vely year, over six million adults seek to improve themselves through higher education. In response to this need, . . . ~
_ fLiberty University, a growing university in Lynchburg, Virginia, developed an adult education distance learning facility designed to extend its reach to locations throughout the world. From the outset, these educational pmgrams were designed to parallel those on the campus. Therefore, the lifelong learning facility hired residential campus instructors to teach coulses by videotape using methods and materials (e.g., notes, textbooks, and tests) similar to those used in the residential Program.many of which applied more to the needs of traditional students than to the specialized concerns of distance learning adults. First, in choosing faculty, good classroom instructors were also assumed to be good videotape instructors. Likewise, teaching to a video camera was considered basically the same as teaching to a live audience. Finally, it was assumed that the materials students received in the mail (the videotap, textbooks, tests) would be sufficient, with little additional faculty contact needed to guide students through the couwork. Over time, these assumptions collapsed under the weight of literature-and experience-born data attesting to the unique needs of adult learners.The initial version of this couw was framed largely out of the necessity to provide educational senices with little time or m u m for discovering how to fit these This approach rested on several untested assumptions, services to the needs of distance learning adults. More recently, couw modification featured i n f m d m t n k turing, with studenVfaculty interaction as the primary point of orientation.
Assumptlons Versus R e a l mOur experience in videotape instruction soon eroded the assumption that a good teacher in the classroom also makes a g o d instructor for videotape. Mable and animated professors in the classroom often became stiff and uncomfortable once confronted with the camera and the movement constraints of filming.Furthermore, many instructors felt disoriented without the student feedback needed to guide them toward points needing special emphasis. Without the questions, comments, and grimaces that compelling instruction might evoke, fledgling videotape instructors were often uncertain whether to illustrate, clanlj, or explain a particular point-or simply p d to the next one. Another problem centered around the applicability of the c o u m to the lives of worlung adults. According to the literature, working adults m more insistent on coulses designed to help them accomplish highly specified academic and career goals. Adults also demand active involvement in their classroom activities. And because many had been away from the classroom for several years, they needed more and better foundational and remedial coulses.Phone calls from distance learning adults confi rmd the literature. Many complained that coulses were not a 5 at Oakland University on June 5, 2016 alx.sagepub.com Downloaded from
