Creating Distance Learning Courses
Lesson One
The Dynamics of Teaching and Learning at a Distance
Who are Distance Learners?
Demographic ProfileDistance education brings the educational resources of the University of Washington to many students who are otherwise unable to attend classes at the campus. Whether they are here in Seattle or in another state, many of our students are adults for whom campus attendance is difficult due to circumstances such as employment, family responsibilities, military service, or disability. Many are seeking academic credit in pursuit of a degree, including a significant number of on-campus students who enroll in our courses because of scheduling conflicts.
Distance learning requires significant motivation and self-discipline on the part of the student to insure successful outcomes. Distance learning students often possess these traits already, because most: are working adults with some prior college education.
- 60 percent work at least 20 hours a week;
- more than 86 percent have at least an A.A. degree;
- over 75 percent are between 23 and 60 years of age, with the largest proportion between 30 and 44.
So you can see that the majority of distance students bring significant maturity, motivation, and life experience to their distance learning endeavors.
According to The Distance Learner's Guide, published by the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, distant learners are often non-traditional university students. However, the audience for distance education is growing rapidly to include a wide variety of people of diverse backgrounds, including;
- adults returning to college
- first-time university students
- mid-career professionals seeking continuing education
- workers requiring a credential to make job change possible
- students with physical or learning disabilities
- geographically isolated students
The popularity of the World Wide Web has contributed to explosive growth in the field. According to an editorial by Michael G. Moore, editor of the American Journal of Distance Education, "Online, Web-based delivery of information and interactions has attracted the attention of college educators to the idea of distance education in a way that no earlier technology managed to do. By some estimates, the next two years will see 85 percent of American colleges offering online courses to over two million students."
The private market for e-learning is also growing explosively. Many high-tech companies looking for skilled workers are turning to customized distance learning to provide employees with the training they need. Technology training is expected to account for 55 percent of all training in two years, compared with 21 percent in 1998, according to International Data (IDC). Much of this training will be provided online, and IDC predicts e-learning will reach $11 billion by 2003, up from $550 million in 1998. (Investor's Business Daily, 19 October 2000)
What are Exemplary Practices?
Standard Course Elements
The professional association for the continuing education divisions of institutions of higher learning, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), has promoted national standards for developing distance learning. These standards are widely recognized as representing best practice for effective design.
Writing Learning Objectives
UW distance learning courses have several important features in common: clear learning objectives; a comprehensive introduction to the course; materials and resources that provide the course content; a series of individual lessons, each containing an assignment or exercise; and at least one final assessment.
There are three essential steps in the preliminary course development process that lead to creation of these features: determining learning objectives for the course, choosing the course materials, and dividing the course content into lessons. This section focuses on learning objectives. Writing clear objectives is the single most important factor in organizing and teaching a successful course. All other elements of the course relate back to your original determination of what learners should know and be able to do when they complete the coursework.
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