College Student’s Guide to Computers in Education/Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

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Links to the chapters of the book. You are currently reading Chapter 5.

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Inventing Your Future

Chapter 3: Expertise and Problem Solving

Chapter 4: Human and Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

Chapter 6: Learning and Learning Theory

Chapter 7: Increasing Your Expertise in ICT

Chapter 8: Brief Introductions to A number of Key Ideas

Chapter 9: On the Lighter Side

References

Links to Sections of Chapter 5

1 Beginning of Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

[edit] Beginning of Chapter 5: Computer-Assisted and Distance Learning

“Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we re-perceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.” (Peter Senge, 1990)

Distance learning (DL) refers to teaching and learning situations where the teacher and the students do not come together in face-to-face meetings. The roots of current DL lie in correspondence courses where interaction between the teacher and students was carried on using surface mail. Such instruction predates computers. Now, interaction is facilitated by electronic means such as email, the Web, and telephones.

Computer-assisted learning (CAL)—sometimes called computer-assisted instruction—refers to teaching and learning situations in which a computer system provides interactive instruction. I find it helpful to think of this as the computerization of some of the SoTL knowledge, teaching skills, and management skills of human faculty members.

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly common for CAL to be delivered over the Web. That is, we are seeing a gradual merger of the ideas of DL and CAL. If you make use of the Help features on a computer, you are making use of one form of CAL. Sometimes a Help feature will draw information from a website, and then you are using both CAL and DL.

In addition, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in education, with an increasing number of students using CAL and DL for all or part of their higher education. Such forms of instructional delivery are also widely used in precollege education.

[edit] Feedback and Learning

Feedback is an important component of the Science of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and is essential to learning. Thus, the design of effective instruction is heavily dependent on designing and providing effective feedback. Note, however, that our educational system is not nearly as good as it could be in implementing what we know about feedback. As Walt Haney (1991) notes:

Common sense, theories of learning, and research on intrinsic motivation … all clearly indicate that the sort of standardized testing now commonly employed in schools and via which students do not get rapid or specific feedback on their work … is simply not conducive to learning.

Feedback that is essential to learning can come from inside or outside the learner. For example, if you listen to a small child babbling, perhaps making random sounds, you may sense that the child is gaining intrinsic internal feelings of pleasure in the process of making the sounds. This is an example of internal feedback. A mother or father may hear sounds that are vaguely similar to ma or pa. The parent immediately provides feedback, including guidance on better pronunciation of the sounds, enthusiasm, a broad smile, and other responses. This is an example of external feedback. The child eventually learns to make the ma or pa sounds at appropriate times, driven by some combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

[edit] Internal (Self-Provided) Feedback to the Learner

Think about the situation of when you are reading and attempting to learn from an academic paper. The paper presents research results in a format that meets the standards of a particular discipline or journal. Typically, the format and standards are not particularly well designed to help learners, especially, learners who have a very low level of expertise in the discipline.

As you read, you think about (reflect on) what the article says. You test what it says against what you already know. You ask yourself questions to check on your growing knowledge. You reread sections that seem unclear or in order to better answer the questions you are asking. You are actively engaged in constructing new knowledge inside your brain, and you are actively engaged in providing feedback to yourself.

How did you develop these reflective, self-feedback skills? What could your teachers have done to better help you gain such skills and help improve the quality of these skills? Are the college students you teach skilled in this type of reading, reflective, metacognitive processes?

Here is another example. Suppose you successfully solve a problem or complete a task that was personally challenging. During the process and afterward, do you do metacognition on the process and consider what you learned during the process? Do you think about what went right, what could have been done better, and what you learned? Metacognition and reflection are forms of self-feedback that you can engage in at any time and that will help you learn.

[edit] Feedback Coming from Outside the Learner

Much of the feedback that is essential to learning comes from external sources. There are many different types of such external feedback sources. A teacher asks the class a question, a number of students raise their hands volunteering to provide an answer, and one student provides an answer. However, all students have thought about whether they can provide an answer, and many have mentally rehearsed an answer. As the one student provides an answer, the attentive listeners use the information to check their own answers.

There are many ways to improve feedback from students to the teacher and from the teacher to students in a large lecture-hall situation. Eric Mazur (n.d.), a physics professor at Harvard, has developed a reputation for his innovation and research in this area. As he notes:

Class time is a precious commodity, but how often do we stop to think about how it’s being used? Should class activities merely transmit information that is already printed in the students’ textbook? Do our students actually learn during class, or do they simply feverishly scribble down everything we say, hoping somehow to understand the material later?

