Learner Success in Distance Education Environments: A Shared Responsibility.

DOCUMENT RE$UME JC 990 020 Major, Howard T. ; Levenburg, Nancy Learner Success in Distance Education Environments: A Shared Responsibility. 1999-01-00 19p. ; In: "The Technology Source," January 1999. For full text: http://ts.mivu. org/default.asp? show=article& id=71. Reports Descriptive (141) MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. *College Role; *Distancd Education; *Educational Technology; Higher Education; Instructional Effectiveness; Internet; Learning; Models; Online Courses; *Student Role; *Teacher Role; *Telecourses; World Wide Web This paper describes the shared responsibility model--in which instructors, institutional administrators, and learners all assume responsibility--for learner success in distance education environments. Discussed in detail are the specific,strategies to be deployed by: (1) the instructor, who plans instructional outcomes, selects course content, and ascertains how learning will be assessed; (2) the institution, which accepts the responsibility of delivering education and must provide technical and other assistance to the distance learning environment; and (3) the learner, who must actively engage in those processes that will lead to learning success. The paper explains the Major Levenburg Curriculum Matrix, a decision-making model based on desired educational outcomes and designed to help instructors decide which distance learning tools to use and when. Also described are various distance learning technologies, such as interactive television, the Internet, videotaped lectures, printed materials, audio conferencing, multimedia simulations, and CD-ROM/DVD. (EMH) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Learning Success in Distance Education Environments: A Shared Responsibility Howard T. Major Nancy Levenburg Distance Learning Dynamics U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 1:1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. /""-PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY H. T. Major Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES official OERI position or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Learner Success in Distance Education Environments: A Shared Responsibility Howard Major HowardT908@aol.com and Nancy Levenburg Nlevenburg@aol.com Abstract This article advances a "shared responsibility model" for learner success in distance education environments. It describes the types and characteristics of distance education and the technological toolkit that is optimally applied to deliver distance education. It describes specific behaviors that can and should be engaged in by instructors, delivering institutions, and learners, if optimal learning is to occur. It offers suggestions for creating learner-focused distance education systems that demand much from all three parties, learners, instructors and institutions, but which also offer the promise of learning excellence. Student success and achievement is a primary focus of virtually all educational institutions and an area of national concern. If our learners are failing to adequately master the content and processes we are trying to teach, then we, as educators, are unsuccessful as well. The successful mastery of academic content was once viewed entirely as the learners' responsibility and success variables were viewed as being entirely in the learners' control. However, we have come to realize that the responsibility for learner success is shared between three major players: the student, the instructor, and the educational institution. Much has been written about the learner success strategies that can be deployed in traditional classroom environments by each of these three "partners" in the educational process. Less understood are the strategies that can lead to effective learning in distance education environments. While some of the key strategies are the same as or similar to those which lead to learner success in traditional teaching and learning situations, some strategies are unique to distance education environments. Many critical success strategies can be categorized as those initiated by either the instructor, by the institution and/or by the learner her/himself. Each of these categories is considered here. What is Distance Education? Simply stated, distance education occurs whenever the instructor and the learners are not in the same location at the same time. Figure 1 illustrates that the instructor and learners may vary with regard to their spatial and temporal locations. If they are in the same place at the same time as in the upper left quadrant, then this is not a form of distance learning. The other three quadrants depict situations in which the instructor and the learners are either in different locations (lower left quadrant), or operating in a different timeframe (upper right quadrant), or both (lower right quadrant). While the term "distance education" implies that the location shifting capability is of paramount importance, many times learners are more interested in the time-shifting capabilities provided by technology-based distance education systems than they are in the locationshifting capabilities of the systems. For this reason, some scholars of the field are recommending a shift to the term "virtual education" rather than "distance education" to describe these systems. Insert Figure One here (2X2 Matrix) The Role of Educational Technologies in Distance Education: Probably all distance education systems must deploy educational technologies to enable communication between instructor and learners that can surmount barriers of time and location. In the historical development of the field, printbased correspondence courses led the way. Today few distance education systems rely on a single technology to facilitate all of the communication that must occur for effective learning to occur. Many apply two or more technologies to facilitate the learning process. In fact the trend in distance education is movement toward a "blended" technology approach in which multiple technologies are deployed, each at its strength (Major and Levenburg, 1997). Figure 2 depicts graphically the point that the outcomes (goals and objectives) of the learning experience should be at the center of the decision-making process, and that the communication technologies should be selected based on their ability to facilitate established desired outcomes. Insert Figure 2 here