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13. DISTANCE EDUCATION
Marina Stock McIsaac Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
13.1 INTRODUCTION* television (see 11.7), computer conferencing (see Chapter
13), e-mail, interactive video, satellite telecommunications,
Distance education, structured learning in which the stu- and multimedia computer technology (see 24.6) are all used
dent and instructor are separated by time and place, is cur- to promote student-teacher interaction and provide neces-
rently the fastest growing form of domestic and international sary feedback to the learner at a distance. Because technolo-
education. What was once considered a special form of edu- gies as delivery systems have been so crucial to the growth
cation using nontraditional delivery systems is now becom- of distance education, research has reflected rather than
ing an important concept in mainstream education. driven practice. Research in distance education has focused
on media comparison studies (see 39.5.4), descriptive stud-
Due to the rapid development of technology, courses us- ies (see Chapter 41), and evaluation reports. Researchers have
ing a variety of media are being delivered to students in vari- examined those issues that have been of particular interest
ous locations in an effort to serve the educational needs of to administrators of distance education programs, such as,
growing populations. In many cases, developments in tech- student attrition rates, the design of instructional materials
nology allow distance education programs to provide spe- for large-scale distribution, the appropriateness of certain
cialized courses to students in remote geographic areas with technologies for delivery of instruction, and the cost effec-
increasing interactivity between student and teacher. Al- tiveness of programs.
though the ways in which distance education is implemented
differ markedly from country to country, most distance learn- However, recent developments in interactive multime-
ing programs rely on technologies that are either already in dia technologies that promise to facilitate “individualized”
place or are being considered for their cost effectiveness. and “collaborative” learning (see Chapter 35) are blurring
Such programs are particularly beneficial for the many people the distinctions between distance and traditional education.
who are not financially, physically, or geographically able to These technologies also have the capability of creating such
obtain traditional education. new environments for learning as “virtual communities.”
Students in traditional settings are being given entire courses
Distance education has experienced dramatic growth both on CD-ROM multimedia disks through which they progress
nationally and internationally since the early 1980s. It has at their own pace, interacting with the instructor and other
evolved from early correspondence education using prima- students on electronic mail or face-to-face according to their
rily print-based materials into a worldwide movement using needs (Technology Based Learning, 1994). Through inter-
various technologies. The goals of distance education, as an national collaboration, students around the world participate
alternative to traditional education, have been to offer de- in cooperative learning activities, sharing information through
gree-granting programs, to battle illiteracy in developing the use of computer networks (Riel, 1993). In such cases,
countries, to provide training opportunities for economic global classrooms may have participants from various coun-
growth, and to offer curriculum enrichment in nontraditional tries interacting with each other at a distance. Many medi-
educational settings. A variety of technologies have been used ated educational activities allow students to participate in
as delivery systems to facilitate this learning at a distance. collaborative, authentic, situated learning activities (Brown
In order to understand how research and research issues & Palincsar, 1989; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). In fact,
have developed in distance education, it is necessary to un- the explosion of information technologies has brought learn-
derstand the context of the field. Distance education relies ers together by erasing the boundaries of time and place for
heavily on technologies of delivery. Print materials (see Chap- both site-based and distance learners.
ter 27), broadcast radio (see Chapter 28, 16.1), broadcast Research in distance education reflects the rapid techno-
logical changes in this field. Although early research was
centered around media comparison studies (see 39.5.4), edu-
*The authors would like to acknowledge the contribu- cators have recently become more interested in examining
tions of Rosalie Wells, John Barnard, and Angie Parker. how the attributes of different media promote the construc-
tion of knowledge (Salomon, Perkins & Globerson, 1991). traditional classroom had suddenly found new delivery sys-
It is within the theoretical framework of knowledge construc- tems. There are many examples of how early radio and tele-
tion and expert systems (Glaser, 1992) that some of the most vision were used in schools to deliver instruction at a dis-
promising research on mediated learning appears (Barrett, tance. Wisconsin’s School of the Air was an early effort, in
1992; Harasim, 1993; Salomon, 1993). the 1920s, to affirm that the boundaries of the school were
the boundaries of the state. More recently, audio and com-
This chapter traces the history of the distance education puter teleconferencing have influenced the delivery of in-
movement, discusses the definitions and theoretical principles struction in public schools, higher education, the military,
that have marked the development of the field, and explores business, and industry. Following the establishment of the
the research in this field which is inextricably tied to the Open University in Britain in 1970, and Charles Wedemeyer’s
technology of course delivery. A critical analysis of current innovative uses of media in 1986 at the University of Wis-
research (1988—1993) in distance education was conducted consin, correspondence study began to use developing tech-
for this chapter. Material for the analysis came from four nologies to provide more effective distance education.
