Definitions of Distance Education

There is no one definition of distance education. In fact there is no one term to define as the term distance learning is also well accepted and widely used. Distance education and distance learning are often used as synonyms or near synonyms in the field. In the European context, distance learning is generally perceived to be a more learner-centered term, and is also used here.

The series of definitions below indicate the range of approaches which have been used in defining these two key terms in the field, all of which emphasise distance – in space and/or time – between teacher and learner; The term distance learning and/or distance education refers to the teaching-learning arrangement in which the learner and teacher are separated by geography and time. (Williams, Paprock and Covington 1999: 2) 

Distance education is planned learning that normally occurs in a different place from teaching and as a result requires special techniques of course design, special instructional techniques, special methods of communication by electronic and other technology, as well as special organizational and administrative arrangements. (Moore and Kearsley 1996: 2)

Distance learning is an educational system in which learners can study in a flexible manner in their own time, at the pace of their choice and without requiring face-to-face contact with a teacher.(Shelley 2000: 651) 

Distance education implies that the majority of educational communication between (among) teacher and student(s) occurs noncontiguously. Distance education must involve two-way communication between (among) teacher and student(s) for the purpose of facilitating and supporting the educational process. Distance education uses technology to mediate the necessary two-way communication. (Garrison and Archer 2000: 175)

There are several starting points for a definition of distance education;most begin with structural concerns, a few begin with pedagogical concerns, and fewer still begin with learner-based perspectives of the meaning of distance learning. When distance education is approached from the point of view of organisational or structural concerns, definitions generally include the following components, based on the work of Keegan (1990):

• The separation of teacher and learner in time and/or place. 
• The influence of an educational organisation in preparing and delivering materials and in providing support services. This distinguishes distance learning from private study contexts, and learning using open courseware. 
• The use of a range of media including print, audio, video, and computer-based applications to carry content. 
• The use of communication devices to facilitate two-way communication.Providing opportunities for interaction is an important challenge, and these are increasingly viewed as integral to distance learning experiences. 
• The possibility of face-to-face contact usually in the form of tutorials, regional courses, summer schools, and self-help groups. Face-to-face contact serves the function of providing motivation, social contact, group cohesion, and opportunities for support. In some language courses attendance may be mandatory. 
• The provision of a range of support services, including what is given by the teacher, relating to wider aspects of study and the role of the distance learner. This may include opportunities for interaction and response to individual learners as well as guides such as the Open University UK Toolkit Series produced by Student Services to support distance study.

Richards and Roe (1994), in an introduction to distance learning in ELT, argue that a simple and deceptive conceptual trap in distance learning is to assume that it is the individual learner who is distant, or remote, from the centre of things. They offer the view that it is in fact the teacher who is remote from where the learning takes place.

An alternative approach to defining distance education comes when pedagogical concerns are taken as the starting point, at which point a different set of distinctive characteristics can be identified. According to Peters (1998) these include the extent to which ‘written’ teaching dominates in contrast to ‘spoken’ teaching; and so learning by ‘reading’ is stressed rather than learning through ‘listening’. This has important implications for the development of oral and aural skills and interactive competence in distance language learning. In distance learning, pedagogic structures are formed using a range of technical and electronic media and different generations of provision can be identified.

The way in which different pedagogical structures – such as those using CMC or Internet audioconferencing – impact on the development of target language (TL) skills is an important, and relatively unexplored, area for research in distance language learning. And the situation in which distance language learning takes place is quite different, in decisive ways, from that of learners in face-to-face settings. The impact of individual learning sites on the learning process has only been recognised more recently. A further point is that specific institutional and organisational conditions are required to provide and develop learning opportunities.

When learner perspectives are considered, the defining characteristics of distance language learning may be found to be markedly different from the perspectives adopted by researchers and theorists.
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The idea of distance language learning

The last decade has witnessed an enormous expansion in distance language learning opportunities. Rapid developments in information and communications technology, together with societal changes, have increased awareness of and demand for distance education – and now also for online learning, and distributed learning, to name but two of the more recent incarnations which I will look at in this blog. Other forces have contributed to expansion, such as the current growing demand for global education offerings, and the desire on the part of many institutions to reach new audiences or to retain their market share.

All this means that distance learning opportunities are becoming an increasingly visible part of educational provision. Many language learners, language teachers and institutions are coming to distance education for the first time. However, distance language learning is not a new phenomenon. What makes it appear so is the development and wide availability of the new technologies for connecting learners and teachers, the rapid pace at which these have developed, and the widespread publicity they have attracted. More traditional forms of distance language learning, that used print, audio and video materials are being supplemented by opportunities for interaction and collaboration online.

The social and technological changes that prompted expansion are also transforming the nature of distance learning. They have resulted in new contexts for learning, new ways of learning and new roles and responsibilities for participants. There is now broad interest in innovation in distance language learning, both from distance language professionals, and from others who are interested in the possibilities offered by online learning environments.

A number of factors have invited new providers to enter the field: a belief in the accessibility and convenience of online technologies, the need to be in the front line of progress, and a perception that distance teaching is time- and cost-effective. A web search on the International Distance Learning Course Finder showed that more than 1,300 language courses were registered – out of a total of 55,000 distance courses from 130 countries. And the number of providers entering the market to provide online or distance courses for language learners is growing. While distance education has achieved a new prominence, much about the processes involved and the participants remains little understood.

