Thesis on "Moore & Kearsley How Distance Teaching Differs"

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Moore & Kearsley

How Distance Teaching Differs

While there have been many articles and discussions about distance education from the students point-of-view and some discussion about quality, effectiveness and verifiability, Moore and Kearsly take the approach from the teachers point-of-view and bring up some relevant issues, both pro and con, regarding the subject. They begin by making not of the differences between live classroom learning as opposed to distance learning:

If you are teaching by television, you have to learn how to behave on camera; in front of the radio or audio conference microphone, to control (but vary) your rate and pitch of speaking; but correspondence or online, to interpret what the student writes and be able to write back "instructively" without overextending the time you commit to each student! (Moore & Kearsley)

The new technology acts like a "filter" and the teacher needs to be aware that what he or she is saying may not e what the student's are perceiving. This is probably one of the most important points that they make regarding distance learning of any kind. Feedback then becomes a crucial element in both the progress of the student and the experience the student has had with the teacher.

They do however seem to feel that the teacher is receiving no immediate feedback from what they say, except in the case of a two way TV presentation, this is not altogether true. In the current level of online classroom participation there are often live session through an interactive chat board or using speakerphones to have a conference call class. Furthermore, the online environment
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necessitates a great deal of interactive writing both in assignments and in teacher student communication, via e-mail, that often provides a great deal of feedback.

One quite valid observation about distance learning is verifying that the student not cheated in some way. This is especially true in any exam that may be given:

If students take an exam work we is at home or at least a learning center with no supervision, it is not possible to guarantee the integrity of the chest. Consequently in most distance education programs students must complete their main exams and a proctored setting at a learning center or school. (Moore & Kearsley)

Absent a physical presence in class and proctors observing exams, every course item completed is always in open book mode. All test are take homes and this certainly negates the ability for the teacher to judge just how much information has been retained and understood by the student, absent access to the course material. Additionally, highly complex technical or scientific course material may also be difficult to comprehend without classroom times with a teacher. Furthermore, as flexible as the scheduling and course time is for the student, most distance learning coursework is set in stone and usually does not allow for any adjustments by the teacher to help match more accurately the needs of the individual students taking the course. Overall this general lack of physical interaction… READ MORE

Quoted Instructions for "Moore and Kearsley How Distance Teaching Differs" Assignment:

You are to write a 3-page paper. Read the article below and answer the discussion question. Do Not Use Outside Sources.

Discussion Question

1.From the reading, What is your conclusion based upon the reading?

Moore & Kearsley

How Distance Teaching Differs

There are several factors that make teaching a distance education course different from teaching in a traditional classroom. The most obvious differences is that, as an instructor, you will not know how students react to what you have written, or recorded or a say in a broadcast (unless you happen to be using two-way interactive television) unless they choose to tell you through some feedback mechanism. For this reason alone, distance teaching remains a challenging for inexperienced structures until they learn how to anticipate student responses to make different events and how to deal with them. A second factor making distance teaching a challenging for most teachers is the fact that teaching is conducted through a technology. All teachers have some experience of managing students in the classroom. Even if as is still the case in higher education most teachers have had no formal training, at least they can model their behavior after their own classroom teachers. However, until recently hardly anyone has had experience or training and helped teach to technology. People who become in shelters in distance education in the United States must learn *****on the job,***** with little or no guidance. Often the guidance comes from people who know little more than they do. They must find out for themselves limitations and the potential of the technology and the best techniques of communicating through that technology. If you are teaching by television, you have to learn how to behave on camera; in front of the radio or audio conference microphone, to control (but vary) your rate and pitch of speaking; but correspondence or online, to interpret what the student rights and be able to write back *****instructively***** without overextending the time you commit to each student!

