Distance Learning: A New Frontier

Future Perceptions of Distance Learning: 5-10 Years 

A 2009 study of 239 schools found  “a surprising lack of high visibility of online degree program offerings on university official websites” (Gambescia & Paolucci, 2009, p. 5) revealing  that nearly 70% of these universities relegated their online program information to secondary page links or even worse, to a search box capability.  This is the case, even though evidence points to “a strong trend upwards in considering online education as part of a school’s long term strategy”(p. 5).   These disharmonious facts lend credence to the notion that degree granting institutions are currently struggling to identify their own future in distance education programs.

My Alma-mater, Providence College, only refers to online learning in it's continuing education section of its web-site which is at least three page clicks deep:

“Distance education is not yet a comfortable environment in promising success for those who prefer to run with the crowd, to ‘play it safe’, and who are unduly respectful of convention and tradition”(Burge, 2007, p. 122). Those institutions with the inflexible views that distance education degree programs are still the inferior method of learning, display a rigid ignorance to what the numbers are clearly evidencing.  I believe that more of these institutions and their faulty perceptions will soon buckle under the competitive market pressure to offer substantive virtual degree tracks or they will not survive financially in their current educational missions.  Perhaps, these campus dinosaurs will slowly evolve into research institutions exclusively, but they will not be able to carry their own weight under traditional teaching or under deficient distance programs.

I think that distance education degree programs, now experiencing a polishing period so to speak, are poised to exploit an impending "bubble burst" in the next 5-10 years for traditional education. People will increasingly perceive that the costs and other intangible sacrifices of conventional learning have just grown so egregiously enormous [and therefore, increasingly only for the wealthy elite], that more will take the route of seeking customized skills instead of the orthodox, inelastic, campus-based degree programs. More people will see that distance education successfully serves this market demand through “new communication tools, contribution of experts around the world, and increased use of multi-media, games and simulations”(Siemens, n.d.). Read this 2011 article entitled The Future of Online Learning which corroborates these specific impending trends for distance learning in accountability and transparency, course content and quality, the role of the instructor, and finally, collaboration and multi-modal content delivery.

Future Perceptions of Distance Learning: 10-20 Years

“A major benefit of college level online learning that cannot be overstated is that this new delivery method has accelerated the democratization of a college education”(Gambescia & Paolucci, 2009, p. 14).  The future of distance learning will “enable a universal population to be able to say, if they wanted to, that they too were entitled to learn, and able to learn” (Burge, 2007, p. 122). This distance learning future will not exclude formal virtual degree programs, but it will also include and even be challenged by those learners who not only want to learn but also want to innovate in highly specific ways.

             

          To this point, I found another visionary article that details how the world population’s increasing literacy rates will explode in 20 years and how this will be a major catalyst for positive changes in distance education. “Digital technology will continue its rapid ascent… There will be more pooling of resources among the providers of education to meet the demands of personalized/customized education of the next twenty-five years. Open and distance education as it is being practiced today will not be the same, just as the traditional university will no longer be traditional. Being flexible as such, open and distance education institutions would lead the way, becoming universities/institution of convergence, fully engaged in networked learning. "The transformation has already begun”(Srivastava & Reddy, 2003) . “Let us not forget that the post-industrial environment is global rather than national” (Srivastava et al., 2003). The infamous digital divide will no longer exist between the wealthy elite and third world learners.  

  

             We already see new and exciting curriculum possibilities provided to global learners from top-tier institutions, which now offer web-based courses available online for free to reach millions worldwide.  Click this  Announcement of Coursera and visit this Coursera Web-site, which is just another of many, such accumulating open courseware sites on the world-wide-web.  Additionally, the world’s greatest thinkers are currently assembling across the internet in non-degree forums such as this one at TED.com, in order to spread the wealth of knowledge to all peoples.  As such, people of the world in 20 years will recognize distance learning just as valuable for their minds and for their economic survival as water is for their bodies.

My ID Role as Proponent in Improving Society’s Distance Learning Perceptions

“We believe strongly that distance education, specifically web-based distance education, is the single most promising educational innovation of our lifetime.  We feel sure it will continue its current spectacular growth in both popularity and availability, and that future growth will involve nearly every imaginable level and type of schooling” (Aggarwal, 2007, p. 7) Aggarwal’s worthy book highlights the current conundrum of balancing the concerns for curriculum quality and intellectual property rights with meeting the needs of the outlandish growth in distance education.  My role as an ID proponent of distance learning in society is an important one in helping to navigate these troubling waters.  My role will be one of an inventor in helping to discover, create, and implement effective curriculum content for society’s knowledge needs.

  

Myself as a Positive Force for Continuous Improvement 

in Distance Education Field

When I started this course, I thought about how much I felt like Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman.  Now in my last resource article of the class, the author calls distance education students, teachers and instructional designers “pioneers [who are] idiosyncratic, innovative, [and] creative”(Burge, 2007, p. 122).  I have fallen more comfortably into the role of path cutter now and feel more confident in my abilities to “look for [my] chance of contributing to the needed revolution”(Burge, 2007, p. 122).  I hope to continually stay abreast of the latest research in distance education because “it summarizes what is known…and it shows where there are unexplored spaces”(Burge, 2007, p. 123). 

Just for kicks, here are two pictures:  one of the actor, Fess Parker, who played Daniel Boone on TV in the 1950's versus the real Daniel Boone who settled the Kentucky frontier:

I hope to continually improve my skills and never stop learning more as the online world changes so rapidly.  Perhaps then, I can become a positive force in the field and help others feel more comfortable, because as Dr. Siemen puts it, simple “comfort is the key challenge”(Siemen, n.d.).  “Tomorrow's citizens [especially me as an instructional designer in distance education] will have to be more competent and comfortable with the technologies of the day. [ I ] will have to be versatile in [ my ] readiness and willingness to embrace change and learn new skills” (Srivastava & Reddy, 2003).  I will be 88 years old in 2050 and God willing, still sharp as a tack. “As the adage goes, ‘If you want to live in the 21st century, live with the 21st century tools’”(2003).

 References

Aggarwal, D.D. (2007). Future of distance education. New Delhi, India: Satrup & Sons.

Burge, E. (Ed.). (2007). Critical minds for a change. In Crafting the future: Flexible higher              education. Open University Press/McGraw Hill Education. 

Gambescia, S., & Paolucci, R. (2009). Academic fidelity and integrity as attributes of

             university online degree program offerings. Online Journal of Distance Learning 

             Administration,12(1). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla

             /spring121/gambescia121.html

Schmidt, E., & Gallegos, A. (2001). Distance learning: Issues and concerns of distance 

            learners. Journal of Industrial Technology, 17(3). Retrieved from http://atmae.org

            /jit/Articles/schmidt041801.pdf

Siemens, G. (n.d.). The Future of Distance Education Lecture presented for Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6493363&Survey=1&47=8988324&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Srivastava, M. & Reddy, V.V. (2003).  ICT and the future of distance education. Turkish

          Online Journal of Distance Education, 4(4).  Retrieved from

           https://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde12/articles/reddy.htm