Altilab2005 - Distance Education Blog

If the idea of working in the UK appeals to you, it could be a good idea to register to participate in the Prospects UK Virtual Careers Fairs.  These are scheduled to run from 9th -13th November 2009.  Registration will allow you to upload and submit your CV, apply for jobs, and talk on-line with a range of UK graduate employers. 

Find out more at www.prospects.ac.uk/prospectsfairs

For larger organizations with staffs of 7 or more, this Webshop will teach you the skills and processes to manage a portfolio of multiple training projects. In this Webshop, you will learn to develop resource plans, assignments, schedules, and milestones for training development portfolios of two to five projects including both traditional and e-Learning.

What you will learn:

• Develop and implement a project resource plan
• Understand the resources and skills required for successful e-Learning development
• Perform project management
• Control project risk and uncertainty
• Limit project scope increases
• Hire and manage integrated multi-skill e-Learning development teams
• Implement quality control processes
• Identify key indicators of good project trajectory
• Move your team forward by overcoming uncertainty
• Manage multi-tasking activities

Deliverables

• Sample e-Learning project plan
• Project team job descriptions
• Resource planning spreadsheet
• Project manager check list
• Quality control check list

Time: Two 60 minute Webinars

Cost: Free

Webinar Schedule 

Managing the Larger Training Development Organization – Resource Planning: No webinars are currently scheduled. Please click here to express you interest in attending as we put together our winter schedule.

 Managing the Larger Training Development Organization – Operations Management : No webinars are currently scheduled. Please click here to express you interest in attending as we put together our winter schedule.

Learn how to upskill, improve your career prospects or extend an interest at Massey University’s careers evening in Wellington, New Zealand. With flexible study options including full or part-time study, on campus or by distance education – study anywhere, anytime to suit your lifestyle and give you the competitive edge.

 Choose from more than one thousand programmes including: • Business • Psychology • Public Policy • Finance • Human Resources • Management • Exercise • Accounting • Economics • Teacher Training • Design & Fine Arts • Engineering • Health & Environment.

Meet our academic advisers, students and lecturers for one-to-one personalised course and career advice:

WHERE: Holiday Inn, 75 Featherston Street, CBD, Wellington, New Zealand.

WHEN: Wednesday 11th November 4:00 – 7:00 pm.

PRESENTATION: 6.00pm – Professor Claire Massey, Head of the Department of Management at Massey University, will discuss: How to Maximise the Value of Study.

Light refreshments and snacks provided.

For further information, contact Lorraine Archbold at:

Tel: 0800 MASSEY or email NLR.Liaison.WN@massey.ac.nz

Distance Education System dates back to at least 1700s, have now become a major field
of education in prevailing world where techno-functional professionals prefer exchanging
knowledge at their leisure time.
So let’s first understand what is Distance Education? Distance learning Education is a
system of education to deliver knowledge, technologically through IDS (Instructional
Design System) to those students who are physically not “on-site”. It facilitates students
in studying at their leisure without attending a course in person. Students can
communicate at their own time trough printed or electronic media.
Types of distance education courses
Correspondence conducted through regular mail
•
Internet conducted either synchronously or asynchronously
•
Telecourse/Broadcast where content is delivered via radio or television
•
CD-ROM where the student interacts with computer content stored on a CD-
•
ROM
PocketPC/Mobile Learning where the student accesses course content stored
•
on a mobile device or through a wireless server
The world being so competitive requires more learned, knowledgeable personnel to adapt
fast changing environment to meet the challenges faced by Biz oriented world. If only all
the Full time universities will start offering distance education, the following problems
would be resolved providing a better future for the country in terms of more educated
people, more employment etc.
1) The proper education will reach the less privileged, above average talented people
who are not able to pay the huge fee of any regular course. Distance education
being cheaper can be availed by many people.
2) If most of the regular universities will offer distance education the competition
amongst the conventional sector will result in providing the best quality
education.
3) Earlier the medium used for distance learning was mere regular mails sending
study material videos, audio-tapes and CD-Rom, but the current scenario holds
electronic media as a sole and very important medium making the prospects
techno savvy.
4) Getting the flexibility of part time education makes most of the working
professionals to opt for distance education employing them them with knowledge
and honing up their skills.
5) Some courses allow distance students to watch on-campus class meetings live via
online streaming video, and display real-time comments from distance students on
an online chat board displayed during the lecture. This approach of on-campus
class meetings, make the separation between distance and on-campus students
increasingly insignificant.
The trouble faced by distance education system was with the conception of testing of the
material. In current scenario the assignments have been adapted by making longer, and
more thorough so as to test the knowledge by forcing the student to research the subject
and prove they have done the work. Quizzes are a popular form of testing knowledge and
many courses go by the honor system regarding cheating. Even if the student is checking
questions in the textbook or online, there may be an enforced time limit or the quiz may
be worth so little in the overall mark that it becomes inconsequential. Exams and bigger
tests are harder to regulate. In smaller tests a professor may employ another computer
program to keep all other programs from running on the computer reducing the
possibility of help from the Internet.
Used in combination with invigilators, a pre-arranged supervisor trusted with over-
looking big tests and examinations may be used to increase security. Many Midterms and
Final examinations are held at a common location so that professors can supervise
directly. Many of these examinations are still on the computer in which case the same
program blocking software can be used. When the Internet became a popular medium for
distance education many websites were founded offering secure exam software and
packages to help professors manage their students more effectively.
Thus the ever growing technology makes the distance education system a broader
prospect for current generation for gaining knowledge, degree, diploma etc with spending
less money and time.

