GOAL 7.2

Distance Education

 Understanding the Advantages and Disadvantages

Nowadays, the internet has become a vital tool in the professional and personal development of humanity. Information travels at a tremendous speed through the internet and provides individuals with documents, music, pictures, videos, software, and more. In education, this technology has been used to improve the life quality of individuals who want to acquire knowledge and complete their studies. In my personal experience Distance Education has given me the option to continue my studies at my own pace. Being a fulltime worker, student, and parent has not been easy, for me, but thanks to distance education I have been able to manage my studies and personal life with great results. I have taken several courses in this modality, and all of them have been very rewarding; they have given me the opportunity to do other things I like without interrupting my learning; the flexibility and methodology has worked great for me.  Distance Education has also helped me become a more autonomous person; I think that the amount of responsibility that this system places over the shoulders of the learners is, in no way, a joke. Even though distance education has worked well for me, it does not mean that it will for everyone. As we understand, there are many aspects about the way every person learns, and there are factors that impact, either, in a positive or negative way.

  

Distance Education, like any other modality, has many advantages; in this case I will mention some of the most important ones that, in my experience, are the most relevant and have worked for me since I started with distance courses. The first advantage is the flexibility it offers. The schedule flexibility allows learners to manage their time. By having flexibility, learners work in a less stressful environment since they are the ones deciding when and how much work needs to be done. Flexibility does not mean “turn in your work whenever” instead, it means “you have plenty of time to schedule and do your work”. Another great advantage of Distance Education is the conditions that this modality puts students throught in order to test their autonomoy. For some, this might not be that good, but in my case this helped me tremendously in becoming a more responsible, self-demanding, and secured student. Autonomy is a condition that helps a person become independent and enhances the concept of self-govern, this according to Kearsley (2011). If a learner acquires and recognizes his/her autonomy, then it could be said that this learner is a self-sufficient person, and on-line courses put this aspect in trial at all times. One more great advantage is the access to information at all times; this helps learners review material and information on the platforms assigned or on the internet at any required moment. Another great advantage that this modality of education offers is its financial low cost. In contrast to in-class courses, on-line classes are very affordable. This allows learners to save money not only on school payments, but also on transportation, food, time, and more. The advantages offered by Distance Education are meant to be taken, and they are there for the ones who want to take the chance and use them.

In every educational modality there are pros and cons, and some of the most notorious disadvantages of Distance Education are isolation, the demand of technological knowledge, and late feedbacks. It is obvious that working behind a computer for a long time could isolate a person from face-to-face encounters, which may impact in the way learners socialize with others. This isolation may even go further; it could also cause technological dependence and interrupt the interpersonal abilities of the learners. Another disadvantage is the demand of technological knowledge that a learner must have when enrolling in a Distance Education course. This is critical because getting accustomed to new technology, new platforms, and its issues may discourage students causing them to fail their courses and even drop their studies this according to Keeger (2009). As we understand, technology changes rapidly, and learners should have that in mind at all times.  Furthermore, another disadvantage of on-line education is the late feedbacks learners receive. Since this modality is open for students twenty four hours a day, but the instructor or coordinator is on a schedule, the waiting time for feedback may be disappointing and stressful. It is very exasperating that learners, sometimes, must wait hours or even days to receive feedback from their mentors; feedback is very important since it tells about the progress and performance that students have in their learning process. 

There are many things that coordinators, teachers, and students can do to improve the experience of Distance Education courses. For instance, coordinators and directives should definitely contemplate the impact that on-line classes have; one must always have in mind that the curriculum of any educational institution and its courses must reflect on the political, cultural, and technical needs that must be covered to satisfy a society; this means that if the activities in the curricular plan are not going to be constructive or useful, they should not be promoted. Simonson (2009) mentions that teachers of on-line courses should never forget that they are there to support and help the students accomplish objectives in regards of their academic formation and must understand that the lack of professionalism does not only impact the final grade of a student, but instead, it impacts the mentality of a society as whole. In addition; empathy should be practiced, and live sessions should be requested, at least via webcam or phone, in order to interact with the students and hear what they have to say; the analysis of texts (emails) will never replace a face-to-face or live conversation. Let us not forget that communication is the most important aspect about human affairs. The students have their share as well. In order to have a better experience with Distance Education courses, students must be in constant communication with their mentors and piers; this, with the intention of building a stronger and more solid relationship with them. Motivation goes three ways, teacher-students, students-teacher, and students-students. Opening up to others may help everyone understand what needs and options there are in the learning process; and understanding these aspects will lead to a better education; procrastination, in this case, should be totally dismissed; education is there for the ones who want to be educated. 

