higher ED online

Thanks, Fang!

As for TD for a second language learner: Because I find that online learning has the potential to create a more intimate, more personal, relationship between the teacher and learner, I think TD is beneficial to second language students.

In my program we discuss culture often and how to create meaningful content and interactions for diverse learners. The key for a good online instructor is to engage OFTEN with the students.

Linda, congratulations! You moved on to the research internship, :-)

Meeting with advisor on Weds. I want to do my research internship with her this summer, and she told me to provide her with some research questions to see if my questions will match with her dataset. This is what I've got:

The primary benefits of TD in eLearning.

The dimension of time.

The nature of transparency.

Research Questions:

Does TD in eLearning encourage deeper and/or more meaningful interaction (with content, teacher, and students) than in f2f classes? (Rebeca’s comment)

Does TD in eLearning promote more content-focused (learning-centered) leaning than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning provide more opportunities for reflection than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning increase personal knowledge construction more than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning provide higher quality and quantity of interaction (with content, teacher, and students) than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning provide greater transparency for learning than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning promote clearer communication than in f2f classes?

Does TD in eLearning allow more time for learning than in f2f classes?

How do the dimensions of space and time provide greater benefit to learners and teachers in eLearning?

How does TD provide more opportunities for learning?

            Students have the time and space to independently research topics  on their own.

            Students have the ability to construct personal meaning.

            Students have the ability to construct deeper meaning.

            Students who lack verbal skill have the time and space to catch up with more verbal classmates.

Does TD provide greater academic opportunities for non-traditional students?

Is TD beneficial for all learners? Some learners?

What are the benefits of TD?

Does TD foster (and or maintain) independent learners?

Does TD improve learning skills?

How does TD enhance equality in online learning?

Does TD shift focus from social concerns to content fluency?

Refers to a systems ID model for distance education....

"A differentiating feature of distance education is the mediated instructional transaction. This transaction has been analyzed from different perspectives. For example Moore (1983) introduced the concept of transactional distance 'which he defined as a function of two variables, "dialog" and "structure."

He defined dialog as: "the extent to which, in any educational programme learner and educator are able to respond to each other." Therefore, an educational program with a low level of dialog was conceived to be more distant than another program with a high level of dialog.

Structure was defined as "a measure of an educational programme's responsiveness to learner's individual needs" (p, 153). In this instance an educational program with a high level of structure was conceived to be all most distant and not very responsive to the needs of individual learner" (Saba, 1988, p. 345).

Learner autonomy

The independence of the adult learner is respected from a traditional perspective; freedom of learning is cherished as dearly as freedom of thought and speech. The autonomy of the learner also puts the emphasis on learning and not on the act of teaching. 

As much as autonomy of the learner is revered, the literature is clear that distance education does not include unstructured learning. The activities of a totally autonomous learner do not fall within the domain of distance education (Moore 1983; Keegan 1986; Holmberg 1986).

Distance education is composed of goal-oriented teaching, as well as purposeful learning.

The degree of structure selected and assigned to teaching and learning activities determines the autonomy of the learner in the instructionaI transaction.

But how is this structure determined? Through what mechanism can learner and teacher mutually decide on a level or structure to be imposed on their course of interaction?" (Saba, 1988, p. 349).

This is achieved by minimizing the time delay between the act of teaching and the act of learning.

This process occurs in the communication between learner and teacher, and it determines the required level of structure in transactional distance.

By minimizing the time delay between finding out the needs of the learners and structuring instructional materials, decision-making between learner and teacher on the level of structure required for reaching certain mutually agreed instructional goals is facilitated. Integrated systems provide flexible means for decreasing structure through increased dialog. They also expedite increased structure, so dialog can be kept to a desirable level.

This defines a dynamic relationship between the level of desired dialog and the level of required structure (Saba, 1988, p. 350).

Autonomy (of Learner)

"Rather, what autonomy does mean is substantially related to the issue of control, that is, to what extent a student is able to exert his/her decision-making power over tasks related to their learning" (Shin, 2002, p. 127).

"Generally, distance educators’ respect for student autonomy has served as the rhetoric for legitimizing the practice of teaching at a distance as opposed to the established format of teaching in a classroom. This rhetoric is rooted in the belief that, if students are mature enough, reasonably motivated, and sufficiently guided by programmed instructions, then the mature adult students should be able to manage their learning tasks in spite of the distance from teachers and/or institutions" (p. 128).

"Research interest in peer interaction or collaboration seems to emerge along with technology developments in the area of communication media. It is essential therefore to have a contextual understanding of distance education in which peer influence has become an important concern to researchers and scholars in the field. For example, in a North American context in which computer and teleconferencing media technologies prevail among others, the practice of distance education tends to follow a traditional classroom model, as is testified to below:

At the root of distance education theory is the belief that distance education is fundamentally different from traditional face-to-face instruction. However, especially in the United States, technological advances and new philosophies of distance education have resulted in a new paradigm of distance education, its goal to offer to the distance student an experience as much like that of traditional, face-to-face instruction as possible (Schlosser & Anderson, 1993, p. 14 in McHenry & Bozik, 1997, p. 363) (as cited by Shin, 2002, p. 129).

For years we have seen commercials and other advertisements for online education that appeal to students who are looking for an easy way to earn a degree. These ads show students laying around in their pajamas smiling at their computers.

The implication is that there is little to no effort involved in online learning.

Anyone who has ever taken an online class has most likely found that online classes are generally much more difficult and time-consuming than f2f classes.

Great changes!

I was thrilled to finally see an institution take a serious stance on online education.

A recently aired commercial advertisement for Colorado Technical University focuses on attracting students who want to take charge of their own learning.

The headline on their website reads, I don't take classes. I experience them.

Their website is disappointing with little detail.

But their message is important:

Online education is for responsible students who want to take control of their lives.

Still working my way through the articles that I found for the annotated bibliography.

Finding that:

Moore's definition of transactional distance changes as time goes by. I think that this is basically a good thing.

He started researching this topic long before online education took a major foothold, so it makes sense that the meaning changes. 

I continue to grapple with where I would like my research to go.

Most researchers look at the issues of the 4 interactions (teacher/learner, learner/content, learner/learner, learner/interface). Some researchers continue to study the inherent cultural issues involved as online education attracts the global community. 

Should the three aspects of these interactions be included, or should they be a major part of my research?

Structure

Dialogue

Autonomy

Some ideas:

Structure relates to transparency - in this sense, isn't high structure (+S) always a good thing? 

Does synchronous eLearning (esp. video conferencing) equate to live (face-to-face) instruction, RE: dialogue?

Are there significant differences between online video conferencing and f2f synchronous dialogue (discussions)?

Is asynchronous dialogue more beneficial or less beneficial for learners?

Digital Natives are more autonomous learners in general?

a little off-topic...

Thank you very much for your comment, Fang! 

Yes, I might best be considered a "solitary learner." This website explains my learning style pretty well: Learning-styles-online.com - it's called solitary or intrapersonal. 

One of the things I find most exciting is how online learning will potentially attract a greater diversity of students to higher education.

Linda, thank you for choosing this interesting topic! And what is of special value to me is your own experience as an opposite example of the effect of "transactional distance" (if i didn't misunderstand the concept). As you mentioned “learning style”, on-line learning might be more contributing to learners who do better when they are alone, more self-dependent, more comfortable with visual and audio information in a holistic way.

My experience with on-line learning is two-dimensioned. One the one hand, I love all the convenience on-line learning brought to me, easy access, time-saving, quick in tracing information, etc.; on the other hand, as a second language learner, I lost more chances to soak into the rich language as well as culture environment as the real classroom offers.

Interactions (Moore +):

learner–instructor interaction,

learner–content interaction

learner–learner interaction (moore, 1989)  

learner–interface interaction (added to accommodate the characteristics of electronic teaching by Hillman, Willis, and Gunawardena, 1994)

Research includes:

Subsequently, Chen (2001a, 2001b), Zhang (2003), and Lemone (2005) examined the effects of these four variables on Web-based learning.

