Distance Education: New Perspectives

Keith Harry, Magnus John, Desmond Keegan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136139567
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Although distance education has developed rapidly over the past decade, writing on the subject is still scattered over a diverse range of often inaccessible sources. This book brings together a selection of the best writing on distance education in recent years, and is an essential reference for all who work in the field.

Part I

Theory of distance education

Introduction

Distance education theory, like the theory of any other field of educational study, has as its focus what is characteristic of the field. This is what Sparkes in 1983 called the general acceptance in the academic community of the emergence of a new set of problems. The new set of problems with which distance education theory deals focus on the concept of distance. As distance education is a field within the discipline ‘education’, it is educational distance that is in question here: distance from the schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions around the world.

Distance education theorists can, and do, discuss what exactly are the characteristics of distance education, but the criterion of distance from schools and universities is clear: conventional students attend the schools, colleges and universities of the world; distance education students do not. They study at home, or at work as in the Chinese system; they choose not to go to school.

Working from UNESCO statistics for the period covered by this book, Dieuzeide showed that there were six hundred million students in the world, of whom ten million study at a distance. Dieuzeide’s global figures, however, give a skewed picture. One would not want to underestimate the importance for the distance education theorist of the children who study at a distance (mainly in France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), but it is necessary to underline that Dieuzeide’s ten million distance students are nearly all adults; most of his six hundred million are children.

Thus distance education theory deals with a statistically important and little-studied grouping of students worldwide, reaching towards 10 per cent of adult enrolments in some countries.

The situation of the students at home (or at work) of necessity separates them from their teachers, and this creates problems for the theorist. These problems may seem to be insurmountable for those who insist that face-to-face interpersonal communication in the learning group at a school is a cultural imperative for education in both east and west, and has been so for at least 2,000 years. For those who try to set out grounded theory for distance education, the task has proved difficult, as the fragile underpinnings of this form of education so far provided testify all too clearly.

Theorists were slow to tackle the challenge presented by the new form of education created by industrial technology. For over one hundred years there was little theoretical development. One of the main reasons for this was that up to the 1970s much of the world of distance education was proprietary. The major development of the 1970s was the foundation of the open universities and the sudden swing from proprietary to government provision. Universities which differed so radically from the traditions that started at Salerno, Bologna, Paris and Oxford nearly one thousand years ago clearly needed a thorough theoretical explanation. In the 1990s the widespread offering of university degrees at a distance makes the provision of theory more urgent.

In the 1990s, also, there has been a rapid development of distance training. Working from American data in the early 1990s Devlin (1993) has claimed that distance training is now a preferred option for many multinational and transnational corporations (see also chapter 17). If training at a distance is, in fact, to become a preferred option then the onus on providing a proper scientific grounding for such a provision is increased.

Another dramatic new feature of the early 1990s is the provision of funding for research and development of distance and flexible education by government agencies. Van den Brande (1993) provides a detailed analysis of the funding by one agency: the European Commission structures in Brussels for advanced technological investigations.

The present volume covers the period mid-1982 to mid-1992. Peters, the founding Vice-Chancellor (Rektor) of the German FernUniversität who has written extensively on distance education since 1965, discusses various ways of understanding distance education, including ‘a form of study for people at work’ and the form of education in which eye contact between teacher and student is lacking. His chapter subjects to scrutiny managerial and analytical formulations about this form of education which have characterized the decade.

Moore, from the American Centre for Study of Distance Education, investigates the concepts of distance, of interaction and what happens in education when there is no class. Also from North America came one of the most important books on the theory of distance education of the decade, Le savoir à domicile. Published only in French, the book has had less attention than it merited. The extract translated here gives the views of the two editors, Henri from the Télé-université in French Canada and Kaye of the Open University in England, on what is essential to this form of education.

Ljoså, first President of the European Distance Education Network with a background in Scandinavian thinking, sees distance education as a service industry. Barker and his colleagues from the United States anticipate the influence of an electronic future on theoretical positions.

REFERENCES

Devlin, T. (1993) ‘Distance Training’ in D. Keegan (ed) Theoretical Principles of Distance Education, London: Routledge, 254–68.

Dieuzeide, H. (1985) ‘Les enjeux politiques’, in F. Henri and A. Kaye (eds) Lesavoir à domicile, Québec: Presses de I’Université du Québec and Télé-université.

Peters, O. (1967) Das Fernstudium an Universitäten und Hochschulen: Didaktische Struktur und Vergleichende Interpretation. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Fernlehre, Weinheim: Beltz.

Sewart, D., Keegan, D. and Holmberg, B. (eds) (1983) Distance Education: International Perspectives, London: Croom Helm.

Sparkes, J. (1983) ‘The problem of creating a discipline of distance education’, Distance Education 4 (2), 197–205.

Van den Brande, L. (1993) Flexible and Distance Learning, Chichester: Wiley.

1		Understanding distance education
		Otto Peters

INTRODUCTION

Due to the unusual origin of distance education, the peculiarity of its methods, and its rapid unprecedented growth during the last twenty years, the question of its basic character and true nature has been dealt with several times. It may also well be that practitioners and scholars like to ponder on this phenomenon. The result is quite a number of theoretical explanations (Moore 1973, Wedemeyer 1977, Sewart 1978, Bååth 1980, Holmberg and Schümer 1980).

