Does Distance Education work in American Higher Education?
As part of my course work for my Ph.D. in Instructional Technology, I, a die-hard advocate of the use of computers and all technology in instruction, was required to be on the con side of a debate on the effectiveness of Distance Education. For the scope of the debate, my colleagues and I decided to narrow the question down to Higher Education, since Higher Ed is, currently, the biggest user of Distance Education in the American Educational system.
We decided to again narrow the scope to four main areas, and to see how Distance Education stood up to those areas. They are:
Each area in this site will be dealt with in terms of the negative aspects only.
Access Availability
When we say that people now have access to the Internet, whom do we mean?
Access can, and should, be discussed in terms of
- the U.S., Canada and other industrialized nations
- the rest of the world
In the U.S. 41.5% of homes have internet access (digitaldividenetwork.org), but these homes are usually occupied by white, high income, highly educated members of society. Those from other socioeconomic statuses do not have such a widespread access to the Internet, and availability is still largely based on education, age, race, ethnicity, and gender. In face, white and Asian-Americans have Internet access double that of blacks and hispanics.
Throughout the world, only 6% of the population is online! Of that 6%, 41% is in the United States and Canada. Some statistics will amaze you (source: www.learningpartnership.org):
- in Bangladesh, a computer costs, on average, more than 8 years' income
- in several African countries, Internet connection can cost as high as $100/month
- 25% of the world's countries still do not have one telephone line per 100 people
- in some countries, users must pay for internet connection by the minute
Access is, therefore, a myth except for a particular segment of the population in the United States, Canada and other industrialized nations. The concept of Distance Education reaching those who had no previous access to education is misleading; Distance Education is available to those who already have access to education. Distance Education has become a convenience rather than a global educational reform tool as touted.
Cost
There are two types of costs to be considered:
- Costs to Student
- Costs to Educational Institution
Costs to the Student
A student at any university normally incurs the following costs:
- Tuition
- Textbooks: on average, a textbook costs $61.66 (www.back2school.com/shock.htm)
- Supplies: pens, paper, disks, etc.
In addition, a Distance Education student would also have the following:
- A computer: at least $1,000 to handle video
- Internet Access: at least $10/mo in the U.S.
- Computer Programs: Microsoft Office suite for basic programs, at least $150 education price
The only costs a Distance Education student might not incur are transportation costs, but many times students must travel to central sites in order to be proctored on exams.
Costs to the Institution
Costs to Universities are broken down to the following:
- Technology: computers, programs, media (cameras, etc.)
- Transmission: leasing transmission access (T-1 lines, satellite, etc)
- Maintenance: repairing, updating equipment
- Infrastructure: network and telecommunications at the origin site (university)
- Production: to create the course--an instructional designer
- Support: administration, registration, facilities
- Personnel: faculty
The largest cost item in traditional instruction is personnel. The goal of Distance Education for Higher Education is to cut costs, meaning cut the cost of personnel. This entails cutting the number of faculty positions to save money (see the Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology).
Additionally, in many colleges (mainly community colleges) it takes an average of 2.5 times to pass introductory courses. The number of faculty positions and the budget is tailored to fit this formula. Using distance education teaching methods would allow the cutting of faculty and/or Teaching assistant positions.
The Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology found that in an 8 section 350 seat intro to math course, the savings for each student in using distance education is only $61. For that particular course, that made a grand total of savings of $172,730, which is significant, but which does not include the cost of creating the course! For small classes, the savings would be negligible.
The bottom line is that Distance Education is not necessarily more cost effective; it depends on the design of the distance learning course or program.
Quality
So much has been written about the “no significant difference” phenomenon, that it would do little good to retell the findings here. Instead, we should look at the quality of Higher Education from a different angle.
Judith S. Eaton has examined this issue and articulated much better than I, why Distance Education fundamentally undermines the quality of higher education. Please go to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s web site to read her essay, Core Academic Values, Quality and Regional Accreditation: The Challenge of Distance Learning.
In addition, a subject that has been little talked about or researched is instructor attitudes and how these attitudes influence Distance Education. For example, to be effective via Distance Education, a teacher must become a facilitator, rather than use a more familiar teaching style. More information on Teaching styles.
Important too is the instructor’s attitude toward technology itself. All too often across the lecture halls of this country University faculty are proclaiming, with devilish pride, their lack of technological ability. How will this kind of attitude translate if the instructor is called on to teach a Distance Education course?
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is a problem in all learning environments that require some form of formal assessment. Distance Education poses it's own unique problems in terms of academic integrity and cheating. These problems can be condensed into three main points:
- Is the student taking the test or doing the assignment the same student who is enrolled in the course?
- Is the student using forbidden resources?
- Is the student collaborating with another student?
Research shows that this is the most common sort of cheating in Distance Education. Unless you proctor the exam, there is no way you can prevent this. However, proctoring the exam creates organizational difficulties, and in a sense defeats the purpose of distance education.
Less critical, but still important, are papers and assignments. You have no way to assure that the student is actually doing the paper or assignment. This occurrs often in tradiational classroooms as well, but in traditional classrooms, the instructor has more resources to determine whether cheating has taken place, including using handwriting and writing style to assess the material.
To stop students from using forbidden resources such as books, notes, web sites, you would have to create a timed test that in effect "shoots" the questions at the student so fast that he/she does not have time to use those resources.
This, of course, severely limits the type of test you can give, and, more importantly, seriously limits those with disabilities who must use additional devices to take the test.
Another possibility to combat this would be to make all assessment essay-like, where they could use outside resources.
Are students sending private emails to each other during the test?
Are students talking to each other on cell phones during the test?
Is another person sitting next to the student during test time and assisting the student?
Have students gotten the questions ahead of time from other students?
Only proctoring can prevent the above.