         References

 ‎Michael R. Simonson 2009, Distance Education: Definitions and Glossary of Terms

 ‎Greg Kearsley 2011, Distance Education: A Systems View of Online Learning

          Desmond Keegan 2013, Foundations of Distance Education 

GOAL 6.1

Evaluation in Distance Education

Understanding how learners react when teaching in-class courses is, up to a certain point, something understandable and likely targetable; however, the big dilemma is as to how would learners react to an on-line evaluation and what impact will this have in their education. According to Stufflebeam and Shinkfield (2007) cited from Ruhe (2009) “ Evaluation is a process giving attestations on such matters as reliability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, safety, ease of use and probity. Evaluation provides evidence and evaluative claims with respect to the worth, value, and improvement of individuals, programs, projects, services, and organizations”. The authors infer that evaluation does not only imply how good a performance was, instead, evaluation leads to impact, in the most positive aspect, the life and development of individuals in regards to their learning process.

            When referring to the evaluation of studies, one must understand that that there are two major types, formative evaluation and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is the kind of evaluation that gets done while the course is in progress. This has the purpose of identifying scope and potential improvement.  According to George (1999) “An assignment is formatively assessed when the comments that the teacher makes to the student are intended to bring about improvement in the next submitted work.” Formative evaluation is, indeed, an outcome of a list of suggestions and decisions for action, and for development. In the other hand, summative evaluation is, as its name implies, the final judgment that is given to the summative of reached goals at a particular time. In simpler words, summative evaluation could be understood as the final grade that a learner will receive for a given performance, task, or work. George (1999) gives an interesting metaphor about formative and summative evaluation; he says that “when the cook tastes the soup, it is formative evaluation; when the dinner guest tastes the soup, it is summative evaluation.  

            When speaking about difficulties evaluating on-line activities, one must say that the most significant issue that arises is the understanding and purpose of assessment. Learners and teachers tend to see assessment as an evaluation mechanism; both teachers and learners should use assessment as a teaching tool, and quizzes and tests, as mentoring opportunities. Evaluation must always be in favor of helping individuals understand the areas of opportunity that they have. Evaluation of on-line activities has the purpose of increasing the awareness and reflection on the learning progress of students. Difficulties when evaluating on-line course activities, tasks, and tests varies according to the curriculum. Well founded objectives in the curricular plan may decrease issues such as, information misunderstandings, rubric objectives, and implicit manipulations.

            The curriculum is a very important aspect in accomplishing the purpose of on-line evaluation. The curriculum deals with the objectives and purposes of education. The curriculum, according to the idea of Arnaz (1981) views education as a social, technical, cultural, individual, political, and futuristic impact in learners. Since evaluation is so closed related to overcoming, understanding, and dissipating issues in the learning process, the curriculum design needs the results of such evaluations to integrate new objectives and improvements to education. In this aspect, evaluation contributes highly to the future of education. Well-evaluated learners give trust and valid data to impact education in a positive way.

            Good evaluation in distance courses is essential; therefore, in order to carry on with this purpose, educational institutions need to invest in curricular planning. Investing in curricular planning assures a more complete analysis of the needs and purposes that learners have. Good investigation and data analysis is vital to understand what would be the best ways to evaluate learners’ performances and achievements, not only to give a grade, but to help learners achieve their personal, social, and cultural goals.

            Understanding how learners are impacted by evaluation leads to a better comprehension of their accomplishments and learning styles. This is a crucial aspect that teachers and educational systems must always seek to understand. Once again, evaluation, in- class or on-line, needs to be seen as a shaping tool and not as a determinant value;  evaluation does not only implies how good a performance was, instead, evaluation leads to impact, in the most positive aspect, the life and development of individuals in regards to their learning process.

References

Kim E.Dooley 2005, Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Application and Practices for Educators, Trainers and Learners

Lynnette R. Porter 2004, Developing an On-line Curriculum: Technologies and techniques.   

Valerie Ruhe, Bruno D. Zumbo 2009, Evaluation in Distance Education and E-learning: The Unfolding Model

Judith George and John Cowan 1999, A Handbook of Techniques for Formative Evaluation: Mapping the Students Learning Experience

Lynnette R. Porte 2004, Developing an Online Curriculum: Technologies and Techniques

José Arnaz 1981, La Planeación Curricular 

GOAL 5.2

ONLINE ACTIVITY 

Good afternoon, 

I invite you to visit the next linkS and take look at the review activites that I have created. Please feel free to comment what you think about them. Take in consideration that this activities are meant to be used with on-line learners. 

Aspects to consider: practicality, aspect, difficulty, instructions, feedback options, other resources, self-assessment, and score checking, and follow ups.

The adjectives of quality: http://uk3.hotpotatoes.net/ex/119052/WUAEAHID.ph

Adjectives on story telling: http://uk3.hotpotatoes.net/ex/119052/TRWVHTOE.php

I appreciate your attention,

José Luis Marín Jiménez 
  

GOAL 4.1

SCHOOLOGY: a great virtual learning platform 

Schoology is an innovative learning management system (LMS) that makes academic content easy to share in a dynamic and intuitive manner. It is also a user-centric learning management solution focused on making improvement accessible in diverse educational environments. With custom webpage and content creation, interactive collaboration capabilities, and third-party application integration, Schoology empowers educators, inspires students, and simplifies administrative tasks across the board. Teachers can assign homework, create discussions, and grade students on their participations. Students can take online test and quizzes with immediate scoring, as well as submit their assignments into an online drop box where the teacher can provide one on one feedback. Schoology incorporates some aspects of social media with messaging, user profiles, and Schoology Groups. It also provides a class code creation process that makes the enrollment of the course easy and simple. A great feature of Schoology is the App Center where you can add a number of different Web 2.0 applications to the course such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and others. The following presentation will give you an insight of what you will see in a class with Schoology. We invite you to try it out. 

UNIT 3 ACTIVITY 2

GOAL 3.2

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS IN DISTANCE LEARNING

Distance learning is, according to The California Distance Learning Project (CDLP), “an institutional delivery system that connects learners with educational resources” therefore, learners that practice this modality of education are distance learners. In this educational system, there are some main factors that make it earn its name, the physical separation of teacher and learner in means of time, space and contact, and the use of technology or media to interact with teachers and colleagues. There are great advantages on distance learning for example, time management or cost (less expensive) just to mention some. Although, this system offers great advantages there are three main problems that could be discussed as potential threats for distance learner, these are procrastination, lack of support, and alienation.

To procrastinate is to delay. In distance courses, the flexibility of time gives students the opportunity to put off assignments until a later time. This aspect is certainly convenient, especially for students who have other responsibilities to cover. However, students who are not well centered in their education may find this academic autonomy as a path to failure. Most of the time these types of students put off assignments until the very last minute; this causes them to find themselves in a panic what-do- I- do-now situation. One possible solution to this issue is to inform and educate learners to be autonomous. Letting students know the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning courses help in a great manner. It could also be possible for the educational institution to have students take a set of required courses or workshops about distance learning and autonomy before enrolling distance courses; this will give students the awareness about the rights and responsibilities of distance learners. This proposal has to do with the curriculum, by doing these modifications, the purpose of it, which is to help the learning process convey its purpose may acquire a more significant meaning.

Often, distances students lack the support and services that in-class courses offer. For instance, institutions tend to use teachers as the only means of communication between the course and the students. In- class modalities provide access to academic planners, tutors, and technical support. All of these aspects should be consider in distance learning courses. Students who have access to these resources may have a better chance of focusing on their education rather than living the problems that come with education.  Having more than just one mediator in a distance course assures tranquility and security in regards of the lack of support issues. For example, if there is an issue with the virtual platform, would not it be better to just contact the person in charge of this tool to report the issue? With this, the teachers could also be helped by lowering his/her responsibilities and can focus on pure teaching.

A third and major problem that students have in distance learning courses is the feeling of alienation. Alienation, according to WordReference.com, is “the state of being an outsider or the feeling of being isolated, as from society”.  According to The Higher Education Academy (2008) cited from Croft (2011), twenty-two percent of distance learners mentioned the risk of feeling isolated. They saw this factor as a challenge which uncovered the importance of the personal interaction in student learning. Felling isolated is one of the main causes of distance course drop-outs, this according to Croft (2011)In order to prevent these drop-outs, distance-learning courses could implement on-line communities for interaction, peer to peer support, discussion forums, and accounts in a social network websites like Facebook or Google plus. The ideas for interaction are still within the on-line parameter, but they assure an extra degree of personal contact between students and educators.

