What do you think the perceptions of distance learning will be in the future (in 5–10 years; 10–20 years)?
Distance learning has grown exponentially within the past ten years with over 96 percent of colleges utilizing distance learning in some fashion. (Bonham, 2011) The perception of distance learning has been changing over the past 10 years from being looked down upon to now accepted and I personally believe in the next 10 years it will be main stream of education. Most companies currently use distance learning in one way or another for training new employees or continued training.
How can you as an instructional designer be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning?
As an Instructional Designer we are already tasked with teaching people who we are, what we do and why our service is critical to implementation of curriculum. As ID’s we will play a large role in improving the societal perceptions of distance learning by showing the benefits of distance learning. These benefits run from cost saving, amount of education/training, and the number of people that can be trained at one time.
How will you be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education?
As an Instructional Designer we play a critical role for continuous improvement in the field of distance education as we are building curriculum and training programs we must keep up with the latest and greatest in technology to implement into programs and continually upgrade programs as technology changes. Distance Education has been changing over the past 100 years from mail away learning to what we know distance education is today.
References:
M. H. Bonham, Connect ED Walden University “What is the Future of Distance Learning?” June 27, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Best Practices Guide to Converting from a Face to Face Training to Distance Learning
This form is to be used a guide of questions to answer to assist an Instructional Designer to convert a face to face training program to a distance learning training program.
Pre-Planning
o Assess needs to identify goals
o Conduct instructional analysis
o Analyze learners and contexts
o Write performance objectives
o Develop assessment instruments
o Develop instructional strategy
o Develop and select instructional materials
Design and conduct formative evaluation of instruction and design and conduct summative evaluation
Shift traditional material to visual presentations, engaging learners and timing of presentations
Add tables, figures and other visual representations
Plan activities to encourage interactivity (group work)
Learner
Who is the learner?
Do they have access to a computer with internet access?
What is their level of technology use?
Technology
Decide on what technology will be used?
o Wiki’s, blogs, CMS
How will technology be used?
Orientation to how to use technology
Assessment
Decide on how trainee will be assessed?
o Online test
o Hands-on test
Train the trainer
The trainers role changes in a distance learning environment from a face to face instructor to a facilitator of the group. As facilitator he/she will lead and assist the students in discussions. A facilitator can ensure students engage in meaningful conversation and debate by asking leading questions to the student and contributing to the discussions. The trainer needs to set minimum requirements for adding to the discussion boards, wiki’s, or blogs.
Resources:
Walter Dick, Lou Carey, James O. Carey; The Systematic Design of Education, 5e, ©2001. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA ©1996 by Pearson Education.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Pre-Planning
o Assess needs to identify goals
o Conduct instructional analysis
o Analyze learners and contexts
o Write performance objectives
o Develop assessment instruments
o Develop instructional strategy
o Develop and select instructional materials
Design and conduct formative evaluation of instruction and design and conduct summative evaluation
Shift traditional material to visual presentations, engaging learners and timing of presentations
Add tables, figures and other visual representations
Plan activities to encourage interactivity (group work)
Learner
Who is the learner?
Do they have access to a computer with internet access?
What is their level of technology use?
Technology
Decide on what technology will be used?
o Wiki’s, blogs, CMS
How will technology be used?
Orientation to how to use technology
Assessment
Decide on how trainee will be assessed?
o Online test
o Hands-on test
Train the trainer
The trainers role changes in a distance learning environment from a face to face instructor to a facilitator of the group. As facilitator he/she will lead and assist the students in discussions. A facilitator can ensure students engage in meaningful conversation and debate by asking leading questions to the student and contributing to the discussions. The trainer needs to set minimum requirements for adding to the discussion boards, wiki’s, or blogs.
Resources:
Walter Dick, Lou Carey, James O. Carey; The Systematic Design of Education, 5e, ©2001. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA ©1996 by Pearson Education.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Week Five Application--Open Course Review
I reviewed MIT Open Course Ware HST 151 Principles of Pharmacology. This is a graduate level course originally taught in the Spring of 2005. The course features selected lecture notes, assignments without solutions (without answers) and exams with solutions (answers). The student is provided a syllabus, calendar, readings, lecture notes, assignments, exams and study materials.
In this week’s reading we have learned that planning for instruction in a distant learning course is an important part of the success of the course. The first concept we have learned is that a course previously taught in a traditional classroom may need to be retooled. The focus of the instruction shifts to visual presentations, engaged learners, and careful timing of presentations of information. It also discusses revising the material to illustrate key concepts or topics using tables, figures and other visual representation.
The open course, Principles of Pharmacology, appears to me to be a traditional classroom presentation just saved and put online and called distant learning. It is strictly reading a lecture and textbooks. There is not any visual presentation to assist the student in learning the concepts. It is not engaging for a student. The site is easy to use but without any visual engagement for the student.
With a little better planning this course could be very engaging to the learner. The instructional designer could have added a video lecture or demonstration to add excitement to the course.
The course is planned having a lecture, reading, assignments and exams. I do disagree with the way they present the answers to the exams and not to the assignments. They do not present any answer to the assignments so a student would not know if they are on the right track or not. They do however, present the answers to the exams which is good but I would have had then on a separate paper so the student could test their knowledge without the answers staring them in the face.
Overall the course content is very good but the delivery does not follow the core concepts of a distant education course.
Resources:
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/health-sciences-and-technology/hst-151-principles-of-pharmacology-spring-2005/index.htm
In this week’s reading we have learned that planning for instruction in a distant learning course is an important part of the success of the course. The first concept we have learned is that a course previously taught in a traditional classroom may need to be retooled. The focus of the instruction shifts to visual presentations, engaged learners, and careful timing of presentations of information. It also discusses revising the material to illustrate key concepts or topics using tables, figures and other visual representation.
The open course, Principles of Pharmacology, appears to me to be a traditional classroom presentation just saved and put online and called distant learning. It is strictly reading a lecture and textbooks. There is not any visual presentation to assist the student in learning the concepts. It is not engaging for a student. The site is easy to use but without any visual engagement for the student.
With a little better planning this course could be very engaging to the learner. The instructional designer could have added a video lecture or demonstration to add excitement to the course.
The course is planned having a lecture, reading, assignments and exams. I do disagree with the way they present the answers to the exams and not to the assignments. They do not present any answer to the assignments so a student would not know if they are on the right track or not. They do however, present the answers to the exams which is good but I would have had then on a separate paper so the student could test their knowledge without the answers staring them in the face.
Overall the course content is very good but the delivery does not follow the core concepts of a distant education course.
Resources:
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/health-sciences-and-technology/hst-151-principles-of-pharmacology-spring-2005/index.htm
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