The best distance teachers are empathetic, with an ability to sense their students***** personalities, even when filtered through technologically transmitted communications. Students are often most defensive when taking a course from an unseen instructor then they would be in a conventional class, but are unlikely to express this anxiety. Some students are noticeably looking for a dependent relationship with the instructor, while others are noticeably counter-dependent with most falling between the extremes. The instructor has to be able to identify such emotions and deal with them. The instructor must have ways of providing motivational support to those with needed, but also lead everyone to be as independent as they can be. Where peer action is possible, as it is in online courses, students can find it very sustaining; but it brings its own problems, which the instructor must be able to identify and intervene early rather than waiting until problems get out of hand. Instructors must be able to guide students into being actively involved in the learning process, and for many students such involvement is counterintuitive. Many have been conditioned to think of any education environment as one in which the student is expected to behave as a passive recipient of a teachers knowledge, but even students who have a different perception of their role in the classroom are likely to take a more passive stance when faced with a television program, a web site, or study guide. This is because the success of designers and making these packages well structured and well presented suggest a degree of certainty, if not perfection, that can be intimidating. A well-designed course will provide the instructor with many opportunities to engage students in discussion, criticism, and constructing knowledge. Nevertheless the onus is on the instructor to establish an environment in which students learn to control and manage, and apply and engage with these materials, in the quest to relate them to their own lives, and thus to convert the designers***** information into their personal knowledge.

Some Specific Functions of the Instructor

They fall into four different types of activities. The first three items on the list are strictly teaching functions; that is to say, the instructor points out certain parts of the course content in a given unit of instruction (e.g. observing the discussion by students in an online bulletin board), into beings to guide the discussion if necessary, and also interacts with individuals and group of students as they prepare presentations for other projects for the class. The second set of activities pertaining to *****student progress,***** in which the instructor reviews each individual's regular assignment, evaluates it, and communicates to each student regarding the extent to which that student has met the criteria of performance at that stage of the course. The data resulting from the student evaluation process must be injured into the system's record to provide the information needed rather programs managers in their monitoring of the systems effectiveness. The third cluster of activities consist of *****learner support***** functions. In most institutions, administrative, technical, or counseling questions will be answered by specialists and a student support service. In practice, however, we find that the great majority of students to not refer themselves directly to the specialist, but first raise their questions with instructors, who are either may resolve the issue, or make the referral. The ensure you must also be able to recognize the kinds of problems that are dealt with by the student support services so that they are often taken up before the student either recognizes them, or it is ready to articulate them. For example, a student who consistently returns an assignment at the last minute may well be experiencing time management difficulties or maybe excessively anxious about performance that a sensitive instructor will detect and will seek to resolve. Evaluating course effectiveness is undertaken on the half of institution in its efforts to improve the quality of its programs. The instructor is the ultimate eyes and ears of the system. Course designers, technology experts, and administrators do not have contact with the students; each instructor on the other hand has or should have a truly intimate understanding of one small group of students, their progress, their feelings, and their experience in the course. The instructor is therefore the most reliable source of information managers of the system try to interpret the data flowing from student monitoring (i.e. assignment) system.

Handling Assignments

The assignment is the *****˜key component***** that links the instructor to the student, the designer to the instructor, and even the student to other students. It is the key to program evaluation as we have described, and is the means by which each individual student's progress is measured. Its importance cannot be exaggerated. Courses that are designed with good assignments and in which the assignments handling system works are likely to be good courses, while those that regard the assignment as less than the key component are likely to fail. To summarize, and to reinforce the idea of the assignments central role in the teaching system which also serves to emphasize the importance of the instructor who supervises and evaluates each assignment -- the relation of assignment to design and instruction and evaluation is illustrated.

Students Expectations

Here is what students say they expect in terms of reading and feedback on assignments (Cole, Coats, and Lentell, 1986): fair and objective grading, to have their work treated with respect, an explanation and justification of the great awarded, a clear indication of how they can prove both in terms of specific responses to questions and in general, encouragement and reassurance about their ability and progress, constructive criticism and advice, and opportunity to respond it desire, and a timely response (i.e. before the next assignment is due). Satisfying these criteria takes considerable time and effort on the part of the instructor, but from the point of view -- a student, design, and program manager -- it is vitally important that this work is completed to the highest standard possible. Administrators who impede this work by imposing too large a student caseload -- that is, too many students per instructor -- risk being responsible for serious damage to the quality of their program.