The November 2009 issue of American Libraries is running an article about distance education in the United States. They turn to Dr. James E. Andrews, director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida in Tampa, for some insight to how library and information science programs are working with distance education tools.

Professor Andrews states that the faculty -

“generally engage their online students through the use of asynchronous tools in the learning software, such as weekly discussion boards and blogs, and other Web 2.0 tools.” He adds, “We also use audio and video in lectures, and many professors design creative projects that involve such activities as online group work, library visits, or others that go beyond merely presenting the content online. The key to the most successful use of these is sound curriculum and instruction design that goes beyond merely the gratuitous use of technology.”

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that “employment opportunities in the library and information science job sector are projected to experience positive growth in coming years.” With the increasing sophistication of online and distance education, it’s become easier for students who don’t live next to an MLS-degree-granting institution to pursue a master’s level education.

To find out more check out the ALA’s list of accredited programs to find one near you, or check out the USF School of Library and Information Science website to learn more about our program.

“Imagining multi-roles in Web 2.0 Distance Education” is the title of a chapter that I have written with my colleague, BJ Eib for the George Veletsianos (Ed.) book to be published in early 2010 by Athabasca University Press titled:  

Emerging Technologies in Distance Education

We have just finished this work, which was started about a year ago…. and the big questions in our minds at the beginning have grown over the past few months. Our initial premise was related to ideas from Clay Shirky, Charles Leadbeater (and others) but turned to shed some light on Web 2.o possibilities in distance education, something that BJ and I have in our lives on a daily basis. As we’re working more and more with the new tools, our excitement is growing and we see it in our colleagues and friends as well.

“Are we experts and amateurs, audience and authors, learners and educators– all at the same time? Perhaps Web 2.0 and our ‘role(s)’ in distance education are causing us to reinvent ourselves.”

I’ll certainly be using this blog to point to more information about the book (which I understand will be offered as an online book as well as in print) when it becomes available.

I am a survey geek. For some reason I love taking surveys and belong to several panels that try new products and such. Yesterday I took a survey that asked me the question, “When did you first use the internet?” I really had to think, it is hard to imagine a time in my adult life that I didn’t have the internet. Heck, my kids have never experienced life without internet services. Thinking back it had to be 1996 when AOL was at the top of the ISP food chain sending out free installation CDs in the mail to the masses. I remember receiving enough CDs in the mail to cover a wall. All of this got me thinking about technology and how it has changed our world. So let me ask, do you remember:

Bag Cell Phones?

Atari?

Dot printers with the guide holes you had to tear off?

When computer screens were all black with green writing?

Polaroid cameras?

VHS or even older beta tapes?

Records and 45’s?

The typewriter?

It is indeed a very different world than it was just ten or fifteen years ago. Technology has changed the way we communicate, the way we learn and the way we carry out our day to day lives. It seems that as soon as you bite the bullet and buy the latest, greatest thing, it is outdated the next day. I bought a smart phone only to find out that all the “cool kids” were getting iPhones. Now I need an iPhone so I can share “apps” by “bumping phones”. I can remember when I was happy that my cell phone would simply just make a call or have a signal.

Even though there is a tone of sarcasm in my writings of technology I can say that I am glad it is here. I am glad I can text while watching YouTube and DVRing my favorite TV show so I can skip though the commercials. Terribly happy that I get 1700 stations via cable TV, can see movies on demand and connect to the internet up to 500 feet from the wireless hub in my house or anywhere from my outdated (I am told) cell phone. I am happy to have 24/7 access to all the information in the world at my fingertips and if I see something funny I can quickly snap a picture of it and send it to Facebook or my friends in matter of seconds.

So Amy, what does this have to do with Choiceortunities?

Technology + Learning = Choiceortunity. Technology is changing the way we learn and what we learn as each and every student at Herzing Online can attest to. Can you imagine driving to a big campus, finding parking and sitting in class for four or five hours after having worked a full day or taken care of your family all day long? Technology allows us more control over the time spent learning; it allows us as individuals to determine what, when and where, which of course means we have choiceortunities! As technology changes so too will our opportunities and means in which we learn. Looking forward we wonder what this will mean to each of us, what is next on the horizon where technology and learning meet? Only the future will tell but luckily we have many opportunities to explore.

So now I would like to hear from our learners, alumni and whoever else, please tell me about your “inner techie” by filling out this simple four question survey. Click HERE. I’ll be watching for your responses!

