Growth in Distance Education Programs
Tinatin Mshvidobadze
Professor
Gori University
Gori/ Georgia
Abstract.
These paper reviews effective in distance education. Distance education is
not a new concept, but in recent years, it has assumed markedly new forms and
greater prominence. Distance education’s older form was the correspondence
course—a home study course generally completed by mail. More recently, distance
education has increasingly been delivered in electronic forms, such as
videoconferencing and the Internet. Some of these newer forms share more
features of traditional classroom instruction. For example, students taking a
course by videoconference generally participate in an actual class in which
they can interact directly with the instructor. Many postsecondary schools have
added or expanded electronically-based programs, so that distance education is now
relatively common across the entire postsecondary landscape. The research
shown that in the 2012-2013 school
year, about 1.5 million of the 19 million students involved in postsecondary
education took at least one electronically transmitted distance education
course. Education reports that an estimated 84 percent of four-year
institutions will offer distance education courses in 2013. The Internet is the
most common mode of delivery for providing distance education.
Distance learning
Platforms
The Internet offers effective
tools for exchanging information that can be used in different ways for on-line
learning. Chat (textual message exchange) and e-mail are currently the most
widespread ones, since they have first arisen in the Internet world. However,
new technologies and the use of wider transmitting bands allow to utilize
audio/video communication tools in real time as well as to share multimedia
contents. At first, online learning platforms had to integrate such services.
Net Meeting application developed by Microsoft is a useful example to
understand how a distance learning tool was structured. Net Meeting offers such
services as on-line textual chat, videoconferencing, audio chat, application
sharing and whiteboards. At least until the first half of the 90s, this was the
predominant way of organizing distance education platforms.
Once technological problems related to
the delivery and implementation of such services was resolved, industries have
began to improve platforms by introducing modules and services able to manage
pedagogical aspects (associated with the training process) as well as content updating and
availability.
The most part of contemporary e-learning
platform can be viewed as organized into three fundamental macro components: a
Learning Management System (LMS), a Learning Content Management System (LCMS)
and a Set of Tools for distributing training contents and for providing
interaction [1].
MOODLE- An Evaluation Basic Features and
Operation.
Moodle (Modular
Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is basically an Open Source
e-learning platform. Moodle presents an excellent platform for resources and
communication tools. It was created by Martin Digammas, a computer scientist
and educator who deeply believes that a CMS should be created by an educator
and not by an engineer.
It’s basic features include tools for
creating resources and activities. These in turn provide the tutor managing the
course various useful options. The Resources tab offers the tutor
a choice of creating labels which are simply headings for each
topic or week, creating text pages or web pages with
a combination of text, images and links. Creating links to files or web
sites/pages which can link to podcasts, videos and other files,
creating directories which are folders one creates with a
multitude of different files to be accessed by students or staff.
Another useful and collaborative section
is the Activities tab which includes: assignments, chat,
choice (one question with a choice of answers – answers are logged so
statistics can be deducted), database which is a table created by
the tutor and which is filled in by the students creating a database. Forum
where everyone can post in response to discussion threads, glossary
is a type of dictionary created by the tutor with terms used and their
meanings.
Glossaries can also be an enjoyable,
collaborative activity as well as a teaching tool. Lessons offer
the flexibility of a web page, the interactivity of a quiz and branching
capabilities. Quiz enables the creation of various types of
quizzes, survey is a questionnaire which gathers feedback from
students, wiki is a web page edited collaboratively. SCORM is
a tool for enabling SCORM packages into the content, that is packaged content
which can be used on any Virtual Learning Environment.[2].
Technical Requirements. Moodle
being Open Source is not limited to a particular set of technical requirements
but can be installed on most CPU’s whether they are old or updated models,
making it very dynamic.
Ø Hardware
platforms: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, or ME/ XP/ Vista/ Pentium2-3/ MAC 9/ OS X.
This means it can be used by
practically anyone.
Ø The
screen resolution may be set to either 800x 600 or higher to 1024 x 768.
Ø Internet
connection may be via a simple 56k modem or a high speed ADSL /Cable
connection.
Ø Internet
Browsers can vary from Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer. Here the Opera and
Safari browsers will not display the
built-in HTML editor.
