Joanne Najarian
ECMOP 6008
Online Learning
When I started researching the principles of teaching online I was having difficulty finding
anything that could be held as a standard for all distant learning forums. When we talk about
distant learning we are talking classes or courses that the primary interaction between teacher
and student takes place electronically. This may take place through the internet, video
conferencing, email, chat, discussion forums or IM. By establishing standards all distant learning
will be created equally whether it is for a public, private or for profit provider. According to the
American Federation of Teachers there are 14 standards or guidelines for good practice for
distant learning. Even though these standards were established back in 2000, they still apply
eight years laters. The guidelines and standards are as follows;
1. Faculty Must Retain Academic Control, what this means is that faculty should review
and approve the distant learning courses in advance to offering the courses for college
credit. That all faculty members as well as curriculum specialists should be involved in
the developing and evaluating of the curriculum for the course.
2. Faculty Must Be Prepared To Meet The Special Requirements Of Teaching Distant
Learning. Faculty teaching the distant learning course must be proficient in using
technology. They should also process the strategies and skills to help them
communicate with students without the use of visual aids or oral cues. Designing and
teaching an online course takes a lot of time and preparation, often more than teaching a
traditional class. For an online instructor they need to be available to students so that
they can communicate with students.
3. Course Design Should Be Shaped to Potentials of the Medium. “Faculty members
developing distance education courses should approach course design—curriculum
planning, class projects, visual aids, library materials and student interaction—not in
terms of replicating the traditional classroom, but in terms of maximizing the potential of
the medium that will be employed.”
4. Students Must Fully Understand Course Requirements and Be Prepared to
Succeed Students should be given a clear statement of course requirements in
advance. This statement should include all course requirements; the weekly time
commitment and specific computer skills required for the course. It should also include
information on what is needed to be successful when taking an online course and an
outline of course expectations.
5. Closing Personal Interaction Must Be Maintained Almost everyone agrees that the
most important challenge facing distance education is the need to develop a rich level of
personal interchange between professor and student and among students themselves.
(AFT, 2000) The standard states that communication should be maximized through
various means of meduim. The electronic communication should be a real-time
interchange through devices such as chat rooms and discussion groups as well as
asynchronous forms of communication such as email and computer bulletin boards.
Wherever it is feasible, opportunities for same-time same-place interchange between the
teacher and student, or among students, should be built into credit courses taught at a
distance.
6. Class Size Should Be Set through Normal Faculty Channels Class size should be
maintained as it would be in the traditional classroom to encourage a high degree of
interactivity. Small class sizes should be considered for distant learning given the time
commitment involved for both instructor and student.
7. Courses Should Cover All Materials The amount of material covered in a distance
education course, and the depth with which it is covered, should equal that of a
classroom-based course.
8. Experimentation with a Broad Variety of Subjects Should Be Encouraged Institution
should be willing to offer courses in all varieties of subjects, but should discontinue
offering course that are unsuccessful.
9. Equivalent Research Opportunities Must Be Provided Distant learnings should be
provided with the same research materials that is provide to other students. They should
also be given the same opportunities to conduct independent course related research.
10. Student Assessment Should Be Comparable Distant learners should be evaluated
and assessed just as classroom base students are.
11. Equivalent Advisement Opportunities Must Be Offered Distant learning should be
provided with opportunity for individual advisement by academic professionals.
12. Faculty Should Retain Creative Control over Use and Re-Use of Material. The
faculty member(s) developing a course should maintain creative control over the use
and re-use of the course in subsequent years.
13. Full Undergraduate Degree Programs Should Include Same-Time Same-Place
Courseware Faculty members at all institutions should assume the responsibility of
determining how much coursework is appropriate for a distant learning education. This
standard states that a full undergraduate distance education program should be
available to those students truly unable to participate in classroom education at any time
after considering all other options. Distant learning should be also be available for
graduate and certificate programs
14. Evaluation of Distance Coursework Should Be Undertaken at all Levels All
institution that provides distant learning courses should evaluate their curriculum to
make sure it meets the needs of its students and faculty members. This evaluation
process should be regulated by the federal government.
Many parties are also offering standards for the design and development of e-Learning
programs. A report from The Pennsylvania State University titled An Emerging Set of Guidelines
for the Design and Development of Distance Education (IDE, 1998) presents the following five
aspects of course design with specific principles for each:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
learning goals and content presentation;
interactions;
assessment and measurement;
instructional media and tools; and
learner services and support. While all the standards-proposals describe the
need for the design of the virtual classroom to be based on educational outcome
objectives, some go as far as to specify that these must be at higher levels of
learning such as abstract thinking and critical reasoning (SREB, 2001). For-profit
providers of e-Learning content or courseware and the corporations that create
and employ e-Learning in their internal workforce, development strategies often
include standards of effective and efficient program development processes
(project management) in this category (Berge, 2001 and Mantyla, 2000-2001).
With more and more schools offering distant learning it would only make sense for
standardize guidelines to be established and enforced for all institution to follow.
References
American Association for Higher Education. (2000). Implementing the Seven Principles:
Technology as a Lever. Washington, DC: AAHE
American Federation of Teachers. (2000). Distance Education: Guidelines for Good Practice.
Washington, DC: AFT (AFL-CIO)
Berge, Z. (2001). Sustaining Distance Training: Integrating Learning Technologies into the
Fabric of the Enterprise. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
National Education Association. (2001). Focus on Distance Education. Update 7(2).
Southern Regional Education Board (2000-2001). Essential Principles of Quality: Guidelines
for Web-based courses for middle grade and high school students. Atlanta, GA: SREB
Educational Technology Cooperative.
University of Illinois. (1999). Teaching at an Internet Distance: The pedagogy of online
teaching and learning. Chicago, IL.:Faculty Seminar.
Wahlstrom, C., Williams, B., and Shea, P. (in press). The Successful Distance Learning
Student. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. (2001). Best Practices for
Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs. Boulder, CO: WICHE.