scholarly journals Landscape without bearings: Instructors' first experiences in Web-based synchronous environments

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Murphy ◽  
Justyna Ciszewska-Carr

This paper presents the accounts of eight instructors’ metaphorical travels in landscapes without bearings. The instructors were part of a pilot project at a Canadian university involving the integration of a synchronous communication and collaboration environment into asynchronous distance education courses. To establish their bearings, the instructors need to be aware of their goals and combine them with strategies and techniques that effectively manage the affordances and constraints of the environment. That process may require a degree of risk–taking combined with a willingness to help students lead themselves. It requires developing a proficiency in the simultaneous use of multiple tools and recognizing the differences and similarities between Web–based synchronous environments and face–to–face or asynchronous environments. Above all, it requires an interest in and focus on pedagogy.

EAD em FOCO ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorcas Janice Weber ◽  
Lia Raquel Oliveira

A inserção da educação a distância nos processos educativos formais apontou possibilidades de formação em nível superior para aqueles que estão distantes dos centros de formação e, para além disso, desvelou objetos de investigação. Um exemplo disso são os materiais didáticos, tão necessários para a efetivação da aprendizagem na modalidade a distância. A gama de materiais é grande e, por isso, é interessante conhecer o modo como eles vêm sendo desenvolvidos e utilizados por aquelas instituições que ofertam cursos nessa modalidade. É sabido que há necessidades distintas entre os alunos da educação a distância e os de cursos presenciais, que precisam estar contempladas nos materiais didáticos. Mas de fato estão? Considerando a organização do espaço de estudo como importante no processo pedagógico, como os espaços dos materiais didáticos vêm sendo organizados? Que elementos têm sido utilizados para o desenvolvimento de layouts para materiais didáticos utilizados em cursos a distância? Tais questões são tema deste escrito, que busca, a partir de um estudo de caso, observar materiais didáticos produzidos para cursos brasileiros a distância. Um olhar transversal sobre tais materiais aponta semelhanças com os produtos elaborados para a educação presencial, tão conhecida por muitos.Palavras-chave: Educação a distância; Materiais didáticos; Layout.?Didactic Materials for Distance Education: Observing LayoutsAbstract The inclusion of distance education in formal educational processes pointed training opportunities in higher education for those who are distant from training centers and, in addition, unveiled research objects. An example of this are the didactic materials, as necessary for effective learning in the distance. The range of materials is large and therefore it is interesting to know how these are being developed and used by those institutions that offer courses in this modality. It is known that there are different needs among students of distance education and presence courses that need to be addressed in didactic materials. But actually are? Considering the organization of study space as important in the educational process, as the spaces of didactic materials have been organized? What elements have been used to development layouts for the materials used in distance education courses? This questions are theme of this this written that will, with a case study, observe didactic materials produced to Brazilian distance courses. That observation shown us that analyzed materials have similarities with didactic products for face to face education.Keywords: Distance education; Didactic materials; Layout. 


2011 ◽  
pp. 1325-1331 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Novitzki

Distance education programs/courses in some format have been available to students since the 1840s. Throughout most of this time there has been controversy over the effectiveness of such programs/courses (IHEP, 1999; Matthews, 1999). The concept of online teaching and online asynchronous learning (ASL) started in the 1980s and is an area of rapid growth (McMullen, Goldbaum, Wolffe, & Sattler, 1998). In a period of 3 years, from 1995 to 1997, the number of schools in the United States (US) developing such programs increased by almost 200% (Morse, Glover, & Travis, 1997). The US Department of Education (2001) reported that in 2000-2001 there were more than 2.8 million enrollments in college-level degree granting programs in Internet- and Web-based distance education courses in the US.


Author(s):  
Mahesh S. Raisinghani ◽  
Cherie Hohertz

According to the U.S. Department of Education (1998- 1999), 78% of all four-year public institutions offer distance education courses. According to the same survey, 67% of all students at these institutions have enrolled in one of these courses. Are university libraries keeping up with the trend of distance education? What programs and policies are in place to ensure access to library services for Web-based learning students? Must services to distance learners be equal to services provided to traditional students? This article is structured as follows: First we discuss the strategy of building a creative learning environment based on the learning orientation model before prescribing some guidelines for personalized learning in a Web-based environment. Next we outline the basis for library distance education services, and describe two case studies of libraries that are ensuring that distance education students are receiving equal access to library materials.


2008 ◽  
pp. 1176-1198
Author(s):  
Y. Y. Jessie Wong ◽  
R. Gerber ◽  
K. A. Toh

Examined and compared in this chapter is the diffusion of WBE in Singapore and Australia. These two countries were chosen in this study because of the close educational collaborations and developments between them. A number of Australian universities have offshore bases in Singapore. It would be more cost-effective and profitable to use WBE instead of using the usual corresponding method, or flying professors into the country a few times a year for intensive residential studies. In this chapter, WBE at some selected institutions is reported in detail, because these institutions represent the more advanced developments of WBE in the respective country. Meta-analysis, using a modified Taylor’s model (Taylor, 2001), reveals that though Singapore and Australia are different in their approach and policies to education and technology, they share similar trends and achievements in the development of WBE. Tertiary institutions in both countries have generally achieved all the characteristics of Generations 4 and 5 of the development model of Distance Education, as described by Taylor. However, this is not to say that face-to-face teaching has been phased out. This study also indicates that WBE supports the development of distance education and e-universities in Australia. On the other hand, it is hard to say when Singapore will develop its first e-university.


