Running head: BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DISTANCE EDUCATION

Abrar Ghaleb Hatem University of Texas at San Antonio Brief Overview of the Distance Education Technology and Learning Couture 5703 Dr. Carmen Fies May 7th, 2012

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Task A paper on distance education that consists of two parts: (1) Literature review (five sources) of pertinent publications, and (2) a reflection on how what the literature says compares to your own experiences and setting. Abstract This paper is for educators who interest in the distance education. In a time of technology, learning improved and creates new modern techniques to meet the needs of our technology area. Nowadays, learning does not necessitate classrooms to be delivered; it goes further and employs technology tools in education attempting to apply modern learning. Over the years, various technologies have been employed to enhance distance education, including radio, television, and the telephone" (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, Russell, 1996, p. 187). The educational technology considered the main core of the distance education in the learning-teaching process. The distance education makes a remarkable impact on the global education. It can be defined as "A form of education in which there is normally a separation between teacher and learner and thus one in which other means the printed and written word, the telephone, computer conferencing or teleconferencing, for example are used to bridge the physical gap" (Mugridge, 1991). Distance education facilitates the communications and the interaction between learners and instructors. Moreover, it is possible for all courses to be delivered on the Internet an. It has the capacity to meet all the instructional needs. It provides great learning opportunity for all people how really need it such as: people with disability and who willing to study and work in the same time. Indeed, with the dramatic increase of implementing the distance education in 21 century, there

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DISTANCE EDUCATION are several needs have been highlighted. This paper tracks these highlighted needs: the history of the distance learning in the United States, the history of technology tools that have been used in and its effective role in bridging the instructional gap, the roles of the students and teachers in distance education, the strategies for effective distance education, education, and a reflection on how these literatures compare with my own experiences and setting. Brief Overview of the Distance Education Distance education usually considered as a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been found in the early of the mid-1800s. Since that time, it keeps improving and changing its methods, techniques, and the technology tools that have involved in. The primary roots of the distance education were in Britain. They used the postal for transferring the literary works over the country. Then this system has spread widely in Europe and in the United States. At the beginning, the United States applied in the higher education when the Illinois Wesleyan University has provided it for upgrading the grades of the students with consist absence. Then and there, The University of Chicago contributed the distance education college program as one of its major (Kerka, 1996; McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996). The National Center for Educational Statistics estimated distance education enrollment at 2,077,000 in approximately 127,400 different courses for all two-year and post-secondary institutions during the 20002001 academic year (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). In the initial period of the twentieth century, the distance education has grown significantly and quickly that arouse the fear of principles in education because there is no standards for the distance learning guarantee the quality of the education. Ultimately, the United States Department of Education approved the

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distance education program and named it Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) (Findley, B., & Findley, D. 1997). Over the developing stages of the distance learning, diverse technology tools have been integrated and played effective role in bridging the instructional gap. Radio was the first wave of the distance education. At the beginning of the twentieth century, radio had a channel that distributed instructional materials in its broadcast. The radio usage as a delivery tool magnificently was enhanced after World War II when Americans found the German radio stations which were managed and operated automatically not personnel. In fact, the Germans had played significant role in developing the radio. They have developed the audio recording by tapes and they exceeded the United States in the quality of the sound. The progress of the audiotapes led to improve the audiocassettes. In addition, the telephone was the second wave of the distance education. It has involved in the distance education in the late 1980s and 1990s. Actually, there was noticeable growth of teleconferencing technology tools that offered two-way voice communication through a telephone loudspeaker and telephone service. It allows students to enhance their interactive skills and participate in discussions via connecting students' telephones. The reason behinds the frequent use of the radio and telephones: it is an inexpensive way that can be utilized as delivery options. Furthermore, the television was the third wave of the distance education. In the early 1950s, the television became popular. Some universities started advertising its courses and programs at the television stations. The University of Houston established KUHT , the first licensed instructional television station, in 1953. The However, the real impetus to broadcast television instructional delivery did not occur until the 1960s with the passing of the Educational Broadcasting Facilities Act which provided $32 million dollars for development of educational television (Gross, 1989; Public Broadcasting Systems, n.d.). The

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DISTANCE EDUCATION development of fiber optics and satellite systems provided greater interactive capabilities that resulted in the development of many other successful televisions based instructional programs (Mielke, 1999). Moreover, video conferencing has provided the distance education with twoway video united with two-way audio for distributing educational materials. Video conferencing includes cable, telephone, microwave, satellite, and computer/ Internet. Indeed, it stared to be practiced for educational purposes in 20002001. Picciano (2002) has stated that about the videoconferencing provides all the benefits of television and in addition allows the audience to interact in real time with the instructor and other students (p. 176). There are several states have applied and improved the videoconferencing such as: Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Maryland. Although the videoconferencing has great benefits, the instructional institutions avoided it because it is expensive tool and essential complex technology (McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996; Picciano, 2002). Finally, computers were the fourth wave of the distance education. Computers are regarded a new technology tool compared to radio, telephone, and television. The main goal for inventing the computers was not for the educational needs, but now it is the main delivery tool for the distance education. The computer technology gained in popularity rapidly. The creation of the World Wide Web in the 1990s and the improvement of the software programs like blackboard have made quantum leap in the computers industry (Bates, 2000). The online distance learning is the most preferable technology among all distance technology tools (Lease, A. A, 2009). The distance learning implementation is in continues progress and there are a lot of benefits of it. According to Findley, B., & Findley, D in their journal Strategies for effective distance education there are several strategies for gaining advantages from the distance learning. First, provide educators with technology specialists who can help developing and integrating

