Distance Education and the Myth of the New Pedagogy

Abstract

Distance education, broadly defined as instruction that is not bound by time or place, is bringing about fundamental changes in higher education. Writing in a recent online newsletter from the American Association for Higher Education, Ted Marchese describes the many \u22not-so-distant\u22 distance competitors to traditional colleges and universities: the University of Phoenix, the for-profit university with some 50,000 students in 12 states; the Western Governors University, the competency-based consortium that was founded by 17 governors and is supported by 14 business partners, including Sun, IBM, AT\u26T, and Microsoft; and Britain’s venerable OpenUniversity, which has allied with several universities in the United States and will begin offering courses here this year

Personalised and self regulated learning in the Web 2.0 era: International exemplars of innovative pedagogy using social software

“…Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer and Scott (1994) are in concurrence with this view, adding that teachers have two roles: Firstly, a supportive role in introducing new ideas or cultural tools and supporting students in making sense of these for themselves, and secondly, a diagnostic role in continually examining students' interpretations of activities in order to help determine an appropriate direction for subsequent steps. Thus a major role of the teacher is arguably to facilitate this dynamic learning process, assisting learners in drawing their own links between their learning and the 'real world'; other roles may be that of 'consultant', 'guide' and 'resource provider' (Markel, 1999). The groups work autonomously to produce three deliverables based on instructor supplied guidelines: the resource guide (a web site providing links to / evaluations of information resources); presentation of the completed guide to the class; and an online journal in which students document their work processes and reflect on their personal contributions.…”

Exploring the Myths about Online Education in Information Systems

“…The image of classroom instruction promoted by distance education proponents is one of a boring lecturer who drones on, while students sit idly trying to absorb enough information so that they can regurgitate it for a test and forget it (Markel, 1999). Online education, on the other hand, is declared to be "a more student-centered, collaborative, and egalitarian learning environment" (Weisenberg & Hutton, 1996).…”

“…It also presumes that course-load policies will be adjusted in recognition of the fact that an instructor teaching an online course spends appreciably more time communicating with students individually (Markel, 1999), thus making faculty workload significantly higher. In addition, the myth implies that many faculty-members who are embarking on an online endeavor may be under the impression that they will retain the intellectual property rights to the courses they have created.…”

“…In addition, the myth implies that many faculty-members who are embarking on an online endeavor may be under the impression that they will retain the intellectual property rights to the courses they have created. They may also believe that they will be rewarded the same for teaching an online course as they will be for teaching a traditional course when it comes to issues such as tenure and promotion (Markel, 1999).…”

“…Myth #5 is based on the belief that administrators are aware of the time and effort that goes into converting a traditional course into an online course and are prepared to offer the resource support that may be required when designing and teaching an online course (Markel, 1999). It also presumes that course-load policies will be adjusted in recognition of the fact that an instructor teaching an online course spends appreciably more time communicating with students individually (Markel, 1999), thus making faculty workload significantly higher.…”