Author(s):  
James O. Danenberg ◽  
Kuanchin Chen

Web-based learning (a major subcomponent of the broader term “distance learning”) is one of the tools with which education is delivered at a distance electronically. There seems to be many definitions, as well as terms, for distance learning, such as “distance education,” “distributed learning,” “remote education,” “online learning” and “Web-based learning,” which all may refer to the similar education deliverables. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Education defined distance education as “education or training courses delivered to remote off-campus location(s) via audio, video or computer technologies” (Lewis, Farris & Levin, 1999). Later in the 1990s, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) defined distance learning as education in which “the teacher and the student are separated geographically so that face-to-face communication is absent; communication is accomplished instead by one or more technological media, most often electronic” (AAUP, 1999).


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Woo ◽  
Maree Gosper ◽  
Margot McNeill ◽  
Greg Preston ◽  
David Green ◽  
...  

Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have gained popularity amongst universities in Australia as a tool for delivering lecture recordings to students in close to real time. This paper reports on a selection of results from a larger research project investigating the impact of WBLT on teaching and learning. Results show that while staff see the advantages for external students, they question the extent to which these advantages apply to internal students. In contrast both cohorts of students were positive about the benefits of the technologies for their learning and they adopted similar strategies for their use. With the help of other technologies, some external students and staff even found WBLT useful for fostering communication between internal and external students. As such, while the traditional boundary between internal and external students seems to remain for some staff, students seem to find the boundary much less clear.Keywords: web-based lecture technologies; staff perception; student perception; distance education; external students; internal students; LectopiaDOI: 10.1080/09687760802315895


Author(s):  
Ramesh C. Sharma

Distance Education in India has come a long way since the launch of correspondence courses in 1962 at the Delhi University. There have been many changes over the period of time, and thus, a transition was observed from print based correspondence courses to media supported distance education. With the advent of technology, expansion of telephone network, and lowering of tariff, there has been expansion of e-learning services, web based education, and mobile learning. Currently there are around 600 conventional (face-to-face) universities in India serving around 1.2 billion students. Starting with one Open University in 1982, now we have 15 open universities. There are single mode and dual mode distance education institutions. These provide instructions from print based to technology enabled means. All these developments transformed the teaching learning. Many of the institutions followed Open Educational Resources and Open Source movement. Reasons are varied for adopting open source. With the purpose to reduce the costs on software development, freedom to improve the software and freedom to redistribute to help neighbours has made individuals, institutions, and governments support open source. In this chapter, the author examines some of the initiatives of Open Source in the field of higher, open and distance education in India.


Author(s):  
Murray Turoff ◽  
Richard Discenza ◽  
Caroline Howard

Designed properly, distance education classes can be at least as effective and, in some ways, even more effective than face-to-face courses. The tools and technologies used for distance education courses facilitate learning opportunities not possible in the face-to-face classroom. Distance programs are accelerating changes that are challenging students, faculty, and the university, itself. Currently, most faculty are rewarded for the quality of instruction, as well as their external funding and their research. Often, university administrators focus more attention on the efficiency of teaching than on its effectiveness. In the future, as the quality of distance learning increases, the primary factor for success will be the faculty’s commitment to excellence in teaching. Many institutions will be forced to reevaluate the quality of teaching as the institution becomes more visible to the public, to legislators who support higher education, and to prospective students.


2011 ◽  
pp. 347-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Y. Jessie Wong ◽  
R. Gerber ◽  
K. A. Toh

Examined and compared in this chapter is the diffusion of WBE in Singapore and Australia. These two countries were chosen in this study because of the close educational collaborations and developments between them. A number of Australian universities have offshore bases in Singapore. It would be more cost-effective and profitable to use WBE instead of using the usual corresponding method, or flying professors into the country a few times a year for intensive residential studies. In this chapter, WBE at some selected institutions is reported in detail, because these institutions represent the more advanced developments of WBE in the respective country. Meta-analysis, using a modified Taylor’s model (Taylor, 2001), reveals that though Singapore and Australia are different in their approach and policies to education and technology, they share similar trends and achievements in the development of WBE. Tertiary institutions in both countries have generally achieved all the characteristics of Generations 4 and 5 of the development model of Distance Education, as described by Taylor. However, this is not to say that face-to-face teaching has been phased out. This study also indicates that WBE supports the development of distance education and e-universities in Australia. On the other hand, it is hard to say when Singapore will develop its first e-university.


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