We are investigating ways that instructors can enhance student understanding, by promoting active learning in the classroom and pursuing strategies that meet the needs of diverse students.

Mazur and many other course instructors are now having their students use a handheld response unit (a “clicker”) with which they respond to multiple-choice questions. A computer and projection system accumulate the responses and display the results. This is a good example where the use of computer technology can improve feedback both to the students and to the teacher in a large lecture setting.

[edit] Feedback and Instructional Design

There has been considerable research on feedback and learning. B. F. Skinner is well known for his behaviorist work in operant conditioning (stimulus, response, and immediate feedback) as a form of teaching. In more recent times, cognitive learning theories have proven more appropriate to the design of curriculum for use in precollege and higher education.

As Steven McGriff (n.d.) explains:

Under cognitive learning theory, it is believed that learning occurs when a learner processes information. The input, processing, storage, and retrieval of information are the processes that are at the heart of learning. The instructor remains the manager of the information-input process; but the learner is more active in planning and carrying out his/her own learning than in the behaviorist environment. Instruction is not simply something that is done to a learner but rather involves the learner and empowers their internal mental processes.

A commonly used instructional process is to have students interact with each other in small, cooperative learning and discussion groups. Such small-group interactions facilitate student engagement and let students provide feedback to each other. Such collaborative learning can go on in a classroom setting, but it can also go on in ICT-mediated communication.

[edit] Distance Learning

Here is a tidbit of history on distance learning (often referred to as distance education) from McIsaac and Gunawardena (1996):

Distance Education is not a new concept. In the late 1800s, at the University of Chicago, the first major correspondence program in the United States was established in which the teacher and learner were at different locations. Before that time, particularly in pre-industrial Europe, education had been available primarily to males in higher levels of society. The most effective form of instruction in those days was to bring students together in one place and one time to learn from one of the masters. That form of traditional educational remains the model today.

Actually, distance education has existed since the time of the first available written materials. A book is an excellent vehicle for teaching and learning. The book’s author and the learner can be separated in terms of time and distance. The reader plays a major role in providing the feedback needed in learning from a book.

[edit] Learning by Reading

In U.S. elementary schools, there is a commonly accepted goal of having students learn to read well enough by the end of the third grade so that they can begin to learn by reading. By about the sixth or seventh grade, the assumption is that students will gain a substantial portion of their education by reading. However, students vary widely in how well they can learn through reading. This is an especially important issue in higher education, where the assumption is that students can and will do the required reading and will learn through this process. This is often a mistaken assumption.

In the past year or so, I have read quite a bit of research literature on students learning through reading. It turns out that there is a significant difference between being able to read and being able to read well enough so that one can readily learn by reading. This is particularly true in material that requires careful attention to details and that focuses on higher-order cognition. There is a huge difference between reading a math or physics book and reading a novel.

This situation provides an excellent example of when where you should be taking increased responsibility for your learning. How good are you at reading? Are you comprehension levels and speed of reading in various disciplines appropriate to your needs? If not, what are you doing about it? There are many free sources of help on the Web, and most colleges and universities have student learning centers that can provide free help.

[edit] Improving Feedback in DL

Correspondence courses (making use of surface or air mail) have a relatively slow rate of interaction between a student and the teacher. However, they do force students into a learn-by-reading mode. Moreover, the nature of the feedback available through correspondence with an instructor places increased emphasis on students learning to provide feedback to themselves.

Of course, it is possible to design written materials specifically to aid students in their learning processes. Historically, distance education became more formal when print materials were developed that contained detailed lessons and assignments to be completed. Feedback might come from an answer key or through asking students questions that required higher-order thinking processes to formulate written answers to be mailed to an instructor.

The development of the telephone and two-way radio added a new dimension to DL because the teacher and student could converse with each other from time to time. DL delivery via television, perhaps with the aid of a telephone connection to individual students or a room full of students, led to a significant increase in its use.

The nature and quality of feedback available through a well-designed DL course can equal or exceed that which is available to students in a traditional large- or medium-sized lecture course. However, many of the types of feedback that can go on in a classroom setting are different from the types of feedback that are possible in a DL course. Thus, when students first encounter DL courses, they face the added challenge of learning to accept and use the types of feedback that are available through DL.

This observation is an underlying source of weakness in much of the DL research. Students spend many years learning to learn in a teacher-led classroom environment. The students then take a DL course, and their learning is compared to the learning of students in the traditional classroom. I find it somewhat surprising that even without the years of experience in DL, the typical result in such studies is that there is no significant difference between the amount of learning that takes place in the two types of courses. Thomas Russell (n.d.) has developed a Website devoted to this “no significant difference” phenomenon. It is a good source of research literature on the topic.

