Distance Education Part 2…

Scholars are discussing e-learning trends and how online distance learning must evolve. Examples of voices in this conversation are Moller, Foshay, & Huett (2008). Moller, Foshay, & Huett (2008) in part 1 of their series on e-learning trends discuss how training and development increasingly rely on Internet distance education in workplace settings due to its economic benefits as well as its ability to provide a customizable learning experience that is unprecedented. "If the most important training is that which is actually used by learners, it stands to reason that as web-based instruction evolves and learners become more adept at maneuvering within the environment, they will come to demand greater customization of the learning process to cater to their individual interaction needs—whatever those needs might be" (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 75). Part 2 of Moller, Foshay, & Huett's (2008) series discuss the role online distance learning is playing in higher education. There is a need for performance-based outcomes in online distance learning, particularly in higher education. "The conclusion, therefore, is to understand that the faculty, the distance education organizations, the learners and their employers, and the ID field all have a common interest in performance-based definitions of quality" (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 70). Huett, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman (2008) also discuss in Part 3 of their series on distance education the ever-increasing role that online education plays in K-12 education. They conclude with the confession that "As much as our understanding of technology in education and training has developed over the past 40 years, we still understand only a small fraction of what is required to transform the craft of instructional technology and design into an engineering or science-style discipline" (Huett, Moller, Foshay, & Coleman, 2008, p. 66).


 
The reality is that education must be continually studied and redefined if it is going to successfully meet the ever-changing needs of our society and world. There are three important educational theories that are important to education in general, and specifically in educational technology (Ally, 2008). They are behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. The cognitivist school of learning, which, "see learning as an internal process that involves memory, thinking, reflection, abstraction, motivation, and metacognition" (Ally, 2008, p. 21), is an approach that is the most appropriate to meet the learning outcomes in a distance education environment in my opinion. The emphasis on activating existing knowledge, chunking knowledge into parts to reduce overload, a variety of learning strategies should be used to meet learner outcomes, different modes of information presentation, and learners should be motivated to learn are important components to designing instruction that is learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and when done effectively, community-centered (Anderson, 2008). Constructivism can also be utilized as an effective theory to promote the four goals of distance learning. Both of these approaches accommodate the needs of the learner and can be used as a basis for facilitating the complex process of learning. Behaviorism in my opinion does not fully accommodate for the complexities of the learning process due to its emphasis on the role of the instructional medium rather than the learner.


 
References:
Ally, M. (2008). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In Anderson, T. (2^nd ed.), The theory and practice of online learning (pp. 15-44). Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.


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 evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.