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technology tools in distance education. Second, offering the distance instructor sufficient time for preparing for their online courses since the online courses required so much time in focusing on the details with the absence of the immediate communication. Third, motivating and offering time for educators enabling them plan all together to agree about the standard, the style, and the limits of the curriculum to be presented online. Fourth, reconsider the class time since the interactions within technology takes time. Fifth, employ the Two-way video and audio to facilitate the communication and the interaction processes between and among the learners and the instructors. Sixth, it is possible and helpful to place the students who have the chance to attend face to face lecture with those who take the same class with same instructor but in online lecture in one site for allowing them work in groups. Seventh, administering a survey at the beginning of the course to identify the prior experiences of the learners, so the educators can determine the students skills and how to employ these skills effectively in the online classes. Eighth, educators must consider the individual and the team work in projects, assignments, discussion, and the evaluation in the distance learning. Ninth, it is possible to have experts from different domains to be used as a resource for the course, and if they are not available the video tape of them will be helpful especially when the student get the opportunity to record their questions then get the experts responses on-going dialog. Tenth, offer the learners formal and informal ways to assess their distance education performance periodically such as: surveys, discussion, and electronic mail. Eleventh, educators should assess the learners performance and provide them with immediate and continues feedback so they can identify the points of their strength and weakness. Twelfth, it is necessary to guarantee the high quality of the tools function which used in distance learning environment. Thirteenth, we have to ensure that we have curriculum-driven technology rather than technology-driven curriculum. Fourteenth, the

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DISTANCE EDUCATION policies of the distance learning and the technology that involved should get some improvement, to address the problem that may so that may arise. Fifteenth, distance technology must be used as a helpful factor for the educators and not in place of them. In the distance education, the importance and the effectiveness of the educators and the students role are in parallel think. The role of instructors and learners in the distance learning is not a simple task. Educators are required to design an environment that capable to meet the desired instructional goals, but the learners will be responsible to adjust this environment The roles of students and teachers depends on three types of interaction in the distance education: learner-content interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction. These interactions can be implemented through email and chatting. Moreover, educators should use effective communication techniques. In addition, teachers must include competence, continuity, control and confidence to create effective and significant environment for distance learning furthermore, the educators should be tutors for their students since sometimes there is little or even no real interaction between students and teachers in the distance learning. Thus the students go for personal tutors who cannot be beneficial as their teacher who is the expert of the course content that they need to know more about. The tasks of the tutors : discuss course content, providing feedback on progress, helping students plan work, motivating students, supervising projects and teaching face-to-face seminars, keeping students records, and evaluating course effectiveness ( Isman, A., & Dabaj, F. 2004). Also, instructors should assess on tests and assignments fairly since students are centering their attention on the assignment and grading. On the other hand, students have to contact frequently with their teachers for getting immediate feedback about their performance. Learners should be ready to be in cooperative learning with their classmates via the technology tools. Also, students will be self-responsible for their learning

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and work on their education goals individually. They have to utilize the given data for finding solutions, and this way they will be researchers. Additionally, they should apply technology to construct their learning. Learners must practice the accessing process thus they can reach the information easily. The Personal Experience I have experienced the distance learning for the first time in my life in this semester. At the beginning, I found it difficult especially when the technical problems aroused. However, after I adjusted and practiced it several times I utilized it enjoyably and effectively. According to Isman, A., & Dabaj, F in their journal Roles of Students and Teachers in Distance Education they stated that: it is not easy for the students to adjust the given distance environment. I believe that distance learning is one of the main components for creating effective learning system. Through my experience I have used several technology tools and I agree with what Lease, A. A. has stated in his journal Distance Learning Past, Present and Future; computer/Internet and software programs are the most popular tools that have been employed in 21th century distance learning. Moreover, I have experienced creating online unite, and this project required specific needs such as: technologists supports so much time to finish it. This experience meets some of the strategies that listed by Findley, B., & Findley, D in their journal Strategies for effective distance education. As a learner who has indulged in various distance learning for the whole semester, I can state that theses literatures have reflected my experience in some points and increased my knowledge about the distance learning in the other points. Conclusion

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DISTANCE EDUCATION Nowadays, educators no longer have the option to decide involving distance education; the only option is how to implement effective and successful distance learning. Furthermore, educators need to identify the importance the distance education in bridging the instructional gap, and what technology tools will facilitate the use of it. Teachers and learners are required to recognize their roles in the distance learning for ensuring achieve the three significant interactions: learner-content interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction. Additionally, instructors need to pursue effective strategies for gaining a lot of benefits from the distance learning. Indeed, all the five reviewed literatures and my experience support these needs. In my perspective,

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References Findley, B., & Findley, D. (1997). Strategies for effective distance education. Contemporary Education, 68118-120. Isman, A., & Dabaj, F. (2004). Roles of Students and Teachers in Distance Education. Online Submission. Lease, A. A. (2009). DISTANCE LEARNING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. International Journal of Instructional Media, 36(4), 415-426 Maxcy, D., National Association of Secondary School Principals, R. A., & And, O. (1994). Distance Education: Bridging an Instructional Gap. NASSP Curriculum Report. Mugridge, I. (1991) Distance education and the teaching of science, Impact of Science on Society 41 4, 313-320 Valentine, D. (2002). Distance learning: Promises, problems, and possibilities. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 5 (3).

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