seven different countries. When teaching a course about training in industry, I invite the nation's leading trainers to speak and answer questions from their offices. Wherever the real expert is located, he or she can be brought to the students. With some students, the presence at each site of a local facilitator to supervise activity might be necessary. Nevertheless, even where strict supervision and guidance is necessary, periods of input from the distant instructor can be alternated with periods of local activity. The students' activities of exploring, testing, or practicing on their own, when integrated in a careful way with the instructor's and experts' inputs, is a major determinant of the quality of student learning.
Second, audioconferencing is relatively inexpensive. I teach my current class to nine cities and ninety students in four countries. Each institution that offers my course is relieved of the cost of having a specialist in my subject on its staff. My teaching by audio saves (in theory) eight annual salaries and the other expenses of full-time employment. (In reality no institution can afford to employ instructors in a wide range of specialized subjects, so that the choice is not between employing a local specialist or bringing a specialist by audioconference, but rather, in many fields, between having a specialist at a distance or no specialist. Consequently, distance teaching, by audio or other means, effectively broadens the curriculum of the institution.) Each institution has to provide a part-time coordinator to assist me in making local arrangements, and each institution must supply audio equipment and pay telephone charges. Audio equipment will last for many thousands of student hours, and telephone charges, when divided by the approximately twenty people in a group, are inexpensive. Compared to virtually any other method of communication, audioconferencing is very inexpensive.
Third, audioconferencing is robust. A few weeks ago, when asked to give a presentation to Costa Rica by Picture-Tel, the picture phone, I agreed, and asked for tests of the equipment to be run. The equipment did not work, and technicians worked on the problem for several days. Eventually I gave the presentation-successfully-by audioconference. More recently, I was in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have an obligation to teach a course with students in the United States, Mexico, Finland, and Estonia. At 1:00 a.m. I began, and ended at 4:00 a.m. The telephone from South Africa to the U.S., to Mexico, and to Europe worked without any problem. I conducted this course for three hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday, on two different weekends. Please remember that, in these classes, I not only contribute content, but also conduct effective discussions among ninety people in nine cities. This is just one of many examples I can give of the dependability of telephones. Of course I use various procedures to ensure that the system works, including procedures to restore service in case of temporary failure. In the unlikely event that there is a problem with a line or piece of equipment, it is relatively simple to find a replacement. The main point, though, is that telephones work most of the time and are dependable.
Fourth, telephones are flexible. As I just indicated, I can teach a course from almost anywhere, to students anywhere, and I can bring in resources from anywhere to enhance this instruction. Audio teaching needs no special technical support. I need no producers or technicians; I can deliver a teaching program anywhere there is a telephone outlet. I have had speakers for my U.S. classes from as far away as China and India; I have given classes from hotel rooms and offices around the world, and, when students have had to travel on business, they have been able to join the class from wherever they are located. Especially important, after the class they can immediately return to work, taking with them the learning from the class. A good instructor will encourage students to bring work problems from the workplace to the learning program. The medium is also flexible with regard to time. During a class session, I can be confident in telling my distant groups to hang up the phone and disconnect for a period of discussion or other group activity and then to re-dial. I know the audio system will bring everyone back together with a minimum of fuss. This flexibility means I can be economical with phone charges because I don't have to maintain a connection when it is not pedagogically necessary.
Finally, audioconferencing integrates well with other media. In distance education, conducting all the instruction by any one medium is a big mistake. Media choice should always be based on analyses of content, teaching processes, and learner characteristics. Then decisions must be made about what content and what processes will be delivered by print, audio and video recordings, computer mediated instruction, interactive audioconference, computer conference and videoconference. It is always desirable to use at least one asynchronous and one interactive, synchronous medium. In my practice, I occasionally use two-way video conferencing, or sometimes one way video with two way audio. However, my most common method, and what I recommend that you consider carefully, is a combination of audioconference (synchronous, interactive), computer conference (asynchronous, interactive), and print and video recordings (asynchronous, non-interactive.) This combination of media gives the benefits of relatively low cost, flexibility, robustness, and pedagogical effectiveness. It allows for almost any subject to be taught to almost any learner population in almost any location.
