With a past dating back as far as 1833 with the use of mail correspondence to deliver composition, language, and civil service examinations in Europe, distance learning has a rich history and profound impact on the field of education (Laureate Education, 2009). As the world has evolved over the years since distance learning’s inception, so has the definition and implementation of distance learning. Prior to enrolling in this graduate course on distance learning and examining various resources on its history and definition, I would have defined the topic as any learning where the “teacher” is physically separated from the “student”. My personal experiences of participating in undergraduate asynchronous, online courses and various types of corporate asynchronous and synchronous webinars led me to develop that extremely simplistic view of distance learning.
More detailed definitions of distance learning can be found as far back as 1967, such as Dohman’s assertion that distance education is a “systematically organized form of self-study in which student counseling, the presentation of learning material and the securing and supervising of students’ success is carried out by a team of teachers…by means of media which can cover long distances” (as cited in Keegan, 1996, p. 41). More recently, Keegan (1996) offered the following five criteria to define distance learning: the separation of teacher and learner, influence from an educational institution, the use of technical media to facilitate interactions, the use of two-way communication, and the separation of the learner and learning group. Synthesizing those definitions, Simonson (2003) asserts distance learning is an “institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors” (p. vii). Personally, I would prefer a further synthesis of these definitions and offer distance learning is an institution-based, formalized method of learning and teaching where the learners and teachers are separated by time and/or physical space with the communication between them being facilitated by some sort of synchronous or asynchronous planned media. These various definitions demonstrate the evolution of the field of distance learning.
As the field of education progresses, its facets, including distance learning, will evolve. As change in this case is inevitable, it is important to not only recognize that there is impending growth for distance learning, but to understand what factors are influencing and driving that growth. As Moller, Foshay, and Huett (2008a) assert, this understanding is critical for instructional designers, as we are responsible for both contribution to the positive evolution of distance learning and creating sound instructional products that live up to the change efforts. One of the first change factors that warrants recognition is the economy. A lessening of corporate budgets is pushing professionals to look for ways to stretch their training dollars, and distance learning provides them that opportunity. Distance learning options alleviate travel costs, as both the teachers and students can potentially remain in their respective areas. In other words “letting the electrons do the traveling” (Moller et al, 2008, p. 70). The same budget restrictions are being felt on the individual-learner level as well. Various institutions and universities have incentives to develop distance learning options for their courses, as they may be more cost-friendly for the learner.
A second change factor influencing distance learning is the rise of the “non-traditional” student (Moller et al, 2008b). According to the National Center for Education Statistics (Gerald & Hussar, 2012), there are 17.6 million undergraduates, of which thirty-eight percent enrolled in higher education are over the age of 25, a share that is projected to increase another 23 percent by 2019. As older, more experienced, full-time employed people who may have children and other daily responsibilities become the majority population of students, they drive a need for more flexibility in the learning environment. Distance learning answers that call for flexibility and new forms of distance learning are being created and adapted to answer that need.
As the definition and field of distance learning evolves, an intriguing future lies ahead. Intriguing because distance learning seems to be providing solutions to problems that seemed to not have answers. For example, consider the Verizon-VGo collaborative robot, a revolutionary “telepresence” device (Verizon Foundation, 2012). This human-height robot features a video screen mounted to a wheeled base that is performing amazing acts such as allowing terminally-ill children to attend school and “move” from the class to class via the robot’s wheels and learning specialists to discretely view student behavior and communicate with the teacher in real-time. The robot is also being used for what Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) labeled “telemedicine” where doctors can remotely examine patients and perform some of their duties from a distance. The Verizon-VGo robot recently allowed wounded warriors to participate in a government conference and “move” from seminar to seminar. While I do not believe brick-and-mortar educational institutions will ever be obsolete due to learning preferences and demands of certain parts of the population, I do think the scale will eventually tip to a distance-learning-heavy environment as technologies progressively evolve to authentically recreate the features of traditional education.
References
Gerald, D. E., & Hussar, W. J. (2012). Projections of education statistics for 2012. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002030.pdf
Keegan, D. (1996). Foundations of distance education. (3 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Distance learning timeline continuum. United States.
Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.
Simonson, M. (2003). Definition of the field. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 4(1), vii–viii.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Verizon Foundation.(2012). VGo robot: Making education accessible to those who need it most. Retrieved from http://responsibility.verizon.com/education/vgo
Instructional Design & Technology: Ringer 