primary data sources. The first source was an ERIC search,
which resulted in over 900 entries. This largely North Ameri- 13.2.1 Correspondence Study to Distance
can review was supplemented with international studies lo- Education
cated in the International Centre for Distance Learning
(ICDL) database. The entries were then categorized accord- In 1982, the International Council for Correspondence
ing to content and source. Second, conference papers were Education changed its name to the International Council for
reviewed which represented current, completed work in the Distance Education to reflect the developments in the field.
field of distance education. Third, dissertations were obtained With the rapid growth of new technologies and the evolu-
from universities which produced the majority of doctoral tion of systems for delivering information, distance educa-
dissertations in Educational Technology doctoral programs. tion, with its ideals of providing equality of access to educa-
Finally, four journals were chosen for further examination tion, became a reality. Today there are distance education
because of their recurrent frequency in the ERIC listing. courses offered by dozens of public and private organiza-
Those journals were Open Learning, American Journal of tions and institutions to school districts, universities, the
Distance Education, Research in Distance Education, and military, and large corporations. Direct satellite broadcasts
Distance Education. are produced by more than 20 of the country’s major univer-
sities to provide over 500 courses in engineering delivered
13.2 HISTORY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION live by satellite as part of the National Technological Uni-
Distance education is not a new concept. In the late 1 versity (NTU). In the corporate sector, more than $40 billion
800s, at the University of Chicago, the first major correspon- a year are spent by IBM, Kodak, and the Fortune 500 com-
dence program in the United States was established in which panies in distance education programs.
the teacher and learner were at different locations. Before What, exactly, are the prospects and promises of distance
that time, particularly in preindustrial Europe, education had education? Desmond Keegan (Keegan, 1980) identified six
been available primarily to males in higher levels of society. key elements of distance education:
The most effective form of instruction in those days was to
bring students together in one place and one time to learn • Separation of teacher and learner
from one of the masters. That form of traditional educational • Influence of an educational organization
remains the dominant model of learning today. The early • Use of media to link teacher and learner
efforts of educators like William Rainey Harper in 1890 to •Two-way exchange of communication
establish alternatives were laughed at. Correspondence study, • Learners as individuals rather than grouped
which was designed to provide educational opportunities for • Educators as an industrialized form
those who were not among the elite and who could not af-
ford full-time residence at an educational institution, was Distance education has traditionally been defined as in-
looked down on as inferior education. Many educators re- struction through print or electronic communications media
garded correspondence courses as simply business opera- to persons engaged in planned learning in a place or time
tions. Correspondence education offended the elitist and ex- different from that of the instructor or instructors. The tradi-
tremely undemocratic educational system that characterized tional definition of distance education is slowly being eroded
the early years in this country (Pittman, 1991). Indeed, many as new technological developments challenge educators to
correspondence courses were viewed as simply poor excuses reconceptualize the idea of schooling and lifelong learning.
for the real thing. However, the need to provide equal access At the same time, interest in the unlimited possibilities of
to educational opportunities has always been part of our individualized distance learning is growing with the devel-
democratic ideals, so correspondence study took a new turn. opment of each new communication technology. Although
educational technologists agree that it is the systematic de-
As radio developed during the First World War and tele- sign of instruction that should drive the development of dis-
vision in the 1950s (see 11.2.3), instruction outside of the tance learning, the rapid development of computer-related
technologies has captured the interest of the public and has in 1989 and highlights how technology was being used in
been responsible for much of the limelight in which distance the schools. Model state networks and telecommunication
educators currently find themselves. Although the United delivery systems are outlined with recommendations given
States has seen rapid growth in the use of technology for for setting up local and wide-area networks to link schools.
