5650: Thoughts on DE

I finished reading one of our articles today. (Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., Wallet, P. A., Fiset, M., & Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 74 (3), 379-439.)

It seemed a little tedious to work through, but there were some good points to be had. The thing that stood out most was that the researchers said in comparing distance education (DE) to classroom instruction, in all the studies they looked at there were some cases where DE was much preferred and some cases were it was not preferred at all. I think when reading this in a class on Policies and Planning for eLearning Programs, it is important to remember that sometimes eLearning is the right tool and maybe sometimes it would not be. There has to be a clear problem and goal that one can present to the organization to support the need for eLearning.

I thought it was interesting that while the differences were not huge, there were cases where asynchronous learning was significantly preferred to classroom instruction over synchronous DE. The researchers did find that there was less retention (dropping out of the class) for synchronous but thought that may have had to do with group affiliation and social pressure. So it may be useful to incorporate some sort of group work or social interaction into asynchronous learning to help retain students.

There were a few other important points I noted:

• "Attention to quality course design should take precedence over attention to the characteristics of the media." (p.411)
• "...some degree of collaboration among students appears to foster better achievement and attitude outcomes in asynchronous DE." (p.411)
• "DE should not be a solitary experience." (p.412)
• "...student/instructor and student/student communication are important... We encourage practitioners to build more of these two elements into DE courses and into classroom experiences as well." (p.412)
• "...the design of interactivity around learning materials might focus on notions derived from cognitive psychology, including sociocognitive and constructivist principles of learning..." (p.413)

Another big point they made was that planning and design pay off. It is vital to spend the time making sure the eLearning program is appropriate and needed, that it is designed well to meet the needs of the organization and the learners, and to be prepared for things that may come up during the implementation of eLearning. I think this is something we have learned a lot about during the 1st year of the Masters program, but I am sure it is something we will cover much more in depth in this class.