The Distance Education Phenomena

The Instructional Design field has been significantly impacted by the distance education phenomena. With the strengthening of the distance education presence, more focus has been framed around concerns related to interactive activities that built upon the importance of communications and building relationships between the course information, the learners, the instructional facilitator, and the larger community wherein the information may be more fully framed. The vast and ever-expanding distance education phenomena is moving beyond the traditional “comfort zone” of procedural Instructional Design expectations, towards a more holistic and innovative thoughtful multimedia-supported design and development process wherein the Instructional Designers must be able to engage more fully in the socio-engagement of the learner within a multimedia-supported global community of learners. This chapter describes the developments of distance education from the perspective of instructional designers.

Educating Aviators

This chapter provides a critical examination of the evolution of distance education in tertiary aviation programs. By reviewing the literature and studies associated with Professional Pilot training, the chapter explores the issues affecting the delivery of distance education in university Professional Pilot programs, including the global shortage of Professional Pilots, the nature of work as a Professional Pilot, the importance of simulation, and the integration of assessment. In an effort to address some of the challenges, this chapter also offers recommendations and solutions. The authors contend that tertiary aviation distance education programs need to be adjusted to consider the needs of the student and industry by: (1) implementing action-based learning, (2) considering pedagogy before technology, (3) encouraging interaction and collaboration, and (4) embedding formative assessment. The chapter aims to contribute to the body of literature aimed at enhancing the effective delivery of distance learning in aviation tertiary education.

From Learning Management System to Internet-Based Research in Mathematics Education

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of e-learning education courses or training programs. The traditional distance education for mathematics has heavily relied on the application of LMS. However, the Standards for Mathematical Practice have provided the requirements to mathematics educators at all levels for the students' development. This chapter presents the introduction of the transformation from LMS to Internet-based research in the mathematical education. This is the viewpoint of the patterns, developments, changes, or phenomena within their respective fields with regards to distance education of mathematics. It also creates a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of online education across educational boundaries and demonstrates the unique future trajectories that online education has within these mathematics.

Creating an Early Model of Teaching at The New School

In 1998, the AT&T Foundation awarded a grant to the Teacher Education Graduate Program at The New School, a university in New York City, to implement an Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) in Teaching and Learning with Technology (TELT). The grant was given to train public secondary classroom teachers in urban schools how to integrate technology into their classes. Using a cognitive science and constructivist-based theoretical framework, a twelve-credit four-course curriculum to earn the APC was developed. The intention was to offer it in a blended format in Fall 2000 through DIAL (Distance Instruction for Adult Learners), the New School's innovative online learning program. Because this was occurring during the early days of computer use in the classroom, many faculty and students had no prior experience in teaching and learning with technology, much less with teaching and learning over the internet. Web-based learning was in its infancy. DIAL was one of the first online learning programs in the United States to offer degrees, certificates and courses in the liberal arts through a computer-mediated environment. The Advanced Placement Certificate in Teaching and Learning with Technology was the first of its kind to offer a theoretically-based course curriculum in a blended learning format to urban educators. The historically significant outcomes were as follows: creating a method for teaching instructors how to teach technology online, learning how to integrate technology in the classroom, learning how to teach as well as participate in an online environment, using the DIAL interface which was an early platform built, in part, on a customized Linux platform. The pilot TELT program used both formative and summative assessments for learning outcomes and efficacy. The results were positive and a model for teacher education with technology was created. Nothing of this kind existed previously. The model was for continuing the New School graduate certificate program in the next stage.

Examining Social Presence Influence on Students' Satisfaction with Online Learning Environments

Online education has become an essential element of higher education and continues to grow with a potential to facilitate learning. Evidence indicates that many students become frustrated after their initial online experience and fail to pursue additional online courses. Little is known about the reasons why this phenomenon exists. The purpose of this chapter is to examine students' satisfaction with online learning environments guided by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) conceptual framework and to determine students' perceptions of social presence in the online environment. The selection of the student population from this program are due to the need to improve on the U-rate. The U-rate is the unsatisfactory rate of a course due to few factors. Such factors are low Course Level Assessment (CLA), course difficulty, content presented in the course is not clear, or students struggling with course outcomes.

The Development, Design, and Pedagogical Implications of Blackboard

In the 1980s, during the emergence of the online software called Blackboard, the academic target audience was filled with field independent learners. With the growing success of Blackboard, the availability of the new software broadened and eventually claimed the status as the number one choice of software for online education. With the acceptance of online education as an effective tool for learning, the online classroom demographics began to shift with a growing representation of field-dependent minority students. This shift in demographics also meant a shift in learning styles. This chapter highlights elements regarding the development of Blackboard and the design shift within Blackboard. It also provides practical suggestions that can be incorporated into an online instructor's pedagogy so that the 21st century online class will be more attentive to the needs of the minority, field-dependent students.

How Do They Fare?

Blended learning is proliferating rapidly in higher education across the United States. However, this learning environment may pose new challenges to learners at moderately selective colleges who are normally found to be low in autonomy. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine the learning achievement and course satisfaction of this group of learners in two sections of a course, with one being blended and the other a face-to-face. The results, shown in this chapter, reveal that instructional mode does not have a significant effect on learning achievement and course satisfaction; however, a further examination into the course structure, dialogue, and learner autonomy suggests that low structure and high dialogue can help reduce transactional distance and a synchronous format for the online component in a blended course is highly recommended. In addition, coaching and scaffolding learner autonomy is indispensible for learners at moderately selective colleges and should be considered in the design and implementation of online learning.

A Kaleidoscope of Variables

The relationship between composition courses and online education is complicated, and attempting to summarize that relationship in a blanket statement may be feeble or futile. As a field, composition faces the challenge of identifying best practices in online education at the same time that it struggles to identify standardized content for its courses. Assessment challenges also plague online composition courses. While other fields might assess student work with standardized methods or computerized scoring, the work of composition requires tedious and labor-intensive assessment methods difficult to delegate to software; indeed, a recent petition illustrates significant instructor opposition to computer scoring (Haswell & Wilson, 2013). This chapter illustrates the current state of challenging conversations within composition studies as a kaleidoscope of positions in which instructors using online education position themselves.

International Distance Education in the Asia Pacific

This chapter outlines the history and development of an international distance learning relationship, which was established between an Australian and Japanese university. In 2002, the University of Sydney, Australia and Gifu University in Japan established a lecture exchange program whereby live lectures would be transmitted through Web-based video conferencing. Further development of the relationship resulted in an additional three-year program whereby an entire course, consisting of weekly live lectures transmitted from Australia, was offered not only to local university students but citizens of Gifu city. An empirical account outlines the origin and purpose of this course, analyzes its success, discusses pedagogical and cultural issues and challenges that arose, and makes recommendations for further development. The final section of the chapter suggests possible future directions, including a theoretical model for worldwide international distance education.

New Creative Writing “Classroom”

The field of creative writing studies includes commonly regarded forms of distance education such as online courses, but there is an impressive diversity regarding the opportunities available to creative writers. To illustrate this, the chapter discusses the two tracks available to writers. The first features the university environment, where students enroll in undergraduate and graduate creative writing degree programs. These programs could be full-residency, low-residency, or online. However, not all writers are able or willing to enroll in such programs. For these writers, there are non-academic options that are driven not by colleges and universities but by the publishing community. Non-degree writers might enroll in online workshops or communities. Finally, non-degree seeking writers might work independently through MOOCs, extension classes, iTunesU courses, and how-to texts. This chapter discusses the history of distance education as it is evolving and the potentially overwhelming number of options available to aspiring writers.