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The field of distance education has changed dramatically in the past ten years. Distance education, structured learning in which the student and instructor are separated by place, and sometimes by time is currently the fastest growing form of domestic and international education. What was once considered a special form of education using nontraditional delivery systems, is now becoming an important concept in mainstream education. Concepts such as networked learning, connected
learning spaces, flexible learning and hybrid learning systems have enlarged the scope and changed the nature of earlier distance education models. Web-based and web-enhanced courses are appearing in traditional programs that are now racing to join the “anytime, anyplace” educational feeding frenzy. In a 2002 survey of 75 randomly chosen college distance learning programs, results revealed an astounding rate of growth in the higher education distance learning market (Primary Research
Group, 2002). In a time of shrinking budgets, distance learning programs are reporting 41 percent average annual enrollment growth. Thirty percent of the programs are being developed to meet the needs of professional continuing education for adults. Twenty-four percent of distance students have high speed bandwidth at home. These developments signal a drastic redirection of traditional distance education.
With the rise and proliferation of distance learning systems has come the need to critically examine the strengths and weaknesses of various programs. A majority of new programs have been developed to meet the growing needs of higher education in responding to demands for flexible learning environments, continuing education and lifelong learning. David Noble, the Ralph Nader of Distance Education, has written a series of papers examining what he calls the private, commercial hijacking
of higher education. He makes the case that the banner touting cheap online education waved in front of administrators has resulted in much higher costs than expected. The promotion of online courses, according to Noble, has resulted in a huge, expensive infrastructure that he describes as a technological tapeworm in the guts of higher education (Noble 1999, November). In a later piece, Noble describes the controversy in 1998 that developed at UCLA over its partnership with a private company, the Home Education Network (THEN). The controversy, over public and private partnerships and great expectation of financial returns, he says, is fueled by extravagant technological fantasies which underly much of today’s enthusiasm for distance education. Noble describes this expectation as a pursuit of what appears increasingly to be little more than fool’s gold (Noble 2001, March).
Noble is one of a growing group of scholars becoming increasingly disillusioned with the commercialization of distance learning, particularly in the United States. They call for educators to pause and examine the enthusiastic claims of distance educators from a critical perspective. With the recent developments in hybrid combinations of distance learning, flexible learning, distributed learning, web-based and web-enhanced instruction, the questions facing educators are how to examine new learning technologies from a wider perspective than we have in the past, and to examine how distance education fits into the changing educational environment. Scholars are exploring information technologies from the critical perspectives of politics, hidden curriculum, pedagogy, cost effectiveness, and the global impact of information technologies on collective intelligence (Vrasidas, & Glass, 2002).
Due to the rapid development of technology, courses using a variety of media are being delivered to students in various locations in an effort to serve the educational needs of growing populations. In many cases, developments in technology allow distance education programs to provide specialized courses to students in remote geographic areas with increasing interactivity between student and teacher. Although the ways in which distance education is implemented differ markedly from country to country, most distance learning programs rely on technologies which are either already in place or are being considered for their cost effectiveness. Such programs are particularly beneficial for the many people who are not financially, physically or geographically able to obtain traditional education. Although there is an increase in the number of distance services to elementary and secondary students, the main audience for distance courses continues to be the adult and higher education market. Most recently, Kaplan College launched the nation’s first online certificate program for security manager and crime scene technicians under their certificate program for homeland security (Terry, 2002, August 27).
Distance education has experienced dramatic growth both nationally and internationally since the early 1980s. It has evolved from early correspondence education using primarily print based materials into a worldwide movement using various technologies. The goals of distance education, as an alternative to traditional education, have been to offer degree granting programs, to battle illiteracy in developing countries, to provide training opportunities for economic growth, and to offer curriculum enrichment in non traditional educational settings. A variety of technologies have been used as delivery systems to facilitate this learning at a distance. In order to understand how research and research issues have developed in distance education, it is necessary to understand the context of the field. Distance education relies heavily on communications technologies as delivery media. Print
materials, broadcast radio, broadcast television, computer conferencing, electronic mail, interactive video, satellite telecommunications and multimedia computer technology are all used to promote student-teacher interaction and provide necessary feedback to the learner at a distance. Because technologies as delivery systems have been so crucial to the growth of distance education, research has reflected rather than driven practice.
Early distance education research focused on media comparison studies, descriptive studies, and evaluation reports. Researchers have examined those issues that have been of particular interest to administrators of distance education programs such as; student attrition rates, the design of instructional materials for large scale distribution, the appropriateness of certain technologies for delivery of instruction, and the cost effectiveness of programs. However, the growth of flexible learning, networked learning and distributed learning models, is blurring the distinctions between distance and traditional education. These models and their related network technologies also have the capability of creating new environments for learning such as “virtual communities.” For more than 8 years students in traditional settings have been given entire courses on CD-ROM multimedia disks through which they have progressed at their own pace, interacting with the instructor and other students on electronic mail or face to face according to their needs (Technology Based Learning,
1994). These materials are now available using web-based multimedia technologies. In earlier collaborative projects, students around the world participated in cooperative learning activities
sharing information using computer networks (Riel, 1993).
In these cases, global classrooms often have participants from various countries interacting with each other at a distance. Many mediated educational activities have allowed students to participate in collaborative, authentic, situated learning activities (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Brown & Palincsar, 1989). In fact, the explosion of information technologies has brought learners together by erasing the boundaries of time and place for both site based and distance learners. Research in distance education reflects the rapid technological changes in this field. Although early research was centered around media comparison studies, recent distance education research has examined four main underlying research issues: learner needs, media and the instructional process, issues of access, and the changing roles of teachers and students (Sherry, 1996). Educators have become more interested in examining pedagogical themes and strategies for learning in mediated environments (Berge & Mrozowski, 2001; Collis, deBoer, VanderJeen, 2001; Salomon, Perkins, & Gloperson, 1991; Vrasidas & McIsaac, 1999) Knowledge construction and mediated learning offer some of the most promising research in distance education (Barrett, 1992; Glaser, 1992; Harasim, 2001; Salomon, 1993).
This chapter traces the history of the distance education movement, discusses the definitions and theoretical principles which have marked the development of the field and explores the research in this field which is inextricably tied to the technology of course delivery. A critical analysis of research in distance education was conducted for this chapter. Material for the analysis came from four primary data sources. The first source was an ERIC search, which resulted in over 900 entries. This largely North American review was supplemented with international studies located in the International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL) database. The entries were then categorized
according to content and source. Second, conference papers were reviewed which represented current, completed work in the field of distance education. Third, dissertations were obtained from universities that produced the majority of doctoral dissertations in Educational Technology doctoral programs. Finally, five journals were chosen for further examination because of their recurrent frequency in the ERIC listing. Those journals were Open Learning, American Journal of Distance Education, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Distance Education, and Journal of Distance Education.