More about Interaction

Effective teaching at a distance depends on a deep understanding of the nature of interaction and how to facilitate interaction through t technologically transmitted communications. Three distinct types of interaction have been identified. They are: interaction of the learner with content, into action with instructor, and interaction with other learners.

Learner-Content Interaction

The first type of interaction that the teacher must facilitate is the interaction the student has with the subject matter that is presented for study. The interaction of student with content is defining a characteristic of education. Education is a process of plan learning of some content, assisted by a teacher or teachers. Every learner has to construct his or her own knowledge through a process of personally accommodating information into previously existing cognitive structures. It is interacting with content that result in the changes of the learners understanding, what we sometimes call a change in perspective. In distance education the content needed for this process is designed and presented by the course designer has explained in the previous section. The role of the instructor is to support and assist each student as he or she interacts with the content and converts it into personal knowledge.

Learner -- Instructor Interaction

The second type of interaction regarded as the central by most learners and as highly desirable by most educators is interaction between the learner and an instructor. After the content has been presented whether it is information, demonstration of scale, or modeling certain attitudes and values the instructor a system student in into acting with it. Some of the ways they do this is quite stimulating the students interests in the subject and their motivation to learn. Next they help the students application of what they are learning as they practice skills that they have been demonstrated, or manipulated information and ideas that they have been presented. Instructors are responsible for formal and informal testing and evaluation, designed to ensure the learner is making progress. Finally instructor provides counsel, support, and encouragement to each learner through the extent and nature of this support varies according to the educational level of the learners, the teacher's personality and philosophy, and other situational and organizational factors. Where interaction between learner and a distance teacher is possible online or through correspondence or teleconference, the learner is able to draw on the experience of the professional instructor while interacting with the content in whatever matter is most effective for that particular learner. This individualized of instruction is a long recognize advantage correspondence instruction and now extends to online versions. When the online shop there sits with a set of students assignments, there is no class, but instead the instructor enters a dialogue with each individual. Although each student and instructor attend to a common piece of content, usually in a set text, but quite likely on a web site for audio or video, each student responds to the presentation is different, and so the response by the instructor to each student is different too. To some students a misunderstanding is explained to other students elaborations are given, to others simplifications; to one analogies are drawn, and to another supplementary readings are suggested. The injector is especially viable in responding to the learners***** application of new knowledge. Whatever self-directed learners may do a long when into acting with the content presented they are vulnerable at the point of applications since they do not know enough about the subject to be sure they are ***** correctly or as intensively or extensively as is possible or desirable for that there are potential areas of application they are not aware of.

Learner -- Learner Interaction

It is the third form of interaction that is a relatively new dimension for teachers in distance education. This is inter-learner interaction, interaction between one learner and other learners. Two different kinds of interaction are included here; one is the end action within groups and between groups that occurred in programs based on teleconferencing technologies. The other is learner to learner into action in online settings where the individuals do not meet face-to-face and their groups -- if one is organized -- is a virtual group. In both settings students generally fine interaction with their peers to be stimulating and motivating. Real or virtual groups can be used by course designers and instructors for generating content, especially when students can be organized into project teams and given responsibility for making presentations to their peers. Generally, inter-learner discussions are extremely valuable as a way of helping students to think out and test content that has been presented, whatever the means of presentation.

A Hierarchy of Interaction

Roblyer and Wiencke (2003) have developed the following rubric for evaluating different degrees of interactivity in distance learning courses. What is shown here is a hierarchy of enter actions ranging from low to high. Each level defines into action that is social, instructional, technological, learner driven, and instructor driven. We suggest you could study this as a means of thinking about what kind of interaction you would want to facilitate for different types of students and different subject areas you are familiar with, as well as evaluating your own for your students interactions.

Interaction versus Presentation: Keeping a Balance

Some of the most common causes of failure in distance education result from a disregard of a multidimensional nature of distance teaching. We often notice a sometimes cavalier neglect of what should occur before and after the delivery of teaching materials to the learner. In the past is still the form of a view of teaching that regarded it as merely the presentation of information. Whether the primary communication medium is online or print, audio or video recordings, broadcast or teleconferences, there is often an imbalance between the time and effort devoted to experts***** presentations of information and the arrangements made for the learner to interact with the content just presented and the instructor learner interaction and learner-learner interaction that we have discussed. Simply making a video presentation or putting lecture materials on the web site is no more teaching than it would be to send the students a book through the meal. As well as presentations of information at least as much attention should have been devoted to finding out each individuals need and motivation for learning giving each individual the opportunity for testing and practicing new knowledge and for receiving evaluations of the results of such practice. If there is any one secret to good teaching it is summed up in the word *****activity.***** It is equally dangerous however to have an excess of interaction at the expense of presentation. Now days when it is so easy for an instructor to go online and engage in interaction with a virtual group was students, the trend of error is in the opposite direction from before. We now see extremely poorly designed presentation materials hurriedly put together with a minimum of specialist assistance and rarely with any audio or video media as a preliminary too many hours of the no exchanges and bulletin board postings. It is a challenge to hold be healthy balance between these two dimensions about teacher's role -- was the teacher is an individual or a course team. It is important to keep the balance of presentation and interaction, which is essentially the correct balance of resources invested in design and in instruction.

The Instructor's Role in Teleconferencing

Guidelines developed some years ago by the Instructional Communications Systems group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison can be applied to online teaching as well as the audio or video media. These guidelines suggest that instructors should learn four sets of techniques: humanizing, the creation of an environment that emphasizes the importance of the individual and which generates a feeling of group rapport. This can be achieved by, for example, using students***** names, providing pictures of participants, and asking for personal experiences and opinions. In some programs students are enabled to make their own web site where they can interpersonal information as a means of building a virtual community. Participation, ensuring that there is a high level of interaction and dialogue which is facilitated by such techniques as posing questions, group problem-solving activities, participation presentations, and role-playing exercises. Message style, using the communication techniques in presenting information including: providing overviews, use of advancement organizers and summaries, variety, and using print materials for communicating information that has a lot of detail. Feedback, getting information from participants about their progress. Feedback can be obtained by: direct questions, assignments, quizzes, polls, and questionnaires. Some elements specifically relevant to teaching by television are: having background knowledge about: the strengths and limitations of television, the equipment and how it works, roles of the different people involved, general planning steps and procedures, copyright considerations, knowing television terminology, being able to prepare your own visual for use with an overhead camera; how to use a blackboard on camera; using video, or slides, knowing techniques to facilitate student participation and into action within the range of cameras, knowing on camera techniques and appropriate behavior including eye contact, voice intonation and projection, clothing, and movement, and knowing how to respond calmly and professionally on camera to technical problems.

