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However, distance learning is an ever changing term. Through the ages distance learning has taken on many forms. Simonson (n.d.) reports that correspondence (distance learning) has been around since 1833 in one form or another (Simonson, n.d.). It began with correspondence learning. In correspondence programs, the student would send for course work and text books from a university or some other educational institution. Then via correspondence (postal service), the student would be given assignments. Once the assignments were complete, the student would mail them back for grading. This was a slow process and was not highly respected since just about anyone could have completed the coursework. Additionally it was thought that students must have a relationship with the instructor in order to truly learn the material. To address this later, radio and television were used to put a voice and a face on the instructor. The idea was the same however, except the delivery of the course or lecture had changed. Finally, thanks to ARPANET’s internet and now the World Wide Web (WWW) we have the option of online courses that are much more interactive between the student and the instructor (Simonson, 2012).
Yet one may wonder why distance learning came along in the first place. There are many reasons why. The ease of access to higher education, the desire to learn, and often distance learning being the only solution to education problems due to the logistics to getting students to class, are just a few. Moller et al. (2008) state that the primary driving forces for higher education are economics and access and that distance learning is rapidly becoming a popular choice for continuing professional education (Moller et al., 2088).
Yet the definition of distance learning is changing. The advancements in technology and society’s move towards faster, better and instant have forced change. This has pushed distance learning past correspondence, radio and television, and into online learning.
The types of students attracted to distance learning now and in the future will not be based so much on their profession of how much technical knowledge he/she has, but how advanced society as a whole becomes. While it is true that there will always be some that are more technically savvy than others, it does not mean that the vast majority of those taking online classes will be those technically savvy few. Even today, blended learning is changing the face of distance learning. Blended learning can be defined as training events or activities where online learning is combined with more traditional methods such as "class room" training and occur at the same time and in the same location (Gebar, 2010).
Benigno & Trentin (2000) posited that the online education process shares a number of common characteristics with face-to-face courses. Yet they go on to say that evaluating online courses involves not only the evaluation of learning, but evaluation of the participants in the form of time spent online and activities effectively carried out at a distance (Benigno & Trentin (2000). This has led many to fall back on the idea that distance learning is not a good as face to face or even blended learning. However, Simonson (n.d.) states that distance education is reaching the point where it is widely adopted, expected and is even becoming respected. This is exciting news for us distance learners who know that this is a tough thing to do and if often more rewarding than traditional education.
I feel society’s advances will push distance learning even further in the future so that one day we may all be able to take interactive online courses. These would be on our schedule where the professor or instructor is a computer generated persona of a real person that can not only lecture us, but answer our questions and grade our work. I see this “artificial” intelligence as something that will be common place in the next 50 to 100 years.
Below is a mind map that I developed to come to my conclusions and help me to further develop my ideas.
References
Benigno, V. V., & Trentin, G. (2000). The Evaluation of Online Courses. Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 16(3), 259-70.
Gebara, T. (2010, January 1). Comparing a Blended Learning Environment to a Distance Learning Environment for Teaching a Learning and Motivation Strategies Course.
Simonson, M. (n.d.) Distance Education: The Next Generation. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson
