Distance Training and WWW-Learning environments

Introduction - The Bigger Picture
Communication and Technologies
The NNC Experience - A Distance Learning Programme
Learning Environments - Fundamental Activities
Evaluation
Adult Learners - A Typology
Developments and Reflections on the Cutting Edge
Literature
PDF-Presentation (900KB)

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The Bigger Picture
For the professional organization, the impact of distance or virtual learning seems clear. It is a mode of learning independent of time and space. It is flexible, just-in-time and at your convenience. For both formal and informal continuing education it opens a window of new opportunities.

For economic reasons traditional education has been biased towards standardization and institutionalization. Content is delivered in standardized packages and taught in institutions requiring the presence of the learner on scheduled time. But with distance learning some of these restraints disappear. You are not limited to the offerings of local schools or universities and learning takes place in a virtual environment. Learning can be embedded in a social and organizational context, where content can be designed or tailored for specific purposes and user groups.

Even if distance learning remains just an option it will be an increasingly important one in the 21st century.
As concepts such as "lifelong learning & training" and "the learning organization" become even more vital, we will all have occasions to consider distance learning options and challenges.

Communication and Technologies
When we are concerned with learning and communication activities, technology provides us with certain opportunities. In particular, the various technologies offer people opportunity for greater access, different types of access - such as voice, video, data, and graphics - and facility for faster access. Technology does only provide us with more and faster opportunities for learning and communication. It does not provide us with learning and communication per se. The problems inherent in the learning and communication process are not removed by that technology. In fact given the state of user unfriendliness of many of these technologies, problems in the learning and communication process are more likely to be exacerbated than minimized if not carefully addressed.

The NNC Experience
At The Nordic Net Center, we faced the challenge in 1996 and offered a distance learning programme aimed at Nordic and Baltic information professionals. By focusing on a highly dynamic and specialized content and context, web-site design, maintenance and development within a specific institutional context, the library and information-service sector, we were capable of offering a unique and targeted programme.
Obviously there was a demand. A group of more than 40 participant from the Nordic and Baltic countries registered for the first NNC distance learning programme with duration of two month.
The course was organized in seven modules. Course material was designed and adapted for the specific user group. The World Wide Web was used as delivery medium and an ftp-server was used as a shared space for presentations of small projects and assignments. A discussion forum for all participants was established to accommodate a shared knowledge space. It served as an essential forum for questions, comments and sharing of experiences as well as a forum for feedback on assignments and exercises.

Specifically, the use of a centralized discussion forum(supporting asynchronous communication), the development of mailing lists, automatic e-mail notification and reletive ease of use were identified as critical elements in the successful implementation of a facility for the group communication.
The NNC model used a discussion forum available for ALL participants, however future development may implement a private discussion forum for groups of people working on a structured project or assignment. This will facilitate a mix of private and shared knowledge space, where participants have forum for focused non-monitored discussions as well as a forum to share and publicly display their projects and skills.
Public computer mediated conferencing could be extended by implementing videoconferencing, in particular useful for preliminary projects-reviews, evaluation and guidance.

Fundamental activities

Fundamental activities in a distance learning environment may involve:

• Negotiating a learning contract - a process that requires, in many cases, both instructors and participants to learn different roles.
  
• Didactic teaching, that is, supplying course content, posting assignments, or other information relevant to course work
  
• Course management, for example, advising, delivery of course content, evaluation collecting and returning assignments
  
• Mentoring, such as advising and guiding learners
  
• Project-based learning, this option was not used in the initial programme. However this didactic approach will be implemented in future programs.
  
• Facilitating technology; dependent on the actual learner context you may need to allocate additional resources for technical assistance and troubleshooting
  
• Facilitating individual and group presentations
  
• Facilitating collaboration - helping relations
  
• Public conferencing(asynchronous communication), such as discussion forums and mailing lists
  
• Public conferencing (synchronous communication) this includes interactive chat, suitable for brainstorming with instructors or peers, resolving ambiguities and to maintain social relationships in a networked environment. This facility will be used in the programme this autumn. Real time videoconferencing will be considered as an option for the programme in spring 1998.
  
• Personal networking and professional growth and such activities as finding colleagues with similar interests.

Evaluation

Evaluation focused in particular on:

• Flexibility of learning at your convenience as an obvious advantage.
  
• Focused and customized tutorials and "courseware"
  
• Accessibility of instructors, feed-back and resources outside of "fixed" hours
  
• Collaborative-possibilities; peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and inspiration.
  