The Site Coordinator

When a distance education program is delivered by video or audio teleconference, a local coordinator is needed at the receiving sites. Here we will look a little more closely at the characteristics we look for in a good site coordinator: the first requirement is that this person is a communicator. We put communicating with the distance instructor as a top hierarchy, because if communication should break down between the coordinator and the students or the larger community -- provided the coordinator has sufficient trust to communicate the problem to the instructor -- advice and assistance can be given and action taken to rectify the situation. The site coordinator must also have good communication with the local community. It is the coordinator who usually context the channels of information dissemination and the localities such as the newspapers, radio, and bulletin boards, to spread information about a forthcoming course, and it is the coordinator who is approached by potential students with inquiries as they think about taking the course. When the course is planned, the coordinator employs local resource people to undertake such production activities as cocking printed materials, or the coordinator may arrange to make a videotape as part of a class project. Coordinators will negotiate the availability of rooms and teleconference equipment with a ministry does. They also communicate with the ministry does on such matters as receiving payment of fees when eight is the local college or corporation that enrolls the students rather than the students paying tuition fees personally. Coordinator should be competent and attending to technical details, to administration, and to instruction. Having technical competence means being able to either install technology themselves, or to negotiate and oversee the insulation. With most technologies that will be no technicians during the time of instruction, and the coordinators will therefore set up the technology, test it, and operated during the session. They must have sufficient technical knowledge to recognize potential faults that may occur during the life of a course, or during a particular session of the course, or be able to take appropriate remedial action. An unexpected and uncorrected technical failure could result in an abandoned session; loss of students confidence; and the collapse of an institution's presence in a site, a city, or in a nation. This could all result from a very minor problem perhaps just a loose telephone line that could have been easily dealt with by a coordinator with experience. A coordinators competence also covers administrative procedures. Among the most important of these artificially receiving materials and distribute them to the students, keeping record and reporting them to the instructor and perhaps to the institution that hosts the local site. Finally it is helpful if the coordinator is competent and the content being taught in the course. It is better to appoint persons who have previously taken the course as students, sold that they not only are familiar with the instructional procedures and have a long-standing working relationship with the instructor, but that they know the subject matter better than the newly enrolled students at their sites. This helps them to interpret the instructors***** explanations or questions when the need arises and also to help their students as they struggle to articulate their ideas. Having made their best effort to recruit good local coordinators distance teaching organizations and individual instructors should care for them well (which includes paying them well) because it is essential that they continue in the role and build up experience in the work. There are several reasons why it is continuity is important. One is the time and experience needed to develop the effect of working relationship with the instructor and community and the competence described in the previous paragraph. It is much more efficient when the instructor can send materials to a coordinator who has practiced what to do with them in previous iterations of the course; to make plans for a weekly program or discuss a problem student with a Connolly who shares memories of similar events in previous courses. Although each cohort of students consist of different individuals their problems are usually similar to those of previous cohorts, and an experience coordinator is likely to recognize problems and be able to explain them to the instructor with reference to previous experiences or on the basis of previous experience to solve them locally without recourse to the instructor. The good coordinator has control of events at the local sites and the students have a comfortable awareness of this. Control is achieved as a result of other characteristics just described. The technology is set up an advance of student*****s arrival at the site; the administrative work is done quietly and efficiently; the instructor communicates with the coordinator in ways that reinforce a student*****s sense that they are in the care of a team that works together effectively. The environment at the site should be relaxed and friendly but there should also be a sense that events are well-planned that everything is under control and that any problems can and will be resolved. During the sessions, coordinators instructors handle any unexpected issues or problems with competent professionalism. This sense of control is more important in a distance learning environment and then it might be and conventional settings since it is especially important to instill confidence in the students. Many students are afraid of being separated from the instructor and others are skeptical about the viability of an environment in which there is no instructor present. To meet these emotional barriers to learning it is important that the coordinator projects a sense of control, efficiency, responsibility, and authority. Last but not least in importance the coordinator has to be a person who cares about the comfort and welfare of the students and be able to communicate this concern. No matter how skillful the educator at a distance will not be able to establish a good an affective relationship with student as in a face-to-face environment. Although the instructor should do everything possible to establish an open, communicative, friendly, and caring environment as is necessary for learning, it will nevertheless be up to the local port eager to make up for what the instructor will be an able to do. The coordinator does this in numerous ways: by greeting participants, by ensuring that everyone has freedom to participate in discussions, by privately conversing with anyone who is bruised during an oral exchange, or my voicing appreciation, approval, or congratulations at an individual's success.

Instructing by Audio-Graphic Web Conferencing

Teaching via Web conferencing is more demanding than audio conferencing alone because of added dimensions of the graphic and video. Training may be provided by vendors of Web conference systems in the form of finished rations and hands on practice sessions. In addition, universities offer training to their own faculty and students. As with other teleconference technologies it is challenging for the Web conference instructor to get students actively engaged in the class. Instructors must learn how to put students at ease with the system. One technique is to have everyone signed in at the beginning of the class using the shared Whiteboard and perhaps identify their location on a map. Using the annotation tools, you can have participants at comments or markup slides presented via the Whiteboard. Another strategy is to as purchase it is to draw a diagram to illustrate the concept being discussed. Students can also be directed to draw a? On the screen when they have a question which is the equivalent of raising the hand in a traditional classroom. It is probably a good idea to teach faculty how to use, create and modify their own slides, although a distance teaching organization should provide a graphic artist. The slides for instructors, in order to save faculty preparation time as well as to ensure higher quality visuals.