[edit] Asynchronous and Synchronous DL

Correspondence courses are asynchronous—students work on a time schedule that fits their own needs and they work independently of each other. This situation changed when radio broadcasts and, later, TV broadcasts became a common component of DL. The student had to listen to the radio or view the TV when the broadcast was occurring. This synchronous instruction was combined with asynchronous work on assignments, which were mailed to the instructor.

Of course, as tape recorders and inexpensive VCRs became available, tapes could be mailed to the student or the student could record a program for later use. Thus, the use of radio and TV delivery was easily converted to allow for asynchronous DL.

In formal school settings, it became relatively common to have students who were taking a TV-delivered course to meet in classrooms that had a telephone connection to the instructor. A few students could ask questions during the time of a lecture or demonstration. This is not unlike the “call in” radio and TV programs that are now quite common.

Now it is common to use two-way video so that a DL instructor can see and talk to students located at a distance, and vice versa. This type of synchronous instruction is somewhat classroom-like, but a teacher may be simultaneously working with several groups of students from different locations.

Initially, this type of two-way video connectivity was relatively expensive. As Internet II and other high-speed networks have become more common, the cost of connectivity in this type of synchronous DL has decreased substantially.

As email became available, asynchronous email-based distance education courses were developed. The email made it easier and quicker for students to interact with the instructor and each other.

More recently, Internet chat groups and Web-based two-way video have significantly changed distance education. While the postal services throughout the world are still used for some DL, the Internet has greatly expanded the use of DL.

Finally, we come to the current situation. The Web can be used to hold ordinary telephone conversations and conduct video interactions. Thus, the Web can be used to deliver synchronous DL. Of course, the Web can also be used to deliver asynchronous DL, with students having access to multimedia course materials at a time that fits their convenience.

The use of asynchronous and synchronous DL is steadily increasing. One can get a high school education, college education, and even a master’s and doctorate degrees through accredited DL programs.

Learning in a DL environment is different from learning in traditional school classrooms, where one has daily face-to-face communication with fellow students and the teacher, and the class as a whole follows the same time schedule. Skill in learning via DL is now considered a valuable lifelong skill. Some people are now recommending that all students should take part of their precollege education and college education via DL so that they will gain the knowledge and skills needed to learn in this environment. I am one of the people making this recommendation to students.

[edit] Computer-Assisted Learning

Think about the various roles played by faculty members and students, and their interactions in the overall teaching and learning process. Then think about what aspects of these roles and interactions can be aided or facilitated by computer technology. Whatever you can think of probably is part of the fields of computer-assisted learning (CAL) and DL.

[edit] Use of Simulations—Early and Continuing Success

People have been thinking about CAL since the early days of the development of the electronic digital computer. A major initial success occurred as the U.S. developed and deployed radar systems that were designed to detect airplanes and missiles in route to the U.S. from the U.S.S.R. The whole radar system was highly computerized. Operators sat at computer display screens that provided information about what the radar systems were detecting and what computer analysis of these signals was showing.

From the point of view of an operator, it is not possible to determine from current radar readings being processed through computers whether the displayed information is live or simulated. The simulated displays could be from stored radar readings or could be simulations created specifically to help train the operators.

This type of very highly realistic CAL works very well. There is now a long history of the use of simulation-based CAL in training airplane pilots, astronauts, tank crews, nuclear reactor operators, and so on. Generally, use of such simulations is more effective, more cost effective, and less dangerous than other applicable forms of instruction. There is quite a bit of simulation-type CAL available commercially (Laser Professor, n.d.).

[edit] Less Expensive CAL

As computers became less expensive, many people developed and tested a wide variety of forms of CAL. It is quite easy, for example, to develop a drill-and-practice system that is better than just using flash cards that have a question on one side and an answer on the other side. A computer system can keep detailed data on correct and incorrect responses and the speed of the various responses. It can detect patterns of errors. It can stop the drill-and-practice activity and insert specific instructions on a topic that is causing the student trouble. It can increase or decrease the difficulty of the questions.

More sophisticated CAL systems—often called tutorial systems—can present instruction interspersed with questions. The student responses provide information that shapes the instruction. Tutorial CAL systems are a little bit like having an individual human tutor.

An individual human tutor has good knowledge of both content and pedagogy. The human tutor builds a mental model of the student’s knowledge and skills. The human-based tutoring instruction fits constructivist learning theory and includes immediate feedback. Wouldn’t it be nice if every student could have a personal tutor who was competent in each subject area of interest to the student and available on a round-the-clock basis?

It is easy to understand why so many people have thought about CAL as a vehicle to revolutionize education. Over the years, thousands of CAL systems were developed and many hundreds of research projects were carried out on these products. Eventually people began to do metastudies—studies of the studies. Finally, enough metastudies had been done so that it was feasible to do a meta-metastudy. The first meta-metastudy of CAL, conducted by James Kulik (1994), provided strong evidence of the effectiveness of CAL, with students (on average) learning via CAL 30 percent faster and somewhat better than students in control groups.

Here are four major barriers to the widespread use of CAL in higher education:

1. A human tutor can interact with students orally. We are still many years (perhaps two to three decades or more) away from having computer systems that carry on a high-level, deep conversation at a human level of understanding. (Such a tutorial system would be able to pass the Turing Test.) However, the quality of voice input/output is improving and now has a number of commercial uses.

2. High-quality, highly interactive CAL is quite expensive to develop. My personal insight into this area suggests that it costs about $5 million to develop a high quality, semester-length course. Maintaining and regularly updating such a course costs about $1 million a year.

These costs are modest for high-enrollment courses, if one considers the total national or international enrollment in such courses. In the U.S., there are enough students beginning college each year so that it would be economically feasible to have a half dozen or more competing CAL courses in each of several different subject areas.

3. Education is far more than just the delivery of instruction and learning of content. Residential colleges and universities provide an environment that facilitates students learning about the human condition, their own culture, and other cultures, as well as how to interact with people in many different settings, how to work together in teams, and how to learn from each other.

4. Our educational system has a life and character of its own. Its employees, volunteers, students, and graduates all have a vested interest in preserving our educational institutions and system in their current format. Our educational system is innately highly resistant to change.

[edit] Hybrid Courses

The term hybrid course is used to describe a course that is some combination of traditional class meeting time (perhaps enhanced by appropriate use of technology during the class meetings), CAL, and DL.

The Open University in England provides a good example of an entire university based on DL along with some hybrid courses. This university was established in 1969. Television and videotapes originally were the primary mode of instructional delivery. However, courses that traditionally included lab work (such as science courses) scheduled the labs at various colleges and universities, and were thus hybrid courses..

As described in Wikipedia:

The [Open] University awards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, diplomas and certificates.

With more than 180,000 students enrolled, including more than 25,000 students studying overseas, it is the largest academic institution in the UK by student number, and qualifies as one of the world's mega universities. Since it was founded, more than 3 million students have studied its courses. It was rated top University in England and Wales for student satisfaction in the 2005 and 2006 UK government national student satisfaction survey.

The Open University was originally developed mainly to serve students who had previously participated in a vocationally oriented track of secondary school education. A substantial amount of money was invested in developing the courses (perhaps $1 million per course during the 1970s) and keeping them up to date. This large and continuing investment may help explain the high level of student satisfaction mentioned in the quote above.

[edit] Open Education Resources

Most students find it quite painful to have to buy textbooks for their courses. They find the costs completely unreasonable. The movement toward substantially increasing the use of DL and CAI is being aided by a variety of Open Education Resources (OER) movements. The OER (n.d.) Website describes OER materials this way:

OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

…

At the heart of the movement toward Open Educational Resources is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an extraordinary opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge. OER are the parts of that knowledge that comprise the fundamental components of education—content and tools for teaching, learning, and research. [Italics added for emphasis]

[edit] Summary and Self-Assessment

Right now, the majority of formal education is still carried out in the “traditional” manner of bringing students together in classes taught by a faculty member. However, CAL, DL, and hybrid courses are beginning to take a significant bite out of this approach.

There are several keys to the change that is occurring:

Highly interactive intelligent computer-assisted learning is getting better. In a variety of situations, it produces better learning results than tradition modes of instruction. Improvements in feedback to the learner are key to this.
As use of DL-based CAL learning increases, students will gradually learn to learn in this environment. Many will find that an asynchronous learning environment is well suited to their learning needs. Students can learn to provide better feedback to themselves and to take increased responsibility for their own learning.
There is a potential economy of scale and economy of not maintaining large, expensive physical campus facilities. Many colleges and universities are currently struggling to find a right mix between traditional and new modes of instruction that will best serve them and their students.

Self-assess your current experiences in CAL, DL, and hybrid courses, Help features on a computer, and other non-traditional aids to learning. What are you doing to gain increased expertise in learning in such learning environments?

[edit] Reader's Comments and Suggestions

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