Successful use of such
a media combination depends on four things: 1) dependable technology,
2) trained course designers, 3) trained instructors who are able to facilitate
interaction, and 4) trained and effective local support services. These
are the four components of a successful, high quality distance education
system. One can have an excellent system based on audioconferencing; however,
the purchase of audioconference equipment in itself will not guarantee
good distance education. To ensure high quality distance education, one
must invest in course design and training. The time and money invested
in course design and in training for design, delivery, and facilitation
of courses by audioconferencing will be a much better investment than
will spending the same money on more advanced communications technology
or spending on face-to-face instruction. If courses are well designed
and interaction is well conducted, distance education based on an audioconference
system will be cost effective and efficient.
Practicing What We Preach: Creating
Distance Education Models to Prepare Teachers for the Twenty-First Century
John F. LeBaron and Charles A. Bragg
Americans are urging a major transformation of the public
schools. Many schools are responding by integrating technology throughout
their whole structure. Pre-service teacher education is not keeping pace
with these changes. By the year 2000, the majority of an aging teacher
workforce will have retired or resigned, creating a window of opportunity
for technology leadership in teacher education. Distance education can
help educators seize this opportunity. By infusing distance education
strategies into the whole fabric of pre-service instruction, teacher educators
can design constructivist pedagogical models for students to emulate in
their own subsequent teaching. Using a judicious combination of interactive
technologies, faculty members can develop and direct student-centered,
problem-oriented activities for students at remote sites. The failure
of teacher preparation institutions to reform their curricula in response
to and in anticipation of changes occurring in schools may render them
irrelevant to the educational transformations predicted for the coming
decade.
What Library Schools Teach about Library Support
to Distant Students: A Survey
Marie A. Kascus
This study examined the extent to which the topic of library
support for off-campus and distance education programs is represented
in the curriculum of schools of library and information science and the
attitudes of library school deans and directors regarding the issues and
problems associated with these programs. A questionnaire was mailed to
deans and directors of all American Library Association-accredited library
schools in the United States and Canada. Of the fifty-nine questionnaires
distributed, thirty-nine were completed and returned. Findings from the
survey provide baseline data on the current level of commitment to coursework
on library support for off-campus and distance education programs, and
indicate that the topic is minimally represented and of a low priority
for most deans and directors of library schools.
Verifying Key Theoretical Concepts in a Dynamic
Model of Distance Education
Farhad Saba and Rick L. Shearer
Theory driven, data-based, and empirical studies are needed
to verify and solidify distance education's conceptual foundation. The
project reported here had two main goals: 1) to empirically verify the
concepts of transactional distance, structure, and dialogue, and 2) to
develop a methodology for achieving the first goal. Drawing on three different
fields--distance education, system dynamics, and discourse analysis--the
project measured nine key variables in distance education. Results suggest
that transactional distance varies by the rate of dialogue and structure,
and demonstrate the value of system dynamics modeling for verifying theoretical
concepts in distance education.
Factors Underlying Distance Learner Satisfaction
with Televised College-Level Courses
Paul M. Biner, Raymond S. Dean, and Anthony E. Mellinger
Two investigations were conducted to identify the major dimensions of distance learner satisfaction with live-broadcast, interactive (one-way video, two-way audio) televised college-level courses. In the first study, factor analyses were used to explore the responses of 201 currently enrolled students to the Telecourse Evaluation Questionnaire. The analyses identified seven distinct dimensions of course satisfaction. A comparable study was conducted one year later using a different sample of 177 distance learners who were also enrolled in the televised courses. A factor analysis of these data validated the original results in that, as predicted, seven comparable dimensions were identified. Overall results are discussed in terms of the practical benefits the research offers to both program personnel and evaluation researchers.