Teaching Online

Bandwidth limitations prevent the Internet from being a useful means of transmitting audio and video media, and content designed for presentation in the media must usually be transmitted on CD-ROMs. For the same reason nearly all construction online is dependent on text. The interactions in text are either synchronous or asynchronous. Most experience online instructors find the asynchronous to be much more useful and effective than synchronous text-based interaction. As with audio and video technologies getting online students to engage in discussions of pedagogical value and relevance to be course content is a challenge that requires instructors to develop good facilitation skills.

Conducting Asynchronous Discussions

The heart of the asynchronous online course is a discussion forum. The basic pattern of the discussion forum is fairly standard: an opening message, the course designer prepares a question requiring a response, the instructor gives an explanation for reflection on some item of content, or students post an assignment, responding message, instructor or students are expected to reply to one person with an elaboration or alternative view, for question. To ensure that everybody receives at least one reply, binge doctor may call for a response to a message that has not been received a reply. Follow up message, instructor or student reply to previous postings with an explanation of how the second message was helpful in increasing understanding of the topic, and if possible building a further substantive comment, and summarize message, instructor summarizes the message from all group members to include key points, similarities, and differences in the group's understanding.

Tips for Online Instructors

The following are some tips for instructors teaching online, which should also be modeled for students: conduct an online conference like other teleconference is by humanizing. Have each student post a biography at the beginning of the class. Deal with each student in as personal as possible. Aim to make students into a learning community, and establish a positive and helpful tone in replies to messages. Conduct a computer based conference like other teleconferences by asking good questions. As students answer your question, be prepared to restate it to accommodate the fresh input. Encourage students to pose questions and also developed the habit of attempting to answer other students. Control the number of messages, with 15 students in a class a weekly posting of, for example, for messages is a substantial body of information to be processed by each student -- and the instructor. Defined what is an acceptable number of postings, not in order to be pedantic in enforcing arbitrary number, but so that students will know what is acceptable performance. Controlled the length of messages, in general it is a good idea to keep each message to a single idea or at least a single issue. When the course design calls for posting assignments as the basis for discussion, set a limit for their length. With the graduate students a maximum could be 200 words but for some courses this will be excessive. Occasionally provides summary messages that restate the major points already made. This helps to minimize the risk of fragmentation and is a weight of redirecting the discussion and keeping it on track. Be careful to distinguish personal replies containing feedback for specific individuals from public comments and tinted for the entire class. In our practice we tell students to send any private messages by e-mail, even complementary messages as *****I liked your last posting.***** Our rule is that every posting must pass the criterion of *****adding to the community*****s pool of knowledge.***** Every message should be acknowledged. Each student should receive personal feedback on assignments, explaining the strength and weaknesses of their answer. It is also very good practice to post a general summary after an assignment is completed that reviews the strengths and weaknesses of all responses. Take advantage of tools now available in most online learning systems that enable the instructor to organize students in teams for group assignments and projects. For example, students may need to be reminded to keep their discussions in their team subconference and also to use private messages when possible, to avoid *****cluttering up***** the general conference area. Creating a forum that explains discussion board procedures, and encourages students to add their own tips and comments during the course. Post announcements to keep students up to date on class progress and special events. Assuming participation is seen as essential (as it is by constructivist teachers) link it to course assignments and grades. Scores can be given for assignments posted online and also for the quality of students***** comments on each other's assignments. Model good manners, and insist on good manners online. Do not be sarcastic or insulting. Nearly all students online are volunteering their time and their money and anybody should find their learning experience an unpleasant one. Fortunately the vast majority of students are considered and caring in their interactions with others.

Social Aspects of Online Learning

As suggested in the rubric we studied earlier in this chapter, there is -- as a result of the increasing use of web-based learning -- a great deal of interest in the social aspects of online interaction, especially in collaboration and in virtual group activities. The ability of students and teachers to establish social presence in an online course has been the subject of a number of studies. A great deal has also been written about online learning communities. Brown 2001 describes three stages of community building and an online class: comfort, conferment, and camaraderie. Conrad 2002 describes the nature of etiquette in online learning courses, which she describes as the art of niceness. Curtis and Lawson 2001 compared online collaboration with face-to-face collaboration and conducted that is similar in many ways although more planning is required for online collaboration, and familiarity with the online system affects the nature of the collaboration. Bringelson and Carey 2000 study the nature of participation in two online professional development communities, one called *****Tapped-In for K-12 teachers, and *****TeleCHI***** for researchers in the field of human-computer interfaces. Anderson and Kanuka 1997 found that educators using a web conferences them were satisfied with their online collaborations though they still for face-to-face interactions. Hughes et al. 2002 discussed obstacles to successful online collaboration they included establishing trust in the technology, the instructor, and the other participants.

