Read below archived discussions related to Distance Learning from our 2002 - 2005 list hosted by Topica.

 

Discussion 1

Someone was asking me about distance learning courses the other day, and it occurred to me that I am rather out of touch with how they operate nowadays.

I did my MA by DL with U/Surrey and finished it (eventually) in 1996. At that time, sending things by email was only just starting to be accepted, FAX seemed like an innovation, and I handwrote ALL of my assignments! Sounds like the dark ages, doesn't it!

How do DL MAs (and other courses) operate these days?

Can you email everything?

Is anything still done the 'good old-fashioned way'?

Are all courses materials on the web?

Do you still get hard copy modules?

Is feedback by email?

 

Please update me and share your experiences.

 

Response 1

When the writer said "nowadays," I thought she was going to say that she did her course at least a decade ago... I'm surprised to see that things have changed so much in the last few years...or perhaps they haven't? 

 

I investigated DL courses in 1996. The University of London (School of Education) online course looked good, but it didn't extend as far as Kuwait, where I was then living. I then did a DL MA course (with the University of Leicester), finishing in 1999.

 

The materials were all print materials, sent by post, and all assignments had to be submitted in hard copy. However, e-mail correspondence with tutors was a possibility, and draft assignments could be sent in as e-mail attachments.  For various reasons, e-mail correspondence was not always 100% successful, but in my case I eventually set up a pretty good pattern with my tutor.

 

I would hope that DL courses are moving towards having more of an Internet based option - obviously postal correspondence will remain the best option for people in many situations, but since I was living in a country (Lebanon) with iffy postal services, I would have liked to have been able to download all course materials online, and to submit assignments by e-mail.

 

Towards the end of my course, an e-mail list of course participants (without the tutors, I believe) was set up; I do not know whether this took off or not, but I see it as a valuable move towards giving participants further ownership of elements of the course, encouraging them to go off in new directions not prescribed by the materials writers, and learning from each other, etc. (You all know the benefits of student-student interaction or you wouldn't be on the list!). Other courses that I know of have a web-based discussion board where CP's discuss current assignments/modules with each other. I haven't heard of real-time chat discussions, but where possible that would be a valuable tool, too.

 

Response 2

The University of Exeter runs a distance PhD and EdD through in Dubai.

 

The lecturers visit Dubai several times a year for input sessions and tutorials, and the site houses a number of useful books and articles. Assignments can be sent by post or submitted by e-mail. You can get help and advice from supervisors by e-mail, over the phone or during tutorials in England or Dubai. You set your own deadlines (within reason). There are online resources and an e-mail list for students doing the same course around the world. The support is good, the staff and academics at Exeter are excellent. I highly recommend it.

Response 3

I'm doing (another) Masters (MSc in ESP) for Aston University and at the moment the course is a good combination of traditional and modern modes of communication.

 

Yesterday, for example, an email enquiry to my tutor received a detailed reply in four hours. Proposals for assignments can also be sent by email and the response time is satisfyingly fast. Assignments themselves, however, still have to be submitted the old-fashioned way--and I can understand why. All of my assignments so far have involved appendices such as samples of student writing, questionnaires etc, which I find easier to present the old-fashioned way. Credit is given for presentation and so I really do prefer to present a completed assignment in a "nice folder" with sections color-divided, etc.

 

Feedback on the assignments is both general – written, and also detailed- oral (on a cassette).

 

Modules come in folders still, and may include videos and audio cassettes. However, two of the modules I've done have been fully available on-line and I could (and did) choose to do them that way. I believe the ultimate aim is to have all the modules available on-line, but there is a policy that that should not mean simply uploading the original text version and making it accessible. The technology should really be exploited, so that modules might include a search facility, links to units within the module and to external sites, etc.

 

We also have a lively list of course participants. It operates like this list in that we send out questions that can be very module-specific or more general, or to do with study habits, etc. and the theme gets taken up and developed. There is also quite a lot of support and encouragement available on the list for participants who are hitting a brick wall! And as on every list, there are those who are frequent contributors and those whom the spirit rarely moves...

 

All in all, I would not be greatly in favour of a course that's delivered completely on line. I think Aston is striking the right balance of using the technology sensibly while also realising that technology should not be an impediment but should simply facilitate communication and enhance delivery of the product.