There are several aspects that make distance learning such a popular modality of education, yet, there are also problems that emerge along the way. Some of these problems are procrastination, lack of support, and alienation. The help of the educational institution plays an important role in dissolving these problems. The student also is in charge of centering his attention to his education, and this comes intrinsically, nevertheless the educational system must support and motivate the student to accomplish their learning goals the best way they can.

  

References

Nicholas Croft, Alice Dalton, and Marcus Grant (2011) Overcoming Isolation in Distance Learning: Building a Learning Community Through Time and Space.

http://www.cdlponline.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatis

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/problems-faced-students-distance-learning-5787.html

www.wordreference.com

UNIT 3 ACTIVITY 1

Goal 3.1

        A difficult experience (personal story)

           I would like to share a difficult experience that I had once in regards of a school subject. The issue was that certain assignment was due on a Sunday midnight, and like the good student that I was, I waited until the last few hours to finish it. I was almost done, and everything was coming out good, but suddenly my internet service went out; it was around 11.13 pm; no cybercafe was open; my truck did not have gas; my neighbors did not have internet either, I had no money in my wallet, and I did not have any credit on my phone; of course I freaked out. I could not do much that night; it was just a very stressing moment because this homework was one of two final activities that I had to do in order to pass the class. On Monday morning, I asked a neighbor for money; I rushed to school and spoke to the teacher in charged. At the beginning, she was skeptic about my story, but then she checked her records and noticed that I had never missed or did not turned in a homework on time, so she had compassion for me and grant me grace period of time to turn in the assignment. I felt very calmed after that; I felt the support and empathy from the teacher and in no way I felt ashamed; well, just a bit. Up until this moment, I am still very thankful with that teacher, and I learned my lesson: never leave everything for last. I wish you never go through such a stressful time; honestly, it is no pleasant, at all.

Have you had any bad/good experience in your distance learning?

          NOTES: Adult Learning Principles

 and Learner Differences [pages,56 -75]

Why does a distance course student need help?

Why does a distance course student need help?	Possible solutions
Needs guidance to achieve the ultimate purpose of the student which is to acquire meaningful learning.	This will require the educator to be a teacher, coach, mentor, facilitator, and motivator.
Need guidance on how to become an independent student from the teacher.	Courses should focus on the self-directed nature of learners.
Needs to distinguish practical from non-practical information.	Teachers must focus on information that can be used practically.
Needs guidance on knowing what is the best way for him/ her to learn.	Educational institutions should apply the Learning Style Inventory formats; educators should match instruction to their learners’ styles of perception; instructors should make or take lessons and materials that match several of their learners’ styles of perception.
Needs to canalize how to increase his competencies.	Teacher should motivate students, to interlace the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Needs explanations of contents.	Teacher should be clear and concise when defining objectives and contents.
Needs support with the affective domain	Teacher should pay full attention into creating a good interaction environment with the student.
Needs to understand why he/she is learning	Teacher should have the touch to understand the perspectives and personal goals of students; canalize student’s ideas, and help them to achieve them.
All of these possible solutions are intended to be applied following a model that will not prevent the student from being or becoming an autonomous learner.

This is my personal and difficult experience and some of the ideas that I recapped form the reading based on my personal experience with distance classes. Please, feel free to comment them. I will try to post my comments as soon as possible, so that we can have time to discuss our final thought. Once again, thank you very much and have a great day.

Attentively,

José Luis Marín Jiménez 

UNIT 2 GOAL 2

Autonomous Distance Learning 

Distance Learning relates to every teaching-learning process in which the actual presence of students and teachers is replaced by technological mediation. To promote autonomy in this modality of education, there are many factors that need to be taken in consideration, but one thing is certain there are no better autonomous learners than those who really strive to accomplish their goals.

To encourage students to obtain or practice autonomy is hard labor because it takes different factors in consideration. The video will present some of the most important aspects that should be thought of when reflecting about autonomous distance learning.

I invite you to take a look at this video which address is the following:

 http://youtu.be/UAHiN_RFyu0

Fuentes consultadas

Desmond Keegan 1986, Foundations of Distance Education

http://www.abed.org.br/congresso2010/cd/ing/252010174412.pdf

http://www.damascusuniversity.edu.sy/mag/human/images/stories/81