distance education, much of the pioneering work has been Some projects, such as the Panhandle Shared Video Network
done abroad. and the Iowa Educational Telecommunications Network,
serve as examples of operating video networks that are both
13.2.2 Open Learning in the U.K. efficient and cost effective.
The establishment of the British Open University in the 13.2.4 Distance Education as a Global Movement
United Kingdom in 1969 marked the beginning of the use of
technology to supplement print-based instruction through In Europe and other Western countries, a global concern
well-designed courses. Learning materials were delivered on was beginning to emerge. In a recent report, the 12 members
a large scale to students in three programs: undergraduates, of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universi-
postgraduates, and associate students. Although course ma- ties proposed a European Open University to begin in 1992.
terials were primarily print based, they were supported by a This is in direct response to the European Parliament, the
variety of technologies. No formal educational qualifications Council of Europe, and the European Community (Bates,
have been required to be admitted to the British Open Uni- 1990). In this report, articles from authors in nine European
versity. Courses are closely monitored and have been suc- countries describe the use of media and technology in higher
cessfully delivered to over 100,000 students. As a direct re- education in Europe and reflect upon the need for providing
sult of its success, the Open University model has been unified educational access in the form of a European Open
adopted by many countries in both the developed and devel- University to a culturally diverse population.
oping world (Keegan, 1986). Researchers in the United King-
dom continue to be leaders in identifying problems and pro- Telecommunication networks now circle the globe, link-
posing solutions for practitioners in the field (Harry, Keegan ing people from many nations together in novel and exciting
& Magnus, 1993). The International Centre for Distance ways. As the borders of our global community continue to
Learning, at the British Open University, maintains the most shrink, we search for new ways to improve communication
complete holdings of literature in both research and practice by providing greater access to information on an interna-
of international distance learning. Research studies, evalua- tional scale. Emerging communication technologies, and tele-
tion reports, course modules, books, journal articles, and communications in particular, provide highly cost-effective
ephemeral material concerning distance education around solutions to the problems of sharing information and pro-
the world are all available through quarterly accessions lists moting global understanding between people. In today’s elec-
or on line. tronic age, it is predicted that the amount of information pro-
duced will increase exponentially every year. Since economic
13.2.3 Distance Education in the United States and political power is directly related to access to informa-
tion, many educators like Takeshi Utsumi, president of
The United States was slow to enter the distance educa- GLOSAS (Global Systems Analysis and Simulation) have
tion marketplace, and when it did, a form of distance educa- worked to develop models of the “Global University” and
tion unique to its needs evolved. Not having the economic the “Global Lecture Hall” which provide resources allowing
problems of some countries or the massive illiteracy prob- less-affluent countries to keep up with advances in global
lems of developing nations, the United States nevertheless research and education (Utsumi, Rossman & Rosen, 1990).
had problems of economy of delivery. Teacher shortages in
areas of science, math, and foreign language combined with In the developing world, since the 1 950s, the population
state mandates to rural schools produced a climate, in the has doubled to over 5 billion people, most of whom want to
late 80s, conducive to the rapid growth of commercial courses be literate and want greater educational opportunities for
such as those offered via satellite by the TI-IN network in themselves and their children. The majority of this expand-
Texas and at Oklahoma State University. In the United States, ing population is in Asia, where there are massive problems
fewer than 10 states were promoting distance education in of poverty, illiteracy, and disease. In most developing coun-
1987. A year later, that number had grown to two-thirds of tries, such as Bangladesh, distance education offers the prom-
the states, and by 1989 virtually all states were involved in ise of a system of information distribution through which
distance learning programs. Perhaps the most important po- new ideas, attitudes, and understanding might begin to ooze
litical document describing the state of distance education through the layers of the disadvantaged environments (Shah,
has been the report done for Congress by the Office of Tech- 1989). Drawing upon the well-known model of the British
nology Assessment in 1989 called Linking for Learning (Of- Open University, countries such as Pakistan, India, and China
fice of Technology Assessment, 1989). The report gives an have combined modern methods of teaching with emerging
overview of distance learning, the role of teachers, and re- technologies in order to provide low-cost instruction for ba-
ports of local, state, and federal projects. It describes the state sic literacy and job training. Turkey has recently joined those
of distance education programs throughout the United States nations involved in large-scale distance learning. Only 12
years old, their distance education program has enrolled al- Traditionally, both theoretical constructs and research
most 1 million students and is the sixth largest distance edu- studies in distance education have been considered in the
cation program in the world (Demure & McIsaac, 1993). context of an educational enterprise that was entirely sepa-
rate from the standard, classroom-based, classical instruc-
Because of the economies of size and distribution, both tional model. In part to justify, and in part to explain, the
industrialized and developing countries have embarked on phenomenon, theoreticians like Holmberg, Keegan, and
distance education programs. In the early 1980s, record num- Rumble explored the underlying assumptions of what it is
bers of students in developing countries have gained access that makes distance education different from traditional edu-
to higher education through distance education programs cation. With an early vision of what it meant to be a nontra-
(Rumble & Harry, 1982). In many cases, local experts are ditional learner, these pioneers in distance education defined
not available to develop original programs in the language the distance learner as one who is physically separated from
and culture of the people. For this reason, the majority of the teacher (Rumble, 1986), has a planned and guided learn-
educational programs are either used intact from the host ing experience (Holmberg, 1986), and participates in a two-
country or are superficially translated with very few adapta- way structured form of distance education that is distinct
tions to the local culture. When this is done, the results are from the traditional form of classroom instruction (Keegan,
often unsuccessful. The cultural values of the program de- 1988). In order to justify the importance of this nontradi-
signer become dominant, desirable, and used as the stan- tional kind of education, early theoretical approaches at-
dard. There are many examples of programs from North tempted to define the important and unique attributes of dis-
America, Australia, Great Britain, and Europe that were pur- tance education.
