Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Date:
11/1/2015
Topic Selected:
Traditionally, distance education courses lack face-to-face interaction. What are the
consequences of lack of interaction in distance education? What can be done to
increase interaction in distance education (online courses) so that same type of learning
can occur with face-to-face learning?
1. LITERATURE REVIEW:
What does the literature/research say about this issue/topic? By using NAU
Library or Online Search engines, conduct a literature review.
You need to include 5 different sources (book, journal article, web article
etc.) in your review. Try to use current sources as much as possible.
You don't need to evaluate your sources (if the sources are trustworthy,
weather the author has a bias or not)
between an instructor and their students, distance education has brought many new
challenges to the teaching and learning process. Wang and Newlin (2000) point out that
little is known about the characteristics of students in distance education courses. As a
result, effective curriculum design is hindered by the lack of understanding of the
characteristics, attitudes, and needs of the students in these courses (Smith, 1997). At
the same time, the faculty needs to develop skills in helping students adjust to the
unique features of distance education. However, the lack of adequate training may
prevent them from fully participating in the distance education practices (Galusha, 1998),
especially considering that they have to spend twice as much time in preparing and
delivering an online course as compared to a traditional course (Willis, 1994). With all of
the challenges facing distance education, studies show that distance learning students
desire content and motivational support beyond course materials and are limited in their
success without it (Williams, 2006).
Researchers have long pointed out the importance of student interactions in the
teaching and learning process. Vygotsky (1978) states collaborative learning is
necessary in building ones own cognitive process. Among group members, if they
cannot share their knowledge effectively, it can lead to poor learning outcomes (Soller,
2004). To test the difference of collaborative learning and individual learning, Ellis et al.
(1994) compares the problem-solving results between fifth graders who worked with a
partner and those who worked alone. The result shows that 75% of the paired students
solved the problem with new mathematical rules while only 32% of the students working
individually came up with a solution.
What are the consequences of lock of interaction in distance education?
Good communication is essential for successful learning. As there is no face-to-face
interaction in distance learning courses, communication is given a stronger emphasis by
schools providing these courses. Many of them have established more effective modes
of communication in their distance learning programs to compensate the lack of face-toface interaction.
In distance learning, the course content can be communicated through audio tapes,
videos, the web, or printed form. The student will be informed about the course content
and course directives. Most importantly, the information should be clearly communicated
to the students as they need to know exactly what is expected from them. Many distance
learning course developers make use of the internet to provide up-to-date information to
enhance learning. Besides course materials, course developers usually include other
websites and online journals to create more depth in learning. With the internet, the
course developer is able to provide online a great supply of current data to support the
course materials.
In classroom teaching, the course instructor is able to show enthusiasm for a topic
by the use of his or her tone of voice. However, with distance learning, the displaying of
enthusiasm through the use of voice by the instructor is not possible most of the time. In
this aspect, many schools which produce course content through the web, make use of
graphics, videos and photographs to depict various types of emotions. By using these
illustrations, the course instructor can communicate his or her emotions towards various
topics to the students. This helps to build enthusiasm for the course content. On the
other hand, students can express their emotions on the course through communication
channels such as web forums and chat rooms. Thus, they can also have the ease of
expressing their passion for certain topics. In this way, it would increase their
involvement in the course, build enthusiasm for their course of study and enhance their
learning process.
As physical separation can create a sense of isolation, many schools build
communication channels to decrease this feeling the learners may experience. In
distance learning, the modes of communication include electronic mail, website forums,
chat rooms and internet conferencing. Their availability helps to increase interaction
between instructor and student, as well as interaction among students. Interaction is
important in a learning environment. It can enhance learning and promote individual
growth. The communication channels also allow the students to ask questions anytime
about the course and assignments. During the course, students may not fully understand
some topics and need to seek clarifications with the course instructor. Sometimes, even
though the course instructor has explained the assignments in the course content,
students may still have questions about them. Hence, the various communication
channels are useful for these clarifications.
Distance online learning has expanded communication options used by traditional
classroom learning. For example, some methods used by students in classroom learning
such as asking the instructor questions after class lessons, telephone communication,
one-to-one or group discussions are still used in online learning. In addition to these,
online learning has electronic mail, mailing lists, chat rooms, message boards and web
forums. Thus, online learning has more communication options available for the students
and instructors to interact. As there is a variety of modes of communication available,
students can have the freedom to select the type of mode they like to use.
From the above, we can see that although distance learning may lack face-to-face
interaction, many schools have established various other modes of communication to
increase interaction. With the use of current technology, distance learning has a greater
They may be seen as interconnected roads on the e-learning map. The model
depicted in Figure 1 emphasizes the connection between the four dimensions of
interaction which take place in distance-learning courses. In this model, the lecturer is at
the top of the learning pyramid, but in parallel to his or her communication with the
students, communication among the students themselves is carried out. The lecturer
also participates in the interaction between the students. Both of these types of
interactionteacherstudent and studentstudenttake place in, and are affected by,
the environment of the course, which is determined by its content and system.