• Learning embedded in a practical and institutional context

However problems were also addressed, in particular the separation in time and space.
With distance learning and "separation in time and space there is a psychological and communications space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of the instructor and those of the learner"( Keegan D, 1988)

Ironically, the delivery mode intended to facilitate and actuate communication across distances can itself set up obstacles to communication.
"More in this environment than in face-to-face setting, there is the potential for increased interpersonal distance, reduction in the amount and frequency of interaction, loss of feedback and interference in the transfer of messages"
(Wolcot, 1995)

In distance learning environments both the learner and the instructor can feel too much interpersonal distance.
Distance-interaction is by obvious reasons not as rich a mode as face-to-face interaction. In this comparison distance-interaction is characterized by:

• Less flexibility of formats
  
• Lack of simultaneous non-verbal channels
  
• Less possibilities of back and forth exchange in which ambiguities can be resolved.

Evaluation available at http://www.nnc.dk/courses/distinfo.htm

Adult Learners
- A Typolgy of Learner Styles and Instructional Roles

Grow(1991,1996) presents a useful typology of adult learners, dealing with different learner styles and instructional roles

 

Grow, Gerald O. (1991/1996). "Teaching Learners to be Self-Directed." Adult Education Quarterly, 41 (3),125-149.
Expanded version available online at:
http://www.famu.edu/sjmga/ggrow

Participants in the NNC course shared common characteristics with this typology of adult learners. The majority were characterized as interested and involved and some self-directed and intrinsically motivated. Many added value to the programme with a wealth of experience. Finally all were inclined toward practical and immediate application of the information they acquired, e.g. developing an institutional web-site or an intranet for their organization.

Similar the NNC team took on multiple and changing roles: acting both as instructors, information designers, instructional developers, facilitators and motivators.
We didn't perceive ourselves as the sole experts and information providers, but more like guides and facilitators.

In Brookfield's Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning the index entry for "Teacher" is: "Teacher see facilitator"
"Facilitators of learning see themselves as resources for learning, rather than as didactic instructors who have all the answers. They stress that they are engaged in democratic, student-centered enhancement of individual learning and that responsibility for setting the directions and methods of learning rests as much with the learners as with the educator. Facilitators are usually described as being "helping relationship"

Development and Reflections
In a Nordic perspective we have been witnessing several paradigmatic shifts in teaching and learning with the shift from instructor-centered education to student-centered learning as the most important.

When it comes to distance learning both learners and instructors are on the cutting edge of educational practice. This edge is both a vital challenge and a problem since there is no substantial empirical research on how effective this type of learning is or what types of distance learning methods works best.
Current research on what types of digital media and materials facilitate learning is confusing and contradictory and largely dependent on the specific learning context. (Najjar, 1996)
In other words there are no standards of best practice and only a few guidelines and some rules of thumb.

The development of the NNC-distance programme is in a constant flux and we do not ignore some obvious disadvantages of computer- and www-mediated communication.
However reflecting more on the design of the distance learning environment can reduce some disadvantages.

This includes:

• Reflection on different learning methodologies and didactical design.
  
• Matching instructional design with different learning styles and attributes.
  
• Identifying, improving and customizing technological tools that allow a fuller and more flexible range of methodologies.

Both of these factors can improve the quality, quantity, and patterns of learning and communication - a change that requires, in many cases, both instructors and participants to learn different roles.

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Literature

 

Brookfield, Stephen D (1986):"Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning" Open University Press, England

Chinowsky & Goodman (1997) "The World Wide Web in Engineering Team Projects" In "Educational Telecommunication"; Vol 3 Nr.2/3, 1997

Grow, Gerald O. (1991/1996). "Teaching Learners to be Self-Directed." In Adult Education Quarterly, 41 (3), 125-149.
Expanded version available online at:
http://www.famu.edu/sjmga/ggrow

Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R.,Turoff M(1995).: "Learning Networks - A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online". Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1995

Hong, J & Leifer(1995) "Using the WWW to support project-team formation."
In D Budny & B Herrick(eds), "Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education 25th Annual Conference(2c5.1-2c5.5), New York IEEE

Keegan D, (1988). "Theories of Distance Education". St. Martins Press

Najjar, 1996: Journal of educational multimedia and hypermedia 5(2) 129-150

Siggard Jensen, Sisse(1997) "Pædagogisk nytænkning udbedes" In S Siggard Jensen & M Ringsted(eds) "...med kridt og computer - brikker til en ny forståelse af fremtidens lærerprofession" SI - Statens Publikationer, 1997

Siggard Jensen, Sisse (1997) "Netuddannelser og teknologisyn - et bidrag til en historik"
Forskningscenter for Pædagogisk IT-forskning
Danmarks Lærerhøjskole, 1997

Wolcot, Linda L(1996) "The Distance Teacher as Reflective Practitioner." In Educational Technology Jan/Feb 1996