Factors affecting the development of distance education courses

This exploratory case study identifies factors and relationships among factors facilitating and impeding the development of distance education courses at Syracuse University, a large, private traditional university located in Central New York State. During September and October 1990 Syracuse University's Center for Instructional Development used an author/editor course development model (Smith, 1980) to create eight print‐based, undergraduate courses for United States Marines stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield.

Interviews with course developers and faculty authors produced six factors associated with the success of the course development process: course definition, faculty perception of student abilities, textbook selection, the extent of faculty/developer conflict, faculty flexibility, and faculty/developer working relationships. Course development success was indicated by timeliness, smoothness, and satisfaction with the course product.     

远程教育国际课程开放和资源共享的初步研究

计算机网络技术在远程教育中扮演着重要的角色。本文旨在介绍一个促进国际课程开放和资源共享的项目。在这个项目研究中,我们将创建一个基于虚拟现实环境的动态学习平台,该学习平台方便灵活、易于使用。我们的研究目的是为了促进和优化资源共享的效率,研究的焦点是如何实现资源共享的广泛性和分布性。该项目的研究设计可以提高学生的自我学习能力,用户可以使用该平台实现国际课程开放和资源共享。     

Gender issues in teaching information technology courses by distance education

This paper looks at reasons why women are still under‐represented in tertiary level technological education after 20 years of discussion, and argues that it is important for society to look at ways of not only improving educational access to women but also providing equal benefit once enrolled. Distance education is often seen as a solution to access problems but the particular needs of women in distance education must be considered. Financial, attitudinal and skills barriers may need to be overcome if there is a pre‐enrolment requirement of quality access to computing equipment. Ways of improving both participation and persistence of women in information technology courses are discussed.     

Relationships between motivational strategies and cognitive learning in distance education courses

This study examines the relationships between students’ academic levels, the use of motivational regulation strategies, and cognitive learning strategies. A total of 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in online distance courses participated in the study. The findings show that students use different motivational regulation strategies and cognitive learning strategies depending on their academic levels. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses using two dependent variables (i.e., surface level learning strategy and deep processing level learning strategy) indicate that a surface level learning strategy (i.e., rehearsal) and deep processing level strategies (i.e., elaboration, organization, and critical thinking) are predicted by different sets of motivational regulation strategies after controlling for academic level and age. The results provide distance educators and instructional designers with practical suggestions on how to support undergraduate and graduate students’ motivational needs and further promote their use of cognitive learning strategies in online distance education programs in higher education.     

高校公共课实施远程教学的理论与实践

随着高等教育改革的不断深入,全日制高等学校规模日益壮大,传统课堂教学模式在许多课程教学中已显得力不从心,而远程教育由于不受时间、空间和距离的限制,加上强调学习的自主性、灵活性,正日益受到全日制学校的高度重视,显示出其强劲的发展势头。作者结合本校实践,对高校公共课实施远程教学的理论与实践进行了分析,并讨论了实施远程教学过程中的一些问题和解决办法,供大家参考。     

Facilitating transfer of distance courses

‘Barriers to course sharing are rooted in traditions of institutional insularity and individual academic autonomy’, says Jocelyn Calvert of the Open Learning Institute in British Columbia, Canada. However, an analysis of the experience of course sharing between institutions in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, shows that ‐ despite the problems ‐success has been achieved, ‘setting models for exchange that others may follow’.     

A comparison of student evaluations of teaching between online and face-to-face courses

The literature contains indications of a bias in student evaluations of teaching (SET) against online instruction compared to face-to-face instruction. The present case study consists of content analysis of anonymous student responses to open-ended SET questions submitted by 534 students enrolled in 82 class sections taught by 41 instructors, one online and one face-to-face class section for each instructor. There was no significant difference in the proportion of appraisal text segments by delivery method, suggesting no delivery method bias existed. However, there were significant differences in the proportion of text segments for topical themes and topical categories by delivery method. Implications of the findings for research and practice are presented.     

Audio teleconferencing and distance education: towards a conceptual synthesis

It is in response to the limited or fragmented conceptual development of past audio teleconference research that this conceptual framework is offered. It is intended to serve as the basis for further reflection and refinement so that more rigorous research can be conducted.     

