Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Module 1: The Next Generation of Distance Education

The three articles by Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) discussed valid concerns about distance education. Distance education is flourishing and becoming the choice for continued education and training for organizations and non traditional students. One of the ways to ensure that distance education continues to flourish and does not simply become a fad to through the development of an evaluation tool. The articles discussed the need for an evaluation tool that will be consistently used. This evaluation tool would not only evaluate the content but the instructional design as well. It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning to validate its purpose. 

Another valid point discussed was the lack of trained professionals. Some institutions may have educators developing the online course. To come this concept makes sense because an educator should be well versed in pedagogy and the content being taught. However, all educators are not familiar with instructional design for an online environment. One way of dealing with this is to have the Subject Matter Expert (SME), which in this case is the educator, work closely with the Instructional Designer (ID). This collaboration will create an effective and engaging online learning environment.

Moller, Huett, Foshay, Coleman, and Simonson all agree that distance education has the potential to grow exponentially if the above concerns are addressed. With this foreseen growth, accreditation processes will also need to be refined to ensure academic honesty.

References 

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

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance
education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1:Training and Development). TechTrends, 52 (3), 70–75. 

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.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The
The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the
potential of the web (Part 3:K12 ). TechTrends, 52 (5), 63–6 7.  

7 comments:

  1. LaKeisha,

    Your comments on the articles about evaluation are critical to the development of a quality product. Not only do we need to have proper evaluation tools, we also need to follow up with changes that respond to those evaluations. The convenience of online programs for corporate training and nontraditional users make them a captive audience. If we hope to expand distance education among the mainstream education setting, the development of a quality product is essential.

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  2. LaKeisha, beautifully arranged blog - love the colors (oh...and the content - lol)!

    It behooves me that instructional design teams have often ommitted the evaluation piece of creating distance learning curriculum. When evaluation is such a large piece of the educational puzzle nowadays, the focus on assessment of all phases of instructional design will need to become more of a priority so it will be known what is working, what needs to be altered, and what needs to go away.

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  3. Why not include the evaluation piece as part of the online assignment? If it is a collaborative project, post the scoring rubric on the same page as the assignment. This gives the online learner easy access to complete the entire project. It gives the learner the choice to select how hard they want to work as well.

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  4. LaKeisha,

    Stopping by to view your storyboard. Let me know if I can assist. Will check back later! Hope all is well.

    Toni Duke

    (Please review mine at http://dukemomedtechblogger.blogspot.com. Thanks!)

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  5. LaKeisha,

    I have a notification set so that when you update your blog with your storyboard it will let me know. Review mine when you have a chance or let me know if I can help you with anything on yours.

    Jeri

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  6. LaKeisha,

    I'll check on you via e-mail. Anxious to see your storyboard!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lakeisha,

    Just checking in to see how you are doing. Is there anything I can do to help you with the storyboard or the reflection? My Skype name is JeriannKing. Please feel free to contact me for help or questions. I am online much of the time and I'll see the Skype request as it comes in. You can also email me at Jeriann.King2@waldenu.edu. Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.

    Jeri

    ReplyDelete