I told you I was a survey geek!

Amy

To find out more about Herzing University Online please visit us on the web at www.herzingonline.edu or contact me personally at 866-508-0748, ext 859. If you are an employer looking for a GREAT employee, please check out our interactive job seeker map by clicking here.

I believe that many instructors who teach online courses simply convert the curriculum to an online environment. Instructors should ask themselves are they really employing innovative instruction, or are they simply providing the same instruction using different tools? Making your lecture notes electronic or posting a reading schedule via the web is not truly innovative. Recording lectures and posting them to the web is also not innovative. Unfortunately, many instructors are doing just that. I have often found that as new content is made available, it is just as easy to run off a copy of the content and read it on my lunch break because I do not have access to a computer at the time. With technology becoming so much a part of our daily lives and it being more readily available to everyone, most instructors who teach a traditional face-to-face course will have a web site or online repository for students to gather needed information or documents. Many distance learning courses have been designed as simply a repository or information dump. The only real difference between distance learning courses and traditional classroom instruction is that discussions are engaged online within a learning management system.

Distance learning and the development of online courses should provide instructors with a significant challenge. The challenge for instructors is to develop curriculum that engages learners in new ways of knowledge development and knowledge creation. Innovation in education should take learners down a path they are unfamiliar with. Instructors can challenge long standing methodologies in education and provide new ways for students to develop critical thinking skills.

Instructors can develop environments that take learners out of their comfort zone. For many students, collaborating with fellow learners in knowledge creation is not an environment they may feel comfortable with. However, the reality is that development of collaboration skills and working within a community of practice is a necessity in today’s continually changing employment environments. Seldom are new innovations or technologies developed by individuals. The majority of new ideas and technologies are developed by collaborators or groups of individuals whose focus is to overcome current obstacles or challenges. Within the distance learning environment, students can hone new critical thinking skills and prepare the way for unbridled innovation.

Over the years, we have seen many content authoring tools come and go. Every tool offers specific features promising to expedite authoring while delivering a certain degree of interactivity enhancing the student’s learning experience.  Whether the final product is to be delivered online to the course management system or via CD, the challenges are still the same as they have always been:

• Collecting content and compatible media to integrate.
• Finding resources such as graphic designers, voice talent, videographers, programmers, etc.
• Instructional design support to help build a pedagogically sound course structure with the interactive content.
• Packaging content for delivery inside or outside learning management systems.
• SCORM and Section 108 compliance.

Other considerations such as a robust evaluation strategy of the learning content and on-going updates support are always associated with content development needs.  Perhaps the greatest challenge to manufacture an engaging e-learning experience is to bring all these people together to perform their specific roles.  To address this need, we are seeing software companies adopt Software-as-a-service models or SaaS for e-learning content development.  Let’s take a look at a few options:

Unison

Unison

Unison is a product of Rapid Intake Inc.  This web-based solution allows the “rapid” content authoring of e-learning in a collaborative environment. An entire team composed of Subject Matter Experts, graphic artists, animators and instructional design support can build a course in a very short period of time. The integrated workflow management for the course review is one of the most impressive features of the system.  Unison provides templates for most common interactive type activities or “games” to help the learner retain information. This tool has had a wide adoption among government agencies, non-profits and corporate enterprises.

An advantage of using Unison is their adaptable model. E-learning courses built with this tool can be as simple or as complex as the users would like them to be. A robust architecture paired with expanded customization options for additional programming and API integration, makes Unison a very strong contender.

Udutu

Udutu

Udutu is another online course authoring tool that allows its users to create a course free of charge until it is time for deployment.  Template based myUdutu allows for easy WYSIWYG authoring.  In my opinion, Udutu’s branching scenarios startup templates are their most useful feature. The interface is very easy to use and their course assets library is very helpful when assembling content.  The claim that there is no technical knowledge required when using Udutu is evident when using the system for the first time.  Even the customization options are simple. The Udutu system allows for seamless collaboration. If Subject Matter Experts and Instructional Designer are working with graphics designers or videographers, the course is easily shared and content can be delivered to the library for later integration into the course.

Content Point

Atlantic Link – Content Point

Content Point from Atlantic Link is not exactly a web based application. The company describes its application as a ‘smart’ Windows client. The client connects to a remote server where all the magic happens. Authors can add assets to compose e-learning using a drag and drop type of functionality and the final result is a flash based course that can be deployed anywhere.  Their flash asset library contains customizable flash objects such as flow charts, quizzes, glossaries and games.  The most impressive feature of this system is its ability to deploy multi-resolution content which allows for courses to be viewed on the web, CD-ROM, HD TV, Sony PSP and mobile devices.  Content Point also has an interaction tracking feature that allows for results reporting of learner’s activity with the material.

SaaS Solutions are not the answer to all when it comes to content authoring (See comparison table). We can consider them a pretty reasonable “packaged” solution for fast, efficient and flexible deployment.