While creating opportunities for interaction may occur without much planning in a
face-to-face environment, designing and implementing interactive learning experiences
online requires strategic planning. After conducting a thorough review of current
literature on the qualities of effective online teaching, Ive identified strategies that can
increase interaction in online learning environments. These strategies are organized by
the three types of interaction defined by Moore (1989):
Learner-instructor interaction:
Interaction between the instructor and learners has been found to be the most
important type of interaction in online environments. Frequent interaction with the
instructor helps learners feel a greater sense of community and leads to higher
levels of student engagement (Brinthaupt, Fisher, Gardner, Raffo, & Woodard,
2011; Mayes et al., 2011).
Learner-content interaction:
In online learning environments, instructors must balance the desire to provide
students with a wealth of content with the need to avoid overloading students
with excess content (Garrison & Anderson, 2003). Effective online instructors
carefully consider each piece of content that is provided for students and design
opportunities for students to engage with content. Collaborative project-based
learning (PBL) can be an effective way to get students interacting with
meaningful content.
Learner-learner interaction:
One way to facilitate learner-learner interaction is allowing students to facilitate
class discussions, either synchronously or asynchronously. Prior to having
students facilitate discussions, the instructor should teach and model how to lead
an online discussion, gradually releasing responsibility for facilitating discussions
to students. Researchers recommend using a variety of groupings for interaction,
such as whole class and small group discussions, partner assignments, and
individual responses (Mayes et al., 2011).
Details
Require participation in
discussion forums that
require students to reflect
and build on the content.
Assign activities that
require students to
interact with the content
and explore the topic in
greater detail.
Strategy
Learner-to-Learner Interaction
Details
Encourage socializing in
the discussion forums.
Encourage content-based
discussion in the
discussion forums.
Encourage students to
use Interwise for group
meetings.
Strategy
Learner-to-Instructor Interaction
Details
Present a welcoming,
friendly atmosphere.
Use synchronous
technologies for question
and answer sessions and
ad hoc discussions.
Provide thorough
feedback.
Discussion
It is important for distance learning students to experience the types of
professional culture, knowledge sharing, and resource exchange involved in
collaborative teaching and collaborative learning in both online and face-to-face
environments, so that they can understand the value that communication in each type of
environment can bring. In recent years, students in online teaching/learning
environments have become familiar with many technologies that have not consistently
found their way into face-to-face classrooms. However, when such tools are
incorporated into face-to-face courses through the use of course-level blended
education, student learning is enhanced in terms of both the immediate classroom
experience and the preparation it provides for future professional collaborations.
Online collaboration tools such as blogs can facilitate the integration of individual
contributions to team or project-based work. This is especially important considering the
growing trend of team management in all types of libraries (Bemfeld, 2004). While
younger students are already familiar with many of these online tools, graduate students,
especially those who have been away from academia for some time before returning to
pursue an advanced degree, may not have been exposed to them. Ensuring that
dialog they conduct, and the feelings they have towards each other and the educational
system in which they participate.
In structuring their distance learning courses, instructors need to consider the
three types of interaction identified by Moore: Interaction with content, interaction with
the instructor; and interaction among the classmates. Instructors should also consider
the fourth dimension of interaction identified in this article: interaction with the system. By
taking into account the four types of interaction (as well as the connection between
them) when designing their e-learning courses, instructors can expect to achieve better
results.
Criteria for selecting technologies to afford successful student collaboration
include strong support of social presence, low learning curves, and easily facilitated
student interaction. In addition, their successful integration into the teaching/learning
environment requires a high level of participation from the instructor and significant
personalization of the collaborative experience to increase community building,
engagement, and student learning. In view of the fact that the library and information
service world is increasingly becoming a seamless mix of face-to-face and online
interactions, its need to move away from thinking about educational delivery as a choice
among face-to-face, online, or blended programs, instead working to provide students
with blended educational delivery at all possible levels: activity, course, program, and
administrative. Optimally, those features of the e-learning environment that are
sometimes identified by students as being negative factors can be transformed into the
unique benefits offered by the distance-learning format.
2. REFLECTION:
What is your personal opinion on this issue? Do you agree with the
research? If you agree or disagree, please explain why?
Provide examples/experiences regarding this issue from school
perspective orIf you are not working in a school, from your profession. Be
specific with your examples. You can mention software/hardware names,
specific methods that you plan to use, etc.
How would you implement this research in your career? (At least 1
paragraph)
Reflection:
3. REFERENCES:
References:
Agosto, D. d., Copeland, A. a., & Zach, L. l. (2013). Testing the Benefits of Blended
Education: Using Social Technology to Foster Collaboration and Knowledge
Sharing in Face-To-Face LIS Courses. Journal Of
Education For Library & Information Science, 54(1), 94-107.