Ø Most
applications can be opened and used in Moodle eg. Microsoft Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. The Excel viewer and PowerPoint viewer work as well as will a
simple word processor. Open Office can be used as an alternative.
Ø Multimedia
Plugging include: Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Apple Quick time, Acrobat
reader, Flash player, Shockwave player,
Java Applets, Java Mac OSX.
Evaluting E-Learning Platporms Through SCORM
Specifications
SCORM (Sharable Content
Object Reference Model) represents a “comprehensive picture of how a Learning
Management System (LMS) might serve up Web-based learning content to learners
in a standard way” . In other words, it describes a specific way to deliver
e-learning content in different platforms. Its importance lies in the ability
to represent educational contents which can be shared but also in the interface
between these contents and the e-learning platforms that use them. In fact,
multiple platforms, either commercial or open-source, support this
specification.
The main SCORM components are:
- The CAM (Content Aggregation Model) that
defines a model for packaging learning content.
- The RTE
(Run Time Environment) that defines an interface for enabling communications
between learning content and the system that launches it (e.g. a LMS).
The Content Aggregation Model component
deals with Assets, Sharable Content Objects (SCO) and Content
Aggregation Packages:
- Assets are
single individual objects such as media or HTML pages, while SCO’S are
collections of Assets. They should be independent of learning context
and intended to be subjectively small units, such that potential reuse across
multiple learning objectives is feasible.
- Content
Aggregation Packages comprise one or more SCO’S or assets, that is,
one or more learning objects. They should be structured in such a way that they
are ready for delivery to a learner.
The Run-Time Environment component deals
with an API adapter and a Runtime service.
- The API
(Application Programming Interface) adapter enables communications
between learning content and the LMS that launches it.
- The Runtime
service is provided by the LMS and it is responsible for providing the user
interface to the learner.[3].
Implications for Federal Education Policy.
Many students who take distance
education courses participate in federal student aid programs. About one-third
of undergraduates and graduate students who take all their coursework through
distance education receive Title IV financial aid. As distance education
continues to grow, several major aspects of federal laws, rules, and
regulations may need to be reexamined. Certain rules may need to be modified if
a small, but growing number of schools are to remain eligible for student aid.
Students attending these schools may become ineligible for student aid because
their distance education programs are growing and may exceed statutory and
regulatory limits on the amount of distance education an institution can offer.
Other issues involve how to account for student participation in distance
education and differences in student aid between some distance education
students and classroom students.
Distance education is not a new concept, but in recent years, it has
assumed markedly new forms and greater prominence. Distance education’s older
form was the correspondence course—a home study course generally completed by mail. More recently, distance
education has increasingly been delivered in electronic forms, such as
videoconferencing and the Internet. Some of these newer forms share more
features of traditional classroom instruction. For example, students taking a
course by videoconference generally participate in an actual class in which
they can interact directly with the instructor. Many postsecondary schools have
added or expanded electronically-based programs, so that distance education is
now relatively common across the entire postsecondary landscape. We estimate
that in the 2012-2013 school year, about 1.5 million of the 19 million students
involved in postsecondary education took at least one electronically
transmitted distance education course. Education reports that an estimated 84 percent
of four-year institutions will offer distance education courses in 2013 [4].
As the largest provider of student
financial aid to postsecondary students
(an estimated $52 billion in fiscal year 2012), the federal government
has a substantial interest in the quality of distance education. Under Title IV
of the HEA (House Committee on Education), the federal government provides
grants, work-study wages, and student loans to millions of students each year.
For the most part, students taking distance education courses can qualify for
this aid in the same way as students taking traditional courses.
Differences between distance education
and traditional education pose challenges for federal student aid policies and
programs. For example, in 2010, the Congress added requirements to the HEA to
deal with problems of fraud and abuse at correspondence schools—the primary
providers of distance education in the early 2011’s. These requirements placed
limitations on the use of federal student aid at these schools due to poor
quality programs and high default rates on student loans. Such problems
demonstrate why it is important to monitor the outcomes of such forms of course
delivery. In monitoring such courses, the federal government has mainly relied
on the work of accrediting agencies established specifically for providing
outside reviews of an institution’s educational programs.
