Future Predictions of Distance Learning

From a personal stand point before beginning my current degree at Walden I assumed that it would be a bit of busy work that would allow me to obtain a degree I need to maintain my current job. I assumed it would be difficult to meet the same level or rigor that a traditional face-to-face course would offer.  I was also somewhat skeptical about the personal interaction with my professors or instructors. I found out rather quickly how wrong I was. I was surprised how much this distance learning experience requires the learner to be an active participate in their education.  There are no dark corners to hide in an online learning environment.  The learner is constantly being charged to dive deeper into the content and analysis it.  As far as the support I have been happily surprised with the contact I have had with my professors so far.  The reason I mention all of this is because I think this is not an uncommon experience for most people who have partaken in some sort of distance learning experience.  As more and more people become more and more comfortable with distance and e-learning the more it will become widely used not only in the educational arena but also the governmental and corporate worlds as well.

If the growth of online learning is increasing exponentially than it is only reasonable to assume that its development and implementation will also grow.  Of course this is dependent on the technological advancements that are made in the next 5,10,15,20 years and beyond. And just because the technology is available it does not mean it will inherently effect learning environments.  A large factor that determines the amount of impact the development of technology has on distance learning will depend on how widely accepted it is by the community it is expected to be used in.  The assimilation and ability of generations to assimilate new technologies constantly improves. With those two key factors in mind it seems fairly obvious the direction distance learning will most likely take.

Instructional designers have a unique opportunity to shape the landscape of what will be the distance learning of tomorrow. For the landscape to be developed well it is vitally important that designers have a strong foundation and working understanding of curriculum development, distance learning theories, and how to facilitate distance learning effectively.  Without a foundation and comprehension of how to develop the best distance learning experience possible it would extremely difficult to develop.  Instructional designers will have to maintain and apply proven theories and concepts in the years to come otherwise Distance learning will become more widely perceived by the public as  study at a distance or a correspondence study instead of the wide array of learning opportunities it provides.

I think there are a few things that Instructional designers can do to help make sure they stay grounded in the application of technologies in order to enhance learning. Below is a list of five simple things an Instructional designer can do are:

To-Do List for Future Instructional Designers

·         Eliminate unneeded technologies-As we move further in the future there is going to be greater and greater temptation to be distracted by the glitter and glamour of new and emerging technologies.  Implementing them is great but always, always make sure they have a purpose

·         Incorporate several different forms of media- with wider varieties of learning being conglomerated into more homogenous groups it is important to appeal to as many different learning styles and types as possible. 

·         Always look to improve communication- In a tradional learning environment communication from body language and visual group interactions can serve as important lines of communication for learners.  In most distance learning environments this is not an option therefore it is paramount that communication is constantly attempted to be improved.

·         Look for best content available- As communication technologies improve so will the ability to access professionals and find very rich sources of information.  Being able to find it will continue to be a crucial aspect of distance learning

·         Find best way to present content- This concept is true in any form of education or learning experience.  This is just a good concept to adhere to in a general sense as well

 References :

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning a at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

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	Home Pre-Planning &Differences Between Traditional and Distance Instructor's Role & StudentParticipation	This interactive guide has been designed to give Instructional trainers a resource that can be used and implemented when developing educational courses.
		Pre Planning Strategies		Differences Between Traditional and Distance Learning (Blended Learning Format)
		One of the most fundimental aspects of designing, development, and eventual implemntation of the instruction is the planning. The clearer the instruction is planned the better the class envrinment can be constructed and the easier it is for students to identify and live up to their expectations.		The end goal of both traditional and distance learning is to provide the student/ learner with a meaningful and improved set of skills/knowledge. The manner in which this is accomplished is much different experince for the students/learner and the teacher/instructor.
		Video 1: In this Video Professor Curt Bonk list 6 specfic steps to help guide you to developing an Online Learning Evironment		VVideo 2: This video provides an explaination of a Blended learning evironment. Try to develop ideas on how this applies to your particular situation.
		Changing Role of the Instructor		Encouraging Online Communication
		Traditional education places the teacher at the center of the learning environment. The teacher is the factor that all of the instruction, assessment, starts from and progresses through. When developing a hybrid or distance learning envirnoment there is a significant change in who the experience is centered around, from one that is Teacher centered to one that is learner center.		One of the most difficlt apsects of teaching a Distance Learning setting is the reluctance of students/learners to be active participants. There are several different "Best Practices" techniques that cna be used to encourage and stimulate student/learner engagement with materials and other members of the learning environment.
		Video 3 This video provides an example of Student centered learning in a face-to-face setting. Pay attention to the key concepts and think how they might be applied to your training program.		Video 4: This video gives 10 very basic suggestions to encourage online communicatoin by students when in the learning evrinment.
		References: Video1- Bonk, Curt. Planning an Online Course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3H7PbkndOk (Retrieved 6/18/2013) Video 2-Skrzypek, Frederic. What is Blended Learning?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIh4jJlvF44 (Retrieved 6/18/2013) Video 3-Strategies for Student Centerd Learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTuPVtayOI (Retrieved 6/18/2013) Video 4- Kirkwookd, T4LT.Online student Engagement Tips and Stratigies.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPEW2birta0 (Retrieved 6/18/2013)

The Impact of Open Source:

The ability of a distance learning experience to be valuable is dependent upon several factors. Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of providing a quality educational experience, as pointed out by Dr Piskurich, is the design of the learning environment. It must be must be carefully planned and prepared. If a learning experience is designed to follow the cyclical evolution, as described by Zemsky and Massy, the designer must first look to first enhance the current course/program’s configuration.  Faculty does this by introducing basic-level technologies into their course (Simonson & Smaldino).  Before beginning the second cycle where the designer will begin to shift resources to an online format, the instructional designer will have to choose a CMS.  This is a crucial point in which a designer may choose to develop the course in a for-profit CMS such as Blackboard, or in an Open source CMS like Moodle.  

