Towards a Definition of Distance Learning, Phil Quirke & Heather Baba, TESOL Arabia, Dubai, 2003: IssuesinDistanceLearning.ppt

Definitions of E-learning: Max Gallo (first published in the Learner Independence SIG Conference Newsletter, March 2003) - elearning.doc

FAQs: contributed by Raymond Sheehan

What exactly does long distance learning mean?

The learner resides and studies in a separate county, country, or continent from the institute of learning. The amount of face-to-face contact between learner and tutors may be minimal or non-existent. Long distance learners may graduate from a university they have never visited.

Is long-distance learning bad then: Separation? Minimal contact? No residency on campus?

Government departments and educational institutes may focus only on the negative aspects of separation, minimal face-to-face-contact and non-residency. They have gone so far as to withdraw their recognition of distance learning degrees and to express a hiring preference for degrees earned on campus.

However, most of the education world has already revised its concept of distance. The skills of learners who have bridged the distance are appreciated. These learners may have mastered technology to access distant materials and interact with learners across the globe. They have learnt, in challenging personal and professional circumstances, how to set their own goals, meet deadlines, work independently and become more informed practitioners within their own workplace.

These revised concepts of distance have been made possible by technology and are supported by innovative pedagogical thinking. Some institutes, however, may need more time to adjust to revised concepts of what ‘distance’ means.

What is the new concept of learning distance?

It is based on a flow of communication and on a revised concept of research. The flow is initially from the university to the learner. The learner/teacher/trainee-researcher tries to understand and enact the principles of research. The learner’s working context and the immediate world beyond may become the research arena. But, at a certain point, the learner has enough mastery to reverse the flow of communication. After applying what has been learnt about research, the learner reports findings. Instead of being a recipient of knowledge, the learner delivers research results. The learner’s unique knowledge will be based on an informed view of local working contexts.

Good reportable research is happening far beyond university campus walls, in multifaceted teaching contexts. Teacher-researchers and universities collaborate to minimise the distance so that findings are shared, evaluated and extended in a community of professional discourse constructed between classroom practitioners and ‘academics.’ This new concept of distance has created closeness. In good distance learning, distance is overcome and the feeling of distance disappears.

What questions do I need to ask the institute before I pay for a distance learning course?

Examine two issues:

• technical support
• human support

Some distance learners may lament the lack of discussion groups or easy access to online library resources. Others may complain that they rarely get a personal, prompt or helpful reply from their tutor. The perfect situation is one in which the learner gets the appropriate amount of technical and human help required by an intelligent independent trainee researcher in order to succeed in a challenging postgraduate program of study.

Ask:

1. ‘Can you put me in touch with students currently on the course so they can answer my questions student-to-student?’ Questions about work demands, deadlines, quality of materials, feedback on assignments, promptness of response to emails, university administration …
2. ‘What is your technical support?’ ‘Will I be able to access course materials through WebCT, Blackboard or something similar?’ ‘Will there be on-line discussions?’ ‘Video-links to lectures?’ ‘Distant access to your library?’
3. ‘What kind of human support is there?’ ‘What can I expect from my tutor?’ ‘How soon will the tutor read my work, give me feedback, or reply to emails?’ ‘Are there study schools in my region?’ ‘Do tutors come to visit?’ ‘Is there a requirement that I spend some time on campus?’ ‘Is it possible to form study groups in my region?’

What advice might an experienced distance learner offer?

• Find out more about your own learning preferences.
• Make a timeline mapping out your ideal progress through the program, setting monthly and annual targets.
• Keep a learning diary, detailing your daily progress, no matter how small: a long sequence of empty pages should tell you something!
• Maintain regular contact with your tutors (and with other learners if possible.)
• Don’t stop because you can’t find a specific book/article; use what you have.
• Don’t get bogged down in endless aimless reading. Read for a specific purpose. Having decided your purpose, can you develop an attack plan to extract what is relevant from an article in about 20 minutes, and what is relevant from a book in one hour?
• Have you developed a good mechanism for storing what is relevant from your reading?
• Don’t worry so much about how much you have read but rather about how well you have integrated your reading into your own critical argument.
• Remember that ultimately you are judged not upon the quantity of your reading but upon the quality of your research, and your writing.
• How well do you report what you have learnt? Don’t feel that you need to sit down and write five thousand words all of a sudden, as a deadline approaches. If you find the time to write 300 words every day, you will have written a substantial amount in ten days. Very often, it is good to walk away from your writing task leaving something important unsaid, or a section incomplete. This gives you a real reason for going back to your work tomorrow to continue from that mid-point where you left off. In the meantime, you have probably reflected upon and refined your arguments in your head.

Finally, is there any difference between a degree offered on campus and by distance learning?

None. To underwrite the academic credibility of the degrees they offer, reputable universities have devised rigorous procedures to ensure that the qualification they offer has the same value irrespective of whether it was earned on campus by distance. Well- informed employers interested in evaluating the quality of job applicants will research the credentials of the issuing institute. Less well informed recruiters will create a simplistic distinction between distance and residential qualifications. They will prefer a degree earned through residency on a third-rate campus over a degree earned by distance from a first class institute. So, would you really want to work for them.

Raymond Sheehan graduated (distance learning) with an MSc in TESP from Aston University, and is currently a distance learner on the Doctorate in Education program at Leicester University.