Distance Education: Past, Present, and Future

       

     

        To the disbelief of many, distance learning has been around for more than a century. Distance learning has evolved from the corresponding study, electronic communication, to full-on university institutions (Simonson et al., 2019). Distance learning began in a Swedish newspaper that advertised the opportunity for individuals to learn composition through their posts. The first corresponding courses occurred in 1891 when an editor printed mining and injury prevention articles in the daily newspaper to educate others. While the first corresponding institution began in Britain, extending to universities in the United States. Yet, it was not until the introduction of electronic communication that dominated distance learning mediums (Simonson et al., 2019). These technical advances expanded the structure of distance learning to look like what we know today.

Past Experience with Distance Education

My earlier experience with distance learning consisted of partaking in a few online courses available from my university in the mid-2000s. For colleges and universities, distance education was a way to sustain enrollment growth and prevent losses (Moller et al., 2008). The university had offered accelerated courses for individuals busy working full-time jobs but wanted to seek an educational degree to further their knowledge and skills. There were no discussion boards or collaborative team projects to work on, but instead comprised of reading materials, timed tests, and written assignments. Occasionally, I would receive constructive feedback from the professors for graded assignments. Thus, there was no interaction between the students nor among the students to professors. It was more of a self-study environment since I did my work and submitted it for grading. Therefore, my past definition of distance education was online instructional courses easily accessible to individuals regardless of location or time. There was no need for interactions or engagement with other professionals or the instructor for feedback or support.  

Expanding My Defining of Distance Education

A lot has changed and evolved since my days in distance learning in the mid-2000s. My definition of distance learning has expanded since learning distance education has four main characteristics. The first characteristic involves carrying out instructions between an instructor and a student institutionally based and not just self-study. Secondly, instructor and student need to be separated by either time, geographic space, or intellect. Third, there must be interactive telecommunication between instructors and students to promote engagement with one another. Lastly, resources, learners, and instructors must be connected to share data, videos, and learning experiences. All four characteristics must be present to be considered distance learning; If one element is missing, then the course itself is not distance learning (Simonson et al., 2019).

Furthermore, distance learning is also broken down into various terms associated with different institutions. In the private sector, they associate the term e-Learning with distance learning, whereas, in higher educational settings, distance learning is known as online learning or online education. Lastly, in the K-12 educational environment, it is known as virtual education or virtual schooling.

A look into Distance Education in the Future

As distance learning becomes increasingly more accepted and respected, it will continue to evolve and advance. Therefore, what it will look like many years from now will shift and expand as we continue to nurture this field of distance education. Distance education will not be a revolutionary change but rather evolutionary (Walden University, n.d.). The traditional classroom setting will still be widely used; however, the distance learning technologies will evolve into how the instructors engage with the content within various environments. Thus, the availability of multimedia and other online tools will further enhance the learning experience to unite teachers and learners (Naidu, 2014). The limitations of the availability of multimedia will no longer exist. Thus, like the evolution of computers and the wide expectancy of accessibility, the same will be for the expectation of multimedia in distance learning modalities used in the classroom and distance learning environments. With the help of dynamic methods, distance education will use the internet to individualize and personalize the learners' experience (Saba, 2013). Thus, educators will play the role of facilitators, support, and help learners develop the meaning of the content using two-way communication to future meet the needs of the learners.

Reference

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.

Naidu, S. (2014). Looking back, looking forward: the invention and reinvention of distance education. Distance Education, 35(5), 263-270.

Saba, F. (2012). A Systems Approach to the Future of Distance Education in Colleges and Universities: Research, Development, and Implementation. Continuing higher education review, 76, 30-37.

Simonson, M., Zvacek, S., & Smaldino, S. (2019). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (7th ed.) Information Age Publishing.

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (n.d.). Distance Education: the next generation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.walden.edu