Of course a for-profit CMS like Blackboard will be able to provide more support because of the income they are receiving allows them to employ a tech support staff. This may seem like an easy choice when considering that fact; however, there are drawbacks associated with choosing a for profit CMS as the delivery system.  Past precedents of questionable business ethics have to be considered as well by the designer when choosing a CMS/LMS.

“During the 2004-2006 period, Blackboard itself through a series of actions largely viewed by the educational community as arrogant, may have driven some if not many of its current and potential customers to reconsider open source CMS products.  Blackboard first purchased and absorbed its primary rival, WebCT, then it secured a ‘prior art’, then it sued its next most prominent competitor, Desire2Learn, for patent infringement. These moves infuriated Blackboard’s main customer base, with the long-term fallout yet to be assessed.” (Simonson 2012)

Perhaps not entirely in response to the action Blackboard took the Sakai project was developed.  Sakai is a an open source CMS collaboration between the University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, OKI, and the Uportal Consortium. On October 21st 2004 an organizational PDF was published in where issues of converging trends of data standards, technical standards, institution mobilization, and foundation investments played a major role in developing this Institutional Partnership (Amitava ‘Babi’ Mitra 2004). It also makes a distinction between the services it will provide juxtaposed to the traditional concept of CMS/LMS. The institutions that are members of the project “Have decided to integrate and synchronize their considerable educational software into a pre-integrated collection of open source tools termed Collaborative Learning Environment, (CLE)” (Amitava ‘Babi’ Mitra 2004)  

The analysis conducted by the members of this project into what future student needs will be, and how to most effectively meet them is in depth. Issues addressing the CLE’s Architecture, framework requirements, user interface, features, options, choices, and potential future developments are all covered along with many other important factors related to the overall learning experience.

The design of the CLE that has been developed by the Sakai group is very effective. The visual layout of the website makes it extremely easy to navigate.  Accessing information and courses in a specific field or area of interest is extremely easy.  Once at the page for a particular course the Syllabus is the first tab below the course home page.  Within the syllabus a simple course description and how the learner will be assessed is listed.  Below the link to the course Syllabus are other tabs with links to; readings, assignments, projects, related resources, download for course materials.  With each of these subsequent links are pages with the same level of clarity and ease of use. This provides a structure for the learner that is very intuitive and easy to navigate even for people who maybe technophobes.

The development and addition of resources and classes in this open source distance learning environment is continuous.  It appears to be a closed loop system in which the ADDIE model is being applied to create more effective and efficient learning experiences for the end users. Currently the latest patch for the Sakai CLE is 2.9.2 which indicates the constant development implementation and evaluation that has be occurring since 2004.  As of the beginning of this year the Open Course service Sakai has just merged with Jasig (a consortium of educational institutions and commercial affiliates sponsoring open source software projects for higher education ( http://www.jasig.org/). This development is currently underway and board members are actively being sought as this merger continues to develop.

Although the Open courses provided by these institutions of higher education seem fantastical it is not the preferred form of a learning environment.  According to Dr. Piskurich this form of delivery would be his last of five possible choices. This learning environment can be defined as an asynchronous student lead. This type of distance learning could be further classified as student-program instruction because it, “...uses extremely loose structure where only the framework of the content is provided to online learners who are expected to provide the structure, outcomes, and sequence of learning.”(Simonson and Smaldino 2012)

Overall as a learning environment and experience is the Open Course format provided by Sakai the best possible way to learn? No it is not. Face-to-face and one-on-one interaction has throughout human evolution has been the best way for people to learn.  However, when considering the efficiency of this learning design is is horribly inefficient.  Is Open Course offerings then the solution to all efficiency problems of education? No. If it is used in a proper setting there is a good chance it provide a valuable learning experience for the student

As Professor Eric Klopfer puts it, “Learning is about experiencing not lecturing”, and in the correct setting Open Sources classes can do that for learners.  I think that most professionals in the field of education would agree with that statement.

Work Cited

Knoop,Peter.“WhatisSakai”retrievedfromhttps://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF/Welcome+to+the+Sakai+wiki(retrieved June 10^th 2013)

Jasig News http://www.jasig.org/(retrieved June 10^th 2013)

Welcome to Apereo.http://www.apereo.org/ (retrieved June 10^th 2013)

Planning and Designing Online Courses"

Dr. George Piskurich and instructional technologist Jacqueline Chauser discuss the process and considerations for building an online course.(Retrieved June 10^th  2013)

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: foundations of Distance Education. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.