 

Response 4

In 2000 I was the lecturer for an external M.Ed unit. We snail-mailed a course outline and readings. Students had weekly tasks to post to a bulletin board and we chatted once a week. This usually included a guest lecturer section so that students could investigate further areas of special interest. I also set up a list so that emails could be shared. Of course some students chose to email or phone me rather than post to the group.

 

Some of these students were in the same city as the University so what is Distance Learning?

 

Assessment was a combination of weekly posts to the bulletin board as well as a report, product evaluation or essay. This could be submitted electronically but a paper copy was also required.

 

In both my Masters degrees (Education and Applied Linguistics) completed externally from different universities in the middle to late 1990's in Queensland, Australia, units were completed via snail mail and supported by snail-mail packages of notes and tapes. In one course we had to sit exams. The other was assessed by assignments. In some units at one university I had to attend a week's 'summer' or 'winter' school.

 

However, these universities - Queensland University of Technology and the University of Southern Queensland - have moved to a greater online delivery of courses very quickly - especially USQ. I think USQ has won international recognition for its Distance Learning Online courses.

 

We found that, because so many lecture notes and supplementary resources are being uploaded for internal courses, many students are not attending campus lectures in the undergraduate courses although they do show up to sit exams or to submit assessment items and sometimes attend tutorials. Makes one reflect on different definitions of Distance/ Flexible Learning and the impact of online access to materials?

 

A friend completing a M. Applied Linguistics through a third Australian university seems to be doing the entire thing through snail mail, ie notes, etc but emailing her lecturer re queries and submitting her assignments electronically.

Response 5

My DL MA course was a bit different from most, I suspect. Sheffield Hallam requires DL MA participants to have their SHU Diploma, prior to acceptance on the MA course, or failing that, to demonstrate that they have the knowledge and skills included in that Diploma. Thereafter, there are no written assignments which have to be submitted - however, we did have the same kind of assignments to do that I believe most other MAs have - management, teacher training, discourse analysis, etc. The difference was that we had to complete the assignments and bring them with us to the Direct Contact Phase (6 weeks full-time) for discussion and demonstration with our peers in the classroom sessions. The assignments were given to us in a manual/booklet, which was not available online, to the best of my knowledge. In some cases, the assignments would have been very difficult to submit by e-mail in any case, as they involved annotating written discourse or texts - I guess to submit them by e-mail we'd have had to scan them or something - thank goodness we didn't.

 

The dissertation was of course to be submitted as hard copy. We sent off drafts to our tutors by e-mail attachment, and received feedback the same way - it worked very well in my case, I have to say. Everyone on my course had access to e-mail, but the tutors said that we were the first cohort of MA students where this had been the case (January 2000). If you couldn't send it by e-mail, they were more than happy to use faxes. Living here in the UAE, I sent off my dissertation by courier, as I wanted it to get there.

 

What SHU (TESOL Centre) set up for all their DL courses (Dip and MA) is a 'conferencing' facility. We were encouraged to use it to communicate with each other and boost each others' morale. About 6 of the 10 on the course used it at one time or another, and the tutors occasionally put in a cameo appearance, but frankly, I seemed to be the only one instigating the discussions, so I stopped. What happened, in fact, was that 4 or 5 of us preferred to e-mail each other outside the conference list, as some of the stuff we wanted to talk about concerned the lack of speedy responses from various tutors, and obviously people didn't want the tutors seeing that. I note that they're still encouraging this conference facility - they've just set up one for their MA12 cohort, which you can find if you go to http://shu.ac.uk and look for their TESOL Pilot Conference or something similar.

 

Response 6

The set up sounds a lot more supportive now - I mean, for example, back in the early 90s it wasn't really possible to get interim feedback on assignments, or to ask questions, unless you phoned (OK for people in the UK, but from overseas...!) There was more feedback and input at the dissertation stage, tho', and they were helpful if I did phone when in the UK.

 

I hated both the written and taped feedback on assignments, and sometimes just wanted to scream with frustration - I felt so misunderstood!

 

One thing nobody mentioned was books. I had an awful time getting books and spent a fortune - and had to stock up when in the UK on holiday! I guess now the Universities must have on-line libraries - or you can easily order thru' Amazon?