Examination and Test Security

Examinations and testing in distance education settings present some special challenges with respect to security. If students take an exam work we is at home or at least a learning center with no supervision, it is not possible to guarantee the integrity of the chest. Consequently in most distance education programs students must complete their main exams and a proctored setting at a learning center or school. Proctors are usually teachers or administrators who are selected by the student and approved by the distance learning institution. In other procedure where the subject matter allows, is to use computer-based testing in which each student receives a different subset of questions randomly selected by the computer. In many of adult learning courses to complete a project report based upon a research study instead of a final exam. With the advent of the Internet and Web online testing tools have become available and all integrated learning systems include testing capabilities. Not only do these tools make it relatively simple to create results quick and easy. Integrated learning systems come with grade books that automatically display test scores for each student as soon as they have completed the test. Many options are provided in the test creation process time limit for the response and allowing multiple attempts. However the availability of online testing does not solve the dilemma of ensuring test security. There is steel mill way to authenticate the learner although use of desktop cameras so-called Web-cams does offer the possibility of actually seeing the candidate to confirm their identity matched against photo IDs. In the future we may be able to remotely identify individuals using devices that scan finger, voice, or eye-prints technology, which is already in use for security applications, but at present this seems a rather extreme measure. Probably a more serious element of online dishonesty than examination cheating is plagiarism in writing assignments. Plagiarism is a particular worry for educators in the online environment because materials can be so easy located in captured electronically that the line between legitimate research and plagiarism is sometimes not easy for students to recognize.

Faculty Perspectives: Some Findings from Research

Dillon and Walsh 1992 reviewed faculty perspectives about distance teaching. Here are some of their findings: faculty believes that this is teaching requires a personal and empathetic rapport with students, communication skills are critical, faculty who teach at a distance are generally positive towards distance education in their attitudes tend to become more positive with experience, faculty motivation for teaching at a distance is intrinsic rather than extrinsic, and faculty believe that this is teaching experience improves their traditional teaching. Blanch 1994 analyzed the barriers to faculty of adoption of distance education. They were: lack of awareness on the part of the university community of general benefits of distance education, lack of incentives for about what she to be involved in distance education, the unreasonableness of expecting faculty to commit themselves to a very different teaching approach without any trial period, and faculty*****s sense that distance education was not integrated within the university*****s programs and plans. Rockwell et al. 2000 surveyed 207 faculty members in two colleges at the University of Nebraska to study the type of education, assistance, support they felt they needed to develop distance education materials. The areas that faculty identified were: help in designing interaction, developing materials, applying technologies, and marketing their courses. An earlier study by Rockwell et al. 1999 examined incentives that encourage faculty and obstacles that discourage them. They found the primary and symptoms were intrinsic (e.g. taking up a new challenge, winning peer recognition) rather than extrinsic -- such as monetary -- rewards. The major perceived obstacles related to time requirements, developing effect of technology skills, and general support needs. Betts 1998 examined the factors that affected faculty participation in distance education at the George Washington University. She surveyed over 1000 faculty and 8 deans and concluded that the faculty are more likely to participate in distance education if certain inhibiting factors are eliminated by the administration, and the intrinsic benefits involved in distance education are stressed by the administration. Berge and colleagues have concluded that the perceived barriers are greater in the initial stages of an organization being in distance education, and that the view changes as the organization matures. Lee 2002 surveyed faculty from 35 Western institutions to measure their views on instructional support for distance education. The study found that with the exception of one institution, Rio Salado College, the faculty seemed to feel that they were being asked to perform at a higher standard without receiving adequate support.

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1. Moore and Kearsley How Distance Teaching Differs. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/moore-kearsley-distance/2771. Published 2008. Accessed October 4, 2024.

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