chased but never used in Africa and Asia because the mate-
rial was not relevant in those countries. Because the appro- Keegan (1986) identifies three historical approaches to
priate design of instructional material is a critical element in the development of a theory of distance education. Theories
its effectiveness, the issue of “who designs what and for of autonomy and independence from the 1 960s and 1970s,
whom” is central to any discussion of the economic, politi- argued by Wedemeyer (1977) and Moore (1973), reflect the
cal, and cultural dangers that face distance educators using essential component of the independence of the learner. Otto
information technologies (McIsaac, 1993). There have been Peter’s (1971) work on a theory of industrialization in the 1
a variety of efforts to identify theoretical foundations for the 960s reflects the attempt to view the field of distance educa-
study of distance education. Thus far, there has been little tion as an industrialized form of teaching and learning. The
agreement about which theoretical principles are common third approach integrates theories of interaction and com-
to the field and even less agreement on how to proceed in munication formulated by Bääth (1982, 1987), and Daniel
conducting programmatic research. and Marquis (1979). Using the postindustrial model, Keegan
presents these three approaches to the study and develop-
13.3 THEORY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION ment of the academic discipline of distance education. It is
this concept of industrialized, open, nontraditional learning
The development of new technologies has promoted an that, Keegan says, will change the practice of education.
astounding growth in distance education, both in the num-
ber of students enrolling and in the number of universities Wedemeyer (1981) identifies essential elements of inde-
adding education at a distance to their curriculum (Garrison, pendent learning as greater student responsibility, widely
1990). While the application of modern technology may available instruction, effective mix of media and methods,
glamorize distance education, literature in the field reveals a adaptation to individual differences, and a wide variety of
conceptually fragmented framework lacking in both theo- start, stop, and learn times. Holmberg (1989) calls for foun-
retical foundation and programmatic research. Without a dations of theory construction around the concepts of inde-
strong base in research and theory, distance education has pendence, learning, and teaching: Meaningful learning, which
struggled for recognition by the traditional academic com- anchors new learning matter in the cognitive structures, not
munity. Distance education has been described by some (Gar- rote learning, is the center of interest. Teaching is taken to
rison, 1990; Hayes, 1990) as no more than a hodgepodge of mean facilitation of learning. Individualization of teaching
ideas and practices taken from traditional classroom settings and learning, encouragement of critical thinking, and far-
and imposed on learners who just happen to be separated reaching student autonomy are integrated with this view of
physically from an instructor. As distance education struggles learning and teaching (Holmberg, 1989, p. 161).Holmberg
to identify appropriate theoretical frameworks, implementa- summarizes his theoretical approach by stating that:
tion issues also become important. These issues involve the
learner, the instructor, and the technology. Because of the Distance education is a concept that covers the learning-
very nature of distance education as learner-centered instruc- teaching activities in the cognitive and/or psycho-motor and
tion, distance educators must move ahead to investigate how affective domains of an individual learner and a supporting
the learner, the instructor, and the technology collaborate to organization. It is characterized by non-contiguous communi-
cation and can be carried out anywhere and at any time,
generate knowledge. which makes it attractive to adults with professional and
social commitments (Holmberg, 1989, p. 168).
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