Definitions Research and Distance Education

•         This instrument allows individuals the opportunity to evaluate instructional media on 10 elements: (1) amount of material covered, (2) level of difficulty, (3) degree to which the course content was well organized, (4) clarity of the content, (5) degree to which the various programs and instructional activities were relevant to the course objectives, (6) excellence or lack of excellence of the presenter’s delivery, (7) extent to which text and weekly assignments were integrated with each week’s class, (8) value of slides, films, and other visual materials, (9) value of text screens to support the presenter’s delivery, and (10) degree to which the course held the student’s interest.
    •         Seven broad categories of teaching behaviors were identified:
                Nonverbal “immediacy” behaviors
               Verbal “immediacy” behaviors
               Behaviors that personalize the class
               Technology management strategies
              Methods for acquiring student feedback
              Methods used to manage student participation
              Active learning strategies
•         Beare (1989) compared the effectiveness of six instructional formats that allowed differing levels of interaction: (1) lecture, (2) lecture with videotape backup, (3) telelecture, (4) audio-assisted independent study, (5) video-assisted study, and (6) video on campus.
•         Bauer and Rezabek (1992) compared verbal interaction under three conditions: (1) two-way audio and video, (2) two-way audio, and (3) traditional instruction.
•         When the data were analyzed, the strongest barriers to distance education were identified. Their rank order is:
1. Increased time commitment
2. Lack of money to implement distance education programs
3. Organizational resistance to change
4. Lack of shared vision for distance education in the organization
5. Lack of support staff to help course development
6. Lack of strategic planning for distance education
7. Slow pace of implementation
8. Faculty compensation/incentives
9. Difficulty keeping up with technological changes
10. Lack of technology-enhanced classrooms, labs, or infrastructure
•         Berge and Muilenburg identified the least important barriers to implementation. They were (in rank order):
54. Competition with on-campus courses
55. Lack of personal technological expertise
56. Lack of acceptable use policy
57. Lack of transferability of credits
58. Problems with vast distances and time zones
59. Technology fee
60. Tuition rate
61. Local, state, or federal regulations
62. Ethical issues
63. Existing union contracts
64. Lack of parental involvement
•         Berge and Muilenburg concluded by identifying the need for cultural change within organizations involved or contemplating involvement with distance education. Five of the top barriers related directly to organizational culture are as follows:
      Organizational resistance to change
       Lack of shared vision for distance education in the organization
       Lack of strategic planning for distance education
       Slow pace of implementation
       Difficulty keeping up with technological change
•         In South Dakota (Simonson, 2001), a recent series of focus groups of teachers revealed the following reasons why they were reluctant to be involved in distance education:
       Fear
       Training
       Time
       Changes needed
•         These same groups indicated that the impediments to implementing distance education in schools were as follows:
       Need for training
       Need for and lack of support
       Time needed
       Fear of the process
       Scheduling problems
       Technical problems