The research shown that the estimated 1.5 million5 postsecondary
students who have taken distance education courses have different demographic
characteristics when compared with the characteristics6 of postsecondary
students who did not enroll in distance education. These differences included
the following.
Distance education students are older. As figure 1
demonstrates, students who took all their courses through distance education
tended to be older, on average, when compared to other students.
Figure 1:
Distance education students are older.
Tock all distance
education courses.
Tock no distance
education courses.
Distance education students are more
likely to work full-time. As figure 2 shows,
a higher percentage of distance education students work full-time when compared
to students who did not take any distance education courses. This difference
was greatest among graduate students where about 85 percent of the students
that took all of their courses through distance education worked full-time
compared to 51 percent of students who did not take any distance education
courses.
Figure 2:Distance education students
are more likely to work full-time.
Tock all distance
education courses.
Tock no distance
education courses.
Distance education students are more
likely to be part-time students. As might be expected, distance education students
tend to go to school on a part-time basis. For undergraduates, about 63 percent
of the students who took all their courses through distance education were
part-time students while about 47 percent of the students who did not take any
distance education courses were part-time students. This trend also occurred
among graduate students (about 79 percent of those who took their entire program
through distance education were part-time students compared with about 54
percent of those who did not take any distance education courses).
Institutions used the Internet more than
any other mode to deliver distance education. Postsecondary institutions used
the Internet more than any other mode to deliver distance education. At the
three main types of institutions, more than half of the undergraduate students
who took at least one distance education course did so over the Internet. Over
58 percent of undergraduate distance education students at public institutions
used the Internet and over 70 percent of undergraduate distance education
students at private non-profit and proprietary schools also used the Internet.
Institutions that offered graduate programs also used the Internet as the
primary means of delivering distance education courses. For graduate students
who took at least one distance education class, 65 percent of students at
public institutions used the Internet, compared with about 69 percent of
students at private non-profit institutions, and about 94 percent of students
at proprietary institutions.
Institutions enrolled the most distance
education students in subjects related to business, humanities, and education. For undergraduates,
about 21 percent of students who took their entire program through distance
education studied business and 13 percent studied courses related to the
humanities. This is similar to patterns of students who did not take any
distance education classes (about 18 percent studied business and about 15
percent studied humanities). For graduate students, about 24 percent of
students who took their entire program through distance education enrolled in
courses related to education and about 19 percent studied business. Again, this
is similar to patterns of graduate students who did not take any distance
education classes (about 23 percent studied education and about 17 percent
studied business).
The HEA focuses on accreditation—a task
undertaken by outside agencies—as the main tool for ensuring quality in postsecondary programs, including those
offered through distance education. The
effectiveness of these accreditation reviews, as well as Education’s
monitoring of the accreditation process, remains an important issue.
The HEA and regulations issued by
Education establish criteria under which Education will recognize an
accreditation agency as a reliable authority regarding the quality of
education.16 The HEA states that accrediting agencies must assess quality in 10
different areas, such as curriculum, student achievement, and program length.
Under the HEA, an accrediting agency is required to include distance education
programs when assessing quality. In doing so, an accrediting agency must
consistently apply and enforce its standards with respect to distance education
programs as well as other educational programs at the institution.
Under the HEA, Education has authority to
recognize those agencies it considers to be reliable authorities on the quality
of education or training provided. Accrediting agencies have an incentive to
seek Education’s recognition because without it, students at the institutions
they accredit would not be eligible to participate in federal aid programs.
In closing, distance education has grown
rapidly over the past few years and our work indicates that distance learning
might present new educational opportunities for students. Congress and the Administration need to ensure that changes
to the HEA and regulations do not increase the chances of fraud, waste, or
abuse to the student financial aid programs.
Reference:
1.
Colace F., De Santo M., Vento M.,
“Evaluating On-line Learning Platforms: a Case Study”, Proceedings of the 36th
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS’03), 2013.
2.
Moodle, (2011).
Retrieved on 1 May 2011 from http://docs.moodle.org/en/Philosophy.
3.
ADL, 2012. SCORM 2010, Advanced
Distributed Learning (online: http://www.adlnet.org/).4\
4.
www.gao.gov/new.items/d021125t.