A distance education contribution to a social strategy to combat poverty: Open University Community Education courses in Glasgow

Attacking widespread under‐education with limited resources in the scattered, oppressed adult population of South Africa is a formidable challenge. One way of meeting this challenge could be to develop adults’ critical thinking skills, using their own experience as their main educational resource. Experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, could provide a means of achieving this aim. Research carried out at a conference on experiential learning at Natal University, Durban, provided an opportunity to assess the viability, desirability and usefulness of this educational method and aim. Participants’ responses indicate that the method is promising, although further experiment and development are necessary, particularly with different groups.

Three issues are discussed in this paper: the nature of the South African educational context, the promotion of critical thinking skills as an adult education aim, and the potential of employing experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, as a method of developing critical thinking skills.     

The use of a model to derive interventions which might reduce drop-out from distance education courses

The starting point for this paper is a model of student progress and drop-out from distance education courses. The model includes components of background characteristics, motivation, academic environment, and the family, work and social environment. The model allows for the interaction of variables and the influence of one component of the model on another. The author then derives from the model a series of recommendations as to the ways in which distance education courses might be formatted so as to reduce student drop-out. Ways of enhancing intrinsic motivation are discussed. A case is put for focussing learning skills initiatives towards reorientating student conceptions of knowledge. Strategies for improving collective affiliation are described, and the employment of local support staff is advocated.     

网格教育:现代远程教育的新浪潮

网格是继传统Internet、Web之后的新的网络技术,被称之为第三代互联网.传统的网络教育已无法适应信息社会对教育提出的挑战与要求,而基于网格技术的网格教育能够克服当前网络教育的局限.本文分析了网格的特点、网格教育的创新,预言网格教育必将掀起现代远程教育的新浪潮.     

A framework for management of distance education

Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice. John R. Verduin, Jr. and Thomas A. Clark. (San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1991, 279 pp., $31.95).     

Class size and college students' evaluations of teachers and courses: A closer look

A systematic analysis of extant studies reveals, on average, a very weak inverse association between the size of class enrollment in a college course and students' overall evaluation of the course and its teacher, as well as between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's skill in presenting material and communicating information. Larger inverse associations are typically found between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's interactions and interrelationships with students. This pattern of findings is consistent with the accumulating evidence that the instructional dimensions of the first set have greater importance for students in forming their global opinions of teachers and courses than do those of the second set. The further finding in some studies of a negative curvilinear (roughly U-shaped) relationship between class size and evaluations is noted and discussed. Implications for the validity of teacher evaluations are considered and the related question of whether class size biases these evaluations is explored.     

Grades and college students' evaluations of their courses and teachers

From a review of existing research, it is concluded that college students' anticipated or actual grades in class are positively related to their evaluation of their courses and teachers. In general, the size of the association is small but not unimportant. A student's overall grade-point average appears to have little or no relationship to teacher or course evaluation, although limited evidence shows that a discrepancy between a student's grade-point average and his or her grade in a class is related to evaluations. Also, teacher- or course-induced interest in the subject is positively associated with evaluation, as are students' perceptions of the amount they have learned in a class and their performance on objective or standardized tests of achievement. Although it is thus possible that either these or other motivational and learning variables may account for the relationship between grades and evaluation, there is no evidence one way or the other that this indeed is the case. In all, currently available evidence cannot be taken as definitely establishing a bias in teacher evaluation due to the grades students receive or expect to receive in their courses, but neither is it presently possible to rule out such bias.This is the first paper of a projected series on teacher and course evaluation.     

生态远程教育——从生态语言学的启示谈起

也许正是为了保持远程教育的“生态平衡”,混合学习正引起越来越多的注意。对于生态语言学一直有所闻,最近读了《国际应用语言学协会评论专刊:面向21世纪的应用语言学》(第14期)上一位奥地利应用语言学家Alwin Fill撰写的一篇文章,觉得生态语言学的原理对于现代远程教育有所启示,遂把杂感记录下来,抛砖引玉。生态语言学以语言与生态之间的关系为研究对象,涉及诸多方面内容,我想就从其主要的研究目标之一——语言的多样性——作为切入点,反思对发展远程教育的启发。工业化的经济和全球一体化进程的推进导致了经济强国的语言更加突显而欠发达…