 

I think the biggest problem I had was isolation - there was nobody around me doing a DL MA, and I knew nobody who had done one. I was in contact a little with one friend (from my previous LTCL DL/on-site course) but we were at different stages of the scheme. There was a 'penpals' list for snail mail, but I didn't know who to pick to write to - or how they'd react. It really seemed like 'the loneliness of the long distance learner'. (Good title for an article, eh?) (I had chosen the course as it was ALL DL – I think it - Surrey - was the first to do that – but maybe in my case it was a wrong choice.) I felt very adrift, and if there was something I didn't understand, I got very bogged down and depressed. And there was no Internet to use to get help – fortunately sometimes colleagues straightened me out on a few topics.

 

Time management was another major issue – juggling work, family and study - and then various life crises - but Surrey were wonderfully flexible re deadlines. I did the modules more or less in any order I liked.

 

Can anyone relate to any of these feelings and problems? Re-reading this it sounds like a real

sob-story!

 

Anyway, I'm glad stuck with it - it would've been so easy to give up. And I felt a fantastic sense of achievement when I finished it all - but it took a lot of dogged determination to do - a real triumph for independent learning!

 

Response 7

During the last few years I have been working on a DL Dr. Ed. I live in Japan and the university is in the UK so everything is by email. My most important point is that for it to function well a responsible supervisor is the most essential factor. My present supervisor is perfect, and it makes all the difference.

 

There are seminars held that one must attend 2 or 3 times in Singapore, HK, the Lebanon and some other places I think and also a summer school which is good for meeting up with other distance learners. Several of us keep in touch and are good for encouraging each other which is really good.

 

The library services have been excellent and now that I have a really, really great supervisor, it's all fine. Very expensive though!

 

Response 8

In my last message re DL courses, I jokingly mentioned that 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Learner' would be a good title for an article - imagine my surprise when I spotted an article by that very name in the latest IATEFL Issues! The article is by James Wilson, who is based in Portugal. He discusses the reasons for choosing a DL course as well as the frustrations experienced, and gives some practical tips for coping with the situation. I'm not sure if IATEFL publishes its newsletter on the web anywhere - does anyone know?

 

Discussion 2

I am interested in doing a doctorate on an independent learning theme. Has anyone got advice on how to choose the right programme? For example: Which university? Which country? Locally? By distance only, or part time? Is there a clear choice between an EdD and a PhD? Is it important to go for a college with one of the leading lights in the field?

 

Response 1

Locally I think you can do the Aston program where there are seminars with profs from the UK from time to time - ditto Exeter. Think I have also seen an EDD programme from Newcastle advertised. Stafford Associates or BC would have more info. There is also a programme with Lancaster, but think there is some residence involved. Am sure there must be some Australian places which offer this.

Has anyone out there done a PhD online or totally/mainly by distance? Any experiences to share?

 

Response 2

I recently finished an Ed.D. from the University of Exeter which I worked on while living in the UAE. At first I was unsure whether to do an EdD or a PhD (Exeter do both in TEFL) but after looking into it for a while, I realised that the EdD was the best choice for me. My first consideration was whether it would have the same academic credibility as an EdD and I found that it has indeed. Once I realised that, I investigated how the programme was organised. I have friends who have been doing PhDs for years and years and they often feel very isolated and find it hard to feel like they are getting anywhere. PhD drop out rate is apparently very high for this reason. You also have to have a good idea about what you are going to research in advance and become an expert in a very specialist area. What I liked about the EdD was that you had the opportunity to explore a number of TEFL related areas and also that it relates to educational practice. I always felt that what I was doing related to my work and my students. In the Exeter program, I wrote 5 research assignments before doing my dissertation. All of the work is internally and externally examined to ensure doctoral standard. Two of the papers were based on education research methods, but the others are in an area related to teaching and there is a choice (psychology, teacher education... contact Exeter to find out what's on offer these days). Each module is supported by a series of lectures which take place in Dubai. You can also attend these in Exeter. I liked the module system as it made me feel that I was making real progress. I was also able to use a lot of my work from the assignments in my final dissertation - I had been reading in the appropriate areas and I could refer to my previous studies and build on them.

