Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

For Module 2, I was excited to watch the Siemens' video related to the advanatages of distance education. I have taught in all three formats, f2f, online, and hybrid. I personally enjoy hybrid. It allows learners an opportunity to have structured freedom and the best of both worlds. Students can study at their own pace, have asynchronous discussions that elude time and peer interruptions, and adds a sense of personal ownership and responsibility. In the f2f classroom, students seem to reliant on the instructor. Even with a facilitator who embraces learner-centered education, the dynamic is difficult to shift. Hybrid puts responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the student and still offers the security of f2f social interaction, another important element of education. Purely online learning is another excellent option that works well, but seems to require a level of personal motivation. The biggest complaint that I hear involves a lack of motivation. I suspect that though motivation ebbs and flows, adult learners signing up for online classes already have a motivational edge. As a student enrolled in a project based PhD program, I stuggled under the guidance of a very laid-back mentor. Now that I've switched to a course-based program, I am much more motivated by the week-to-week interaction, deadlines and feedback.

Video Project Storyboard

My initial thoughts:

• Visual representation of redundant, inefficient data storage
• Another visual of an ideal content data storage process
• Bridge the two images with demonstration of research, best practices, and support for presented ideal process
  • Guthrie (1996) nine-step collaborative program
  • Means (2010) collaboration of software and data management processes
  • Mehr and Kruse (2008) SAS software implementation for data management
  • Pancerella, Rahn, Didier, Kodeboyina, Leahy, Myers, Oluwole, and Schuchardt (2007) evaluated an open-source team and data collaboration tool
  • Rodriguez, Jose, and Camarero (2010) compared exeriential learning techniques
  • Tiwari, Snape, and Field (2005) investigated bioinformatics and data management for an environmental, genomics project
• Conclude with highlights of efficient system, noting key supportive elements of research

References

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development., ebrary, Inc., & Guthrie, L. F. (1996). In How to coordinate services for students and families. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Means, B. (January 01, 2010). Technology and education change: Focus on student learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42, 3, 285-307.

Mehr, D. R., & Kruse, R. L. (January 01, 2008). Data management for prospective research studies using SAS software. Bmc Medical Research Methodology, 8.

Pancerella, C., Rahn, L. A., Didier, B., Kodeboyina, D., Leahy, D., Myers, J. D., Oluwole, O. O., Schuchardt, K. (January 01, 2007). Portal-based knowledge environment for collaborative science. Concurrency and Computation: Practice & Experience, 19, 12, 1703.

Rodriguez, J., Jose, R. S., & Camarero, C. (January 01, 2010). A comparison of the learning effectiveness of live cases and classroom projects DOI: 10.3794/ijme.83.254. International Journal of Management Education, 8, 3, 83-94.

Tiwari, B., Snape, J., & Field, D. (January 01, 2005). Bioinformatics and data management support for environmental genomics. Plos Biology, 3, 8.

Module 1:

Moller, Foshay, and Huett (2008) offered recommendations to online educators, especially instructional designers. I found the article informative though ancient in this incredibly dynamic field. In the five years that I have spent teaching in various learning formats (classroom, hybrid, and online), I have seen the issues that Simonson (2000) and Moller, Foshay, and Huett (2008) noted. Originally, online shells rarely involved instructional material nor followed good instructional design format. I've been privy to incredible change, growth, and quality in this area. In 2005, online courses typically housed a syllabus, a discussion board, quizzes/exams, and assignments. I cared little for the environment and its instructional capacity, but loved the ability to post in-class material, assignments, and most of all, the grade book online for all to see. No longer did students have to come to me for an assignment. Gone were the excuses that assignments didn't get completed because they missed the last class. Most exciting, questions about grades almost became extinct. At this early stage, I had the ability to have my courses copied from term to term. I modified assignments and discussion questions based on the student interests, but there was little instruction involved in the online format. In 2008, I moved to another school that provided blank shells to faculty, with the option of copying content from previously taught courses. Again, this was more of a communication space than instructional space.

Today, I'm proud to work as the Instructional Technologies Manager at CSU-Global where our online courses trump all other online learning spaces that I've seen. Our courses are developed by a collaborative group including an instructional designer, content expert, and web developer. The final product offers incredible instructional material, in a variety of learning formats (video, audio, visual, and written), easy access of resources, appropriate informational chunking, review material, self-assessments, interactive discussion boards, and applied assignments and portfolios that often directly assess and improve the student's professional experience. In addition to proper instructional design, our courses have additional technologies that support synchronous and asynchronous collaborative learning.

Not only have we met the equivalency theory with our design, we've exceeded face-to-face outcomes. While there's still room for improvement and growth, I believe that our courses are what these researchers had in mind when they were evaluating the needs for the future of online learning.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.

Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29-34.