Zhang found that the strongest factor that affected students’ transactional distance and engagement with learning was the transactional distance between student and students, followed by transactional distance between student and teacher.

Lemone demonstrated how cultural influences affected transactional issues relating to these four variables in a study involving Nepali and Icelandic students.

Dennen, Darabi, and Smith (2007) have identified some important aspects of instructor–learner interaction in online courses. NOTE - I need to find out what aspects...

Why online learning was transformational for me:

Physical separation from other learners (concentration on content vs. social aspect)

Physical separation from instructor (easier for me o share my thoughts at the distance)

Use of PC in general (and for research and course work

Other things...

Transparency of

Content

Goals & objectives (clearly defined)

Student contributions (see other students’ posts)

Even in Synchronous situations - allowed me to look up things (which I may have felt embarrassed about doing in the classroom)

Asynchronous provided me with time…

Examples (I learn well from examples)

Time to:

Concentrate on content (incl. goals and objectives)

Conduct independent research in a variety of mediums (videos, articles, wikipedia, general Internet searching) – personalizing my experience

Reflect (to consider what I want to say)

How transactional distance relates to our class "reading and writing digital text:"

Because I had such a transformational experience as an online student I wholeheartedly support online learning (eLearning). 

Since most of the people in our class are K-12 teachers, I want to encourage you to provide online content for students. I think this will provide some learners with tools to help them succeed.

I had a really difficult time in school (K-undergrad!) because of many reasons. A couple examples:

I just didn't seem to understand how to study or even how to learn school subjects in the way they were taught

I often felt lost when I looked around and (seemingly) all of my classmates understood lessons/homework/etc..

Online learning enabled me to

Focus on the course content (removing the face-2-face physical interaction).

Research topics online (including background information that other students may have had)

Take the time to figure out what I wanted to say

Read others' input to help me determine if I was proceeding in the right way

Check the articles link at the left for the articles I have chosen to use for the annotated bibliography (it may get whittled down as I review them).

On the subject of digital text within the online learning environment:

My basic premise is that while research has shown the need to decrease the student/teacher perception (and reality) of distance to avoid feelings of isolation (which potentially leads to a lack of motivation in online course settings), I believe that there are beneficial aspects of this so-called transactional distance.

I think there are benefits of the inherent transactional distance to both teachers and students, such as:

1. Helps students to focus on content rather than the social aspect

2. Evens the playing field for those students who may not be as verbal (vocal) as their classmates

3. Students have more time to become familiar with content to make well-considered contributions to the class. Especially helpful for students who need to interact with the material in more in-depth ways than their academically-successful (academically adroit) classmates

4. Formally "challenged" students have the time (and the distance) to construct meaning that is useful for themselves (not formerly possible in the classroom setting)

5. Increases opportunities for reflection

6. Teachers can potentially reach ALL students (those who are academically-able and those who have the potential for high academic achievement).

New Articles page added (see menu items on left).

While I was a student in the OLIT master’s degree program (2007 – 2010), I discovered that online learning is particularly well suited to my personal learning style and preferences.

When I began the program, I had no interest in online courses, and in fact, I was quite skeptical about their effectiveness. I thought that learning occurred best in person, with an instructor who lectured and students who took notes.

However, in 2008, due to scheduling conflicts, I enrolled in my first online course. I felt immediately at ease in the online learning environment, and I enjoyed online learning so much that I took the remainder of my course work online (except for one that wasn’t available online).

I believe that I became a better student while working online, mainly because the online environment shifted the emphasis of learning for me from a social‐centered experience to a learning‐centered experience.

an overview from wikipedia (w/my boldfacing):

In distance education, students and instructors experience a sense of separation that is caused by more than the simple physical distance between students and instructors.

Transactional distance is “a psychological and communications gap, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner” created in part by the physical distance inherent to online learning (Moore 1991, "Transactional Distance," ¶2).

A large transactional distance—such as that between geographically dispersed learners and instructors in an asynchronous, text-based, online learning environment—may contribute to students’ feelings of isolation and disconnectedness, which can lead to reduced levels of motivation and engagement and, consequently, attrition.