 

Exeter did not have experts in my particular field of TEFL - but it didn't put me off. What was important was that the lecturers provided me with the tools to be able to research in any area of TEFL. This is more important in my opinion.

 

You have to choose the best method for you. A combination worked for me – I spent summers in Exeter using the library and meeting other EdD and PhD students. You don't need to go there if you don't want to. If I couldn't get to Exeter, I would use libraries elsewhere. The sessions in Dubai took place on weekends and I even had some face to face tutorials there. Mostly, during the dissertation stage, I was on my own. I would send drafts to my supervisor by e-mail and he would write comments back. I only actually met him twice during the whole process. It would have been helpful to have been able to meet him more, but I managed.

 

It took me 4 years to complete but that was working pretty hard most weekends and a lot of evenings and every summer. I was registered as a part time student. Most part time students take a year or two longer depending on their personal circumstances. You can take up to 6 years I think. Don't start it unless you are prepared to let it take over your life, but in a good way :-)

 

Response 3

The Centre for English Language Teacher Education (CELTE), Warwick University, offers PhD and EdD. The University's official national rating is very high. It's in the top 5 among more than 104 British universities. The university's website is www.warwick.ac.uk.

 

Response 4

I am currently doing a distance PhD (Doctor of Applied Linguistics) through Macquarie University (www.mq.edu.au) based in Sydney, Australia.

As above, I went through quite a bit of investigation before deciding. The program is intended for people who want to integrate research with their personal work situation, so it suited me. I am also doing it on a part-time basis, but find it takes up a lot of time (after school and weekends). I am enjoying it, and am getting out of it what I wanted, which is updating 20 year old information since I got my MA, and pointing me in the direction I want to take to do some research. I am only finishing the first year, and there are at least 3 to go, so it's a long slog. I am also finding it consumes you, in an enjoyable, but often frantic way, but I was prepared for that. I didn't choose a UK university as they are expensive, compared to Macquarie, and I didn't want to have to go there in the summer as my home is in Canada. It is hard being isolated, so you have to motivate yourself, and be really sure you want to do it before you start. There are no lectures on site (I live in Bahrain), and no personal contact so far, though I expect that'll change as I get to the dissertation stage. Very much the loneliness of the long distance student... but it's okay. We have discussion groups and things, and e-seminars will happen in the next year or so. So far I've just been doing "catch up" courses (MA equivalent). If you are prepared to do it entirely on your own, it's an option. Good luck.

 

Response 5

We also offer a range of PhD and EdD work here at the University of Sheffield School of Education. Take a look at the website.

 

Discussion 3

I am interested in doing an MA in Linguistics and TESOL through distance learning/mixed mode. I need to find answers to the following questions.

 

1) Is a distance leaning degree in any way considered inferior or less valid than a full-time one?

 

2) Which are the recommended universities?

 

3) What are the financial implications?

 

I know I can find these answers on the Net, but I would greatly value the opinions of academics already in the field.

 

Response 1

I finished my MA 5 years ago from the UK through distance learning /mixed mode - we had the same course and exams like those at UK. You need to stay from 3 to 6 months in UK. There are many universities that offer these courses in UK and USA. It will cost about 7,000 pounds plus expenses for travelling and staying in UK.

 

Response 2

It's been ages since I've hopped into a thread (I'm "between contracts", or in other words, waiting for another temporary number at the University here in Spain. I have however been glancing at your discussions and miss being part of the action!

 

I'm writing now to say that I really enjoyed doing the e-mail MA TESOL option at the Institute of Education (London University) because it gave me the chance to have on-going contact with people from around the world and from very different, but, at times, strangely similar circumstances. I think there was more interaction among the participants than there would have been in a "normal" class.  I'm still in touch with some colleagues now.

 

In terms of its currency, well, in Spain, they don't seem to take foreign qualifications seriously anyway, so I really did it out of a sense of vocation. Looking back, it meant that I couldn't place a downpayment on a flat, but I would do it again because it consolidated my professional development at a crucial point in my career. I was ready for mixing theory and practice.

Of course, I suspect that distance MAs in TESOL are more common than the more conventional programmes, so they will have to become respected.