I do not want to deal with these explanations of the nature of distance education, nor do I wish to present a new theory of it, although it would certainly be appropriate and necessary to redefine its possible functions in the post-modern society. This, however, must remain a desideratum for the time being. Rather, I should like to conduct an experiment.

‘COMMON-SENSE KNOWLEDGE’ AND ‘LAY THEORIES’

In the 1980s, we have learnt or have been reminded again that the behaviours of people are, as a rule, not governed by elaborate theories but just by assumptions and notions which grow out of experience. They form our view of the world and influence our actions. As such, they are especially important for the analysis of our behaviour. These assumptions and notions are part of our ‘common-sense knowledge’. As they implicitly contain special views, ways of thinking and even conceptual elements, social psychologists call them ‘subjective’ or ‘lay’ theories (Furnham 1988). Lay theories can become influential when they are adopted by other people and assume the functions of stereotypes or clichés. They can be analysed but, of course, not to the same degree as objective or scientific theories. They are implicit rather than explicit. They are incoherent and inconsistent, and can, consequently, contradict themselves. But in spite of this, some researchers (Gröben et al. 1988) see analogies and parallels between lay and scientific theories. They are important for us as we generally are not influenced by the facts in our world of everyday life but basically by our assumptions of and subjective theories about these facts.

With regard to the theme of this chapter, I should like to analyse subjective theories about distance education. In order to do this, I shall examine a number of designations of distance education which have been used widely. I assume that someone who ‘invents’ a name for distance education must have a certain concept and understanding of its nature. This holds true also for many people who accept and use this name.

Furthermore, I should like to refer to some stereotypes which have been derived from theories of distance education. As a rule, these theories are often reduced to a few words or phrases or catchwords in everyday practice. They start a career of their own – independently from their original theories. Here I am not interested in the original objective theories, but rather in the lay theories which have been developed by people who are using those stereotypes. My hypothesis is that there might be a lot of sound thinking in those lay theories in spite of their not being explicit and consistent. I hope that if we summarize various outcomes of these lay theories we learn something more about what really matters when dealing with distance education. We might recognize a way of understanding which is really shared by the people concerned with this particular form of education.

DESIGNATIONS

We are aware of quite a number of different designations of ‘distance education’ in various languages. There are also different designations for the same phenomenon in one language, especially in American English. Dealing with them we have to accept the premise that different designations mean different ways of looking at distance education and of attaching importance to different elements of this form of education. Let us try to describe them.

Fernunterricht (Instruction at a distance)

The German word Fernunterricht characterizes the phenomenon by pointing at a striking difference from face-to-face education: the apartness of teacher and learner. It stresses the physical distance between them which does not allow direct interaction.

A number of associations are still attached to this word, most of them originating in the nineteenth century or the first half of the twentieth century. These associations include the use and misuse of the term in connection with profit-led organizations, and the opportunity it offers to ambitious and gifted but underprivileged people who are denied the possibility of obtaining an education through the usual channels. Strangely enough, if these people engage themselves in instruction at a distance they are quite often still looked at with a mixture of admiration and condescension.

Fernstudium (Learning at a distance in higher education)

The distinctive term fern (trs. ‘distance’) proved to be so successful that it was also applied in higher education when it became possible to study at a university without attending classes. Further, it was also translated into English and is now internationally recognized.

The notions evoked by this term are partly similar to those of Fernunterricht. Here we think of individuals, discontent with their socio-economic status who try to change it in the face of many difficulties. Many people are impressed by these individuals who try to elevate themselves in the social strata or just between the more and less educated. However, again they are looked at with mixed feelings – with admiration, envy, suspicion and disdain. Not all people, especially workers, find it really appropriate to take advantage of this new form of education.

As most institutions of distance study are state institutions, this term is not tainted by associations with profit-making organizations.

Correspondence study

Those who decided to use this term were undoubtedly impressed by a new communication medium in the middle of the last century: the letter (or postcard) in connection with the railway system, which guaranteed quick and reliable delivery. Here the concept of the teacher and the learner who send letters, instead of talking to each other, was in the foreground. The term was so successful that it was adopted in the Romance languages and also in Chinese, in which han shou means ‘teaching by letters’. It dominated the conception of the new form of tuition for nearly a century.

The most important association attached to this designation is the teacher who instructs by writing and the student who learns by reading. Thus, it popularized a new teaching and learning behaviour.

Open learning

This term when being used to designate distance education emphasizes the ‘openness’ of the teaching-learning process as compared to the ‘closeness’ of learning in traditional schools. It stresses that access to this kind of learning is easier (‘open access’) and that the students are allowed to operate with a degree of autonomy and self-direction. This does not refer only to decisions with regard to the place, time, duration and circumstances of their learning but in some cases also with regard to the curriculum, as the students are free to select from pre-planned curricula or to develop curricula of their own.

Home study

This term suggests that the teaching and learning does not take place in the class or lecture room but at home. It generates pleasant feelings connected to one’s home: privacy, familiarity, cosiness – as opposed to the often unpleasant experiences at schools or colleges: publicity, the necessity to deal with many (unknown or not well-known) persons, the uncomfortableness of rooms, impersonality.

Angeleitetes Selbststudium (Guided self-study)

Here, ‘self-study...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Table
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• General Introduction
• Part I Theory of Distance Education
• Part II Organization and Structures
• Part III Administration of Distance Education
• Part IV Media in Distance Education
• Part V International Perspectives
• Part VI The Study of Distance Education
• Index