Distance Learning Highlights from the 2001 Conference for Chairs on Distance Learning and Program Assessment

Roundtable on Distance Learning
2001 APSA Annual Meeting
San Francisco, California

Michael Baer, Senior Vice President, the American Council on Education (ACE) chaired the first APSA Chairs Conference roundtable on technology enhanced delivery of teaching and learning. He opened the session by stating that technology is only beginning to affect the way we view teaching and learning and that institutions should be prepared to make adjustments to a changing world. Education is a lifelong experience and learning must be accessible. He proposed that this form of education be called "Distributed Education" and encompass all technologically mediated education where faculty and students are not at the same location, whether on or away from a campus. Higher education planning needs to respond to rapid technological and market changes that require opportunities for continual learning that is accessed from many locations. Among the many policy issues affected by distributed education are: accreditation, identification of student clientele, intellectual property rights and quality assurance. ACE is publishing a series of papers on distributed education. The first paper, "Distributed Education and Its Challenges: An Overview," by Diana G. Oblinger, Carole A. Barone and Brian L. Hawkins was given to Conference attendees. An electronic version can be accessed at: .

Bud Evans, California Polytechnic State University, is involved with learning technologies for the California State University System. He encouraged political scientists to recognize that these technologies diffuse power as well as knowledge. They encourage conceptualization about how to build civil societies worldwide as well as the provision of education to very remote sites geographically. At USC the "New International Studies Classroom" is based on communications extended to students in other countries. The potential benefits of new technologies are restricted by a digital divide: nearly twice as many whites (47%) as blacks and Hispanics (24%) have access to the Internet and access is limited to low income Americans and to people in poorer countries. Evans also emphasized that political science can benefit from using distance learning to enhance teaching and learning in a traditional course where students and faculty meet in an actual classroom. He identified two additional challenges facing practitioners of distance learning. Faculty conducting this type of course will need to encourage careful deliberation and communication among students through technological media. He also noted that the "information-age mindset"-use of experimentation rather than logic in learning–may prove to be a challenging factor in teaching today's student. Students are used to immediate access to information and accustomed to trying out ideas without much reflection. To remedy this, Evans recommends requiring continued reflection throughout the course and encouraging students to then test their ideas.

Carole A. Barone, Vice President of EDUCAUSE, pointed to the need to restructure education that incorporates technology with attention to:

Paul Hagner, Senior Advisor for Technologiy Planning & Assessment at the University of Hartford and Senior Fellow at the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) outlined a fourfold categorization of faculty according to their use of technology:

David Brady, Vice President for Learning Technology and Distance Education, Stanford University, had a more skeptical view of the future of distance learning. He cautioned that nearly all for profit distance learning ventures have closed at a loss of around $185 million. He claimed that there are no instances of distance learning profitability thus far. New educational technologies are expensive to install, staff, and train faculty to use. So, institutions need to be prepared to invest significant amount of time for planning and to anticipate considerably increased spending.

When asked what departments can do now to incorporate distance learning, Carole Barone advised departments to be realistic about what can be done at their own institution by evaluating the resources, "culture," program, student body, and likelihood of support. Bud Evans agreed with Paul Hagner on the importance of institutional and departmental support for faculty introducing technology because faculty will likely abandon it if they experience failure. He also recommended showcasing applications and software to make them more acceptable. Some reluctance may be assuaged when faculty actually see for themselves how technology can enhance his/her students' learning experience in their class. Paul Hagner added that his will also encourage entrepreneurs to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues.

A lively exchange with the participants followed the presentation. Several department chairs voiced exasperation with administrators who they believe to be embracing distance education too rapidly without thoughtful consultation and planning.

An audience member asked for examples of what campuses are actually doing in terms of distance learning. Stanford University, the University of Florida, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland are among the universities with substantial technology based instruction. Virginia Tech is offering all core courses online and will have Masters courses online. The University of Florida turned to distance learning to deal with space constraints on their campus by using a combination of online and face-to-face courses and fully online courses. Their success may be attributed to their careful assessment of each program. Michael Baer recommended that departments invest in non-faculty staff to help plan and conduct distance learning and noted that this would be expensive and institutions have not come to terms with allowing and making room for such additional staffing. David Brady suggested that departments must be prepared to deal with the tendency of "entrepreneurial faculty" to dominate the use of such non-faculty staff.

One department chair in the audience asked what is known about students' expectations regarding technology use? Paul Hagner recommends that institutions look at the experiences of current high school students for the answer to this question. Their lives are filled with technology and their way of thinking is different from previous generations–Nintendo-logic or nonlinear logic. They are learning from experience rather than from logic. They have attention span issues and some students are more familiar expressing themselves through electronic means rather than verbally. Faculty will need to teach students how to analyze and critically evaluate the information they find online.

The panelists agreed that the issue of intellectual property rights regarding distance learning has not yet been resolved by faculty and institutions. Michael Baer noted that while many institutions have policies, these are not tailored for distance learning and for the many people involved in creating and delivering it (e.g. the tech. and graphics people as well as the faculty teaching the course). Paul Hagner reported that the University of Maryland created a Vice Provost of Intellectual Property. David Brady said choices have to be made as to whether intellectual property rights to distance learning courses should be the property of: 1). the faculty member (e.g. textbooks) 2). the university or 3). a combination faculty, university, and others involved in the development of the course sharing rights and royalties.

In closing remarks, Carole Barone said campuses must develop standard practices for many of these issues; Paul Hagner called on institutions to recognize that they must change with the times; Bud Evans suggested that as technology continues to develop so will students' demand to use it in their learning experiences; David Brady reiterated the panelists' recommendations that departments interested in distance learning be prepared to spend a significant amount of time and money. Michael Baer suggested that departments begin to introduce distance/distributed learning with modular noncredit courses for adults that focus on specific processes and problems in order to build an audience through these offerings. Higher education institutions should not start with major full course offerings and expectations for large revenues. Assessment is important for the adoption of learning technologies. Several institutions that are employing this tool are able to demonstrate the "value-added" of utilizing learning technologies to student learning. The outcomes of online education can be assessed with data comparing students using the learning technologies with students not using them.