 

Response 3

I would recommend CELS (Centre for English Language Studies) of Birmingham University. CELS offers a good range of distance learning MAs. I have found their programmes really good and supportive

 

For enquiries, you can e-mail cels--@bham.ac.uk

 

Response 4

You could always do the MBA in Educational Management from Leicester University in the UK. This is solely distance learning and costs about 3,000 pounds. Alternatively, check out the University of London external programme.

 

Response 5

I completed an MSc in TESOL/TESP for Aston University. I would highly recommend it, as long as you're really good at managing your own time. It is particularly good at encouraging you to apply what you are learning to your particular working situation through action-research projects.

In addition to the distance aspect, there may be visits to the UAE once or twice a year by Aston staff. HCT at Abu Dhabi Men's also has a resource centre for the course.

 

I believe some people on the list are also on a Masters Course delivered in the UAE by Newcastle University, so it might be worth checking that website too.

 

Response 6

I did an MA with University of Leicester by distance. I was very pleased with the curriculum and support from the university library. Five years ago it cost approx. 3000 pounds. I never had to go to the university and it was all assessed by papers not exams.

 

Response 7

My MA was by DL from U/Surrey quite a few years ago - Surrey, I think, was the first University to offer a course totally by distance, which is why I opted for it (having had a miserable summer doing a residence for the LTCL). At that time, there were a lot of assignments and essays, and then exams, and then a dissertation – the total time period allowed was 6 years - but I know it has changed since then and the time frame may have been cut. You can check it online.

You asked about the financial implications - well, giving up your job, and paying fees and living in the UK for a year would be really expensive, so costwise, best to do it by DL. I felt very isolated doing it in the Middle East and then Finland - I got on best during some downtime we had in the UK where it was easy to ring up with questions and also I could get the books - but it's all changed now with email and online resources...

You also asked if MAs by DL were considered inferior - well, not by anyone who has done one! Trouble is that now there are all of these places who send out spam emails offering degrees for $50 and this has discredited DL degrees. This is all a bit of a hot topic at the moment as some places won't accredit MAs by DL, no matter which University they are from, or how much evidence of blood, sweat and tears you can produce.

 

Response 8

If you are in the UAE, you might want to contact the British University in Dubai (BUiD). They are connected with Birmingham University and will be offering a masters programme in Sept. 2004.

 

Response 9

You spoke up for a lot of people! The problem is not with universities and degrees as much as with accreditation in the country where you want to settle and work. Please, expect that distance/ mixed mode degrees are unfortunately not accredited in some countries. This is even if you get your MA with a distinction, even if you take all the exams, do all the assignments that on-campus students do, meet all the standards, live for a short time in a students' residence hall and use the facilities of the university, take leave from your current job, temporarily or permanently decide to ignore your family commitments, get bankrupt.... Still, for some, you need to prove that you were physically present at the university for at least a third of the total period of time. May be present but inefficient, it doesn't matter.

 

Response 10

I can really sympathize with all you said - I think the MA by DL was one of the toughest things I have ever done. Unlike the MA she describes, mine was totally by DL - and a very lonely process - it was before the days of email! You really have to be determined to succeed come whatever - war, death, marital problems, child-rearing, work - and then in the olden days - not being able to get books locally, waiting ages for book orders to arrive, not being able to afford to ring your tutor for advice...

And it is really upsetting that this mode of learning is not understood in some places - does being physically present ensure learning? Does going to class ensure that all your work is your own?

 

In the US there are lists of accredited schools and accredited programs - there must be in other countries too. So why can't the authorities just check the program is accredited and not purchased online from the University of Cybercon? And, surely tutors look in projects for plagiarism - and if they get suspicious that some students are not doing the work themselves, there must be some check-up measures they take?

 

Response 11

I have to agree with you here. I also did my MA pre-email and had multiple modules and exams. We also had a local facilitator who held monthly meetings which were a combination of seminar/how are you doing sessions. Along with this, there were also visits - about twice a year - from different tutors who gave lectures and held individual seminars. I'm sure that they would have realised, fairly quickly, if we had not been 'doing our own work'.

In my own case, I spent several months trying to get permission for military personnel to carry tape recorders just to do the research for my rather obscure dissertation on language mixing/switching. I also had many disagreements with my tutor on the content and had to be able to both support and validate my arguments over the telephone and in 'face-to-face' situations. This can't be done if you don't understand your thesis argument. This is not the type of effort one would go through just to get a 'fake' qualification. And none of this even considers the suffering that your 'loved ones' have to put up with.

Response 12

By strange coincidence we did the same DL MA and graduated AT THE SAME TIME! But as you can see our experiences were quite different - yet we have the same degree and DL is not mentioned on the cert – but if anyone checked with the University, they would say we studied by DL.

 

For him, thru his contact with the local group organiser and the visits with University profs, they knew it was his work - for me, I guess my correspondence - often rather hysterical (!) and the regular discussions I had with them by phone as I was UK-based when writing some assignments and my thesis would be proof. What would 'proving it’s your own work by DL' criteria be?

Correspondence

Phone calls

Meetings

Giving and taking relevant feedback on assignments

Emails with relevant questions

Consistent phraseology

Accurate referencing

Assignment answers being consistent with the info you have given about yourself

Exam performance

And?

 

Response 12

Here's a strategy by which Universities could determine what is 'own work' and what might be copied or plagiarized - contributed the ME Coordinator for the Aston MA TESOL.

 

Most universities require several modules or tasks to be submitted before the first assignment. This forms the basis, normally with the application task writing, for the student's "standard and style". It is fairly easy to see when a writer's style suddenly changes. I know one researcher using Plagiarism software to check this whereby it is possible to check if a person's use of noun phrases, for example, follows a consistent pattern.

 

Does anyone know of any other strategies or criteria?

 

Discussion 4

"Scuse my ignorance, but please what is the difference between a PhD and an EDD?

 

Response 1

The EdD is an Educational Doctorate which is usually partly taught, and organised in modules. This means that there are usually shorter assignments to do throughout and then a shorter thesis than in a PhD. Clear?

 

Response 2

In the UK a PhD involves mostly working relatively independently on one big research project and thesis. In the US I believe a PhD is more structured, starting with advanced courses in particular subject areas, and then capping it with a dissertation, which is shorter than the UK

PhD thesis. An EdD seems to be more structured, like a US PhD; although from what I've seen EdD assignments seem to be more oriented towards building up an academic career portfolio - presenting a paper at a conference, etc - as opposed to "pure" research-and-reporting.

 

Response 3

From an American perspective, the two degrees are similar in that they require usually 3 years of coursework and exams at the end of the  coursework. Once exams are passed, candidates become ABD--All But Dissertation and are officially doctoral candidates.

The 4th year of both degrees is relegated to a research-based dissertation.  American scholars consider the PhD to be more research focused than an  EdD in the coursework component.

 

Response 4

I've been reading the advertising from various universities on EdDs and PhDs recently and I wondered if the taught doctorate still suffers from an image problem outside the USA (quite unjust if it does).

 

Very often, the marketable value of your qualification depends on public and institutional perceptions of its worth (and not on the substance of the qualification itself). In the advertising for EdDs, there is often a special rather pleading note that the EdD is the equivalent of a PhD, as if to assuage the fears of potential candidates for the program. I have never seen the converse: a PhD program proclaiming that it's worth the same as an EdD.

 

Is it true that the EdD is a 'professional' doctorate with a lower academic standing than an academic doctorate? That its standing in the 'research world' or 'academe' is lower whilst its practical application value in 'real-world' teaching contexts is higher?

 

Response 5

I think it depends what you want to do. In Bear's Guide to the Best Distance and Online Degrees it says the distinction is becoming blurred.

 

For me it seems like the EdD prepares you for more administrative, coordination, leadership types of positions and the PhD prepares you to teach at the BA and MA level. I'm doing a pre sessional online course with the University of Phoenix for an EdD and it appealed to me because I didn't have to make a proposal for research before entering the program like with UK PhDs and some of the pre-dissertation classes sounded quite interesting in and of themselves, 'Ethics in Higher Education', etc. However, having done my MA in a traditional distance program from the UK, I liked being able to work at my own pace on my own, meeting the assignment deadlines. UOP is pretty intensive and then there are daily participation requirements. I'm still torn and might not continue.

 

Response 6

Colleagues of mine holding PhDs and working in universities in the UK say that the EdD is considered to be of the same academic standard as the PhD. One said that for teachers it's "the way to go" because of its flexibility in delivery, its relevance to the job and because it allows you to be trained in a wide range of research methods. I have written to universities in the UK and Singapore who advertised for PhD holders and asked whether they accept an EdD in place of a PhD and they said they did. One person who runs an EdD said that they prefer EdD holders to teach on those courses because they have been trained in a wide range of research methods and methodologies. The person who said that has a PhD and said that for education PhDs are too narrow.

 

Response 7

This is a good detailed summary of ‘professional doctorates’ vs. PhDs:

 

http://informationr.net/hb/UKCouncil.html

 

Discussion 5

How do we define the following, I wonder - and what's the same or different about them?

 

Distance Learning

E-learning

Online learning

Correspondence course

Distance Education

Are e-learning and online learning the same?

Is Distance Learning the same as Distance Ed – and does it encompass online/e-learning?

Is a correspondence course just the good old-fashioned handwritten answers to packages of paper materials?

What other terms should be included?

 

 

Response 1

Maybe e-learning could include offline digital work such as using CALL software or learner training software (e.g. VocabBuddy http://www.eflsoft.com/products/vbud/vBud.html).

 

"Blended learning" and "open learning" might be related terms.

 

By the way, did you know that Google will find you definitions of terms if you go to www.google.com and search for something such as the following:

define:blended learning OR define:open learning. Could come in handy!

 

Response 2

Let's survey those who are trying to sell courses to us?

 

I'll start, by sending your list to UNext.com, which was at the core of a good explanation of the phenomenon three years ago in the magazine MOTHER JONES, in San Francisco (www.motherjones.com - but hard to say if the full piece is archived -probably is). The piece is titled "A Campus of One," by Jennifer Washburn and Eyal Press (a person).

 

Read to the end, if you find it: The penultimate paragraph starts: "One of the dangers, according to critics, is that universities will diminish their reputations by lending their imprimatur to what remains an essentially untested commercial product." .... "But universities rushing to embrace dot-com education may risk more that the potential dilution of their 'brand.' ...Many universities seem to fear that if they don't keep pace with the distance-learning revolution, they will fall behind the times (but) in rushing to profit from the business of on-line education they could undermine the case for their own existence."

-------------------------

In the article, the authors use "distance learning," "dot-com education," and "e-learning" interchangeably, questioning the quality with (are they comparable to) "a second-rate product akin to the correspondence courses of an earlier era?"

-------------------------

Drop-out rates, the article reported, were between 70% and 80% in early DL courses at Columbia U and the U of California HQ campus, Berkeley.

 

Progressive Antioch U-Seattle (and Ohio) ran an ad in the same Mother Jones issue that doesn't tout the practice, but does say they have/had "some limited-residency options."

 

Part of the higher ed "high" is the socializing-- meeting new people part of being physically "distant." Intro to the pizza and beer lifestyle 101, while ruminating on the meaning of life, with live persons.

 

Response 3

Judging from the presentations at e-Learning conferences in the UAE, an eLearning environment is considered to be (at these conferences) one that employs digital media across a delivery system. This might or might not be at a distance, it might at minimum entail only a computer and a bit of software, but it would more typically be implemented across a network, perhaps a local one, perhaps an Internet one. The teacher (if any) could be near or far away.

 

Online learning (to me anyway) implies an Internet connection. In this case the teacher is likely to be distant. If it's over the Internet it's a subset of eLearning.

 

Distance learning implies that the teacher and students are in separate locations. The medium can vary considerably (internet, tv, radio, satellite, email, etc)

 

A correspondence course? Snail mail? Is this term being applied to the above environments?

 

Response 4

So in the UAE the term "e-learning" does not necessarily involve the Internet? And you can do it alone or with a group, from what you wrote.

That's a start of the glossary, at least...

 

E-mail is correspondence, so "correspondence courses" don't necessarily involve only the postal service or other courier. Examples: Here in Poland, the TELC and TOEFL testing is still done on paper, DHL ships the tests to the grading center, a cassette tape is shipped with the answer sheet for the Speaking Test portion (TELC), and I believe TOEFL now does that part over the telephone, unless they can do it on a VOIP connection, requiring higher-end equipment and broader-band wire or wireless connections.