The new technologies provide institutions with access to new audiences, but bring with them relatively little information about these audiences in order to inform their practices. Important aspects of the learning experience are transformed in the distance context, but whereas the tendency has been to focus on technology as the defining feature, experienced distance educators and commentators argue repeatedly that technology per se is not as important as other factors such as learner motivation, an understanding of the distance language learning context and of the demands it places on participants, the responsiveness of the teacher, the accessibility of the learning context, and the overall context of delivery.

Examples of different contexts for distance language learning are explored, and the ways in which they vary. I then examine the meaning of distance, its relationship to time and place and to learning opportunities. A brief discussion of definitions of distance education and distance learning is used to highlight the difference between a focus on structural considerations as a starting point for understanding distance language learning, as opposed to pedagogical concerns.

A brief overview of different generations of distance learning opportunities is given, all of which continue to contribute to current practice.  From here I return to an overview of the landscape of distance language learning, and to the particular challenges it presents for learners.
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The Internet will mean the commercialization of education

December 2000: an agreement between India and China is announced to oppose the commercialization of education at all fora, stating that education should not be controlled by market forces and that the goal of education should be to create a non-violent and non-exploitative knowledge society. What this news indicated was that the commercialization of education is now a serious, global concern and that it calls into question the very purpose of education in society. So is the commercialization of education inevitable? Is it necessarily a detrimental force? And, what has the Internet to do with it?

The commercialization of education seems to be an attack on the last bastion of the public sector. For many, the role of private companies in health care was, and still is, unacceptable. Yet there is no doubt it has happened, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on where you live. So, it would be naïve perhaps to think that education is in a more privileged position and the same could not happen in that domain. Indeed, venture capitalists now eye the education sector covetously and see it as the next big target. In the year 2000 some $2.9 billion of venture capital was invested in education and training start-up companies (Eduventures.com,
2001). True, the e-commerce bust has seen this investment slow somewhat and some of the shine has come off the optimism, but the sector is still attracting a good deal of finance and attention. There is certainly more drive and, significantly, more money behind the move to involve commercial organizations in education than there ever has been before. And large sums of money tend to have a way of fashioning the output those behind the money desire.

There are a number of reasons that education and commercialization make for an uneasy marriage. Many of the models and practices applicable in business do not transfer easily to education. For instance, the notion of students as customers is fraught with uneasy implications in education. In a commercial relationship customers are not assessed as they are in education, they cannot fail as they do in education. The idea that ‘the customer is always right’ would make marking any form of assessment very difficult. The notion of academic freedom is similarly difficult to marry with a commercial approach. Commercial pressures and constraints could seriously threaten this liberty. These are wider issues, however, and beyond the scope of this book. I want to focus here on the role the Internet plays in this debate.

Let us be clear before we apportion blame to the Net: it did not start this process. Global cultural changes have meant educational establishments have generally become more accountable and more businesslike in the way they operate. Despite the reservations mentioned above, the ‘customer centred’ approach has been adopted by many universities in response to a broader customer culture. Many vice-chancellors would argue that they have to operate as a business now, but do so in an unusual market which is much at the whim of

governments and politicians. One could view many of the established educational practices as evolving not from pedagogical or student support considerations, but rather as sound economical models. Ellington, Percival and Race (1993:64) for example say of the traditional lecture, ‘one of the reasons why the lecture has retained its dominant place in the educational and training scene is that the method appears to be highly cost-effective, since it enables high student/staff ratios to be achieved’. Online education, because it requires changes to established models of teaching, support, assessment and use of technology, naturally forces universities to examine the financial viability of such a model.

This does not mean that it is any more (or less) concerned with profit than traditional forms of education, but rather that we have become so accustomed to these assumptions in the established processes that often we do not notice them. Gaining access to the education market was always difficult for commercial organizations. The process of becoming an accredited university that can award degrees varies between countries, but is nearly always difficult and protracted.

This gives private universities a problem: they need a successfully working educational establishment in order to gain accreditation powers, and yet few students will want to study at a place that is not accredited. The private university needs to employ academic staff and have a campus in operation all the time that it is going through this process. Unlike for other businesses there seems to be little chance of starting small and building up gradually, using the previous year’s profits to sustain growth. With a private university the organization has to go directly to the fully established model. This requires some brave and considerable financial backing. Hence the number of private universities has remained relatively small.

The Net changes some of these dynamics. First, because the students and the academics are not located physically on campus, an online university does not need to invest vast sums of money in building a campus with specialized rooms for lecturing, laboratory space, social areas, and so on. It will need a headquarters, but any standard office space will suffice for this. Second, again as a corollary of the academics being located anywhere, there is no need to employ them full-time. A wide range of courses can be offered by employing academics on a part-time basis to deliver the courses online.

This is precisely what the University of Phoenix has done in the United States (with greater or lesser success, depending on your point of view). Last, because the costs are lowered by these factors, the online university can appeal to students as an economical means of study, particularly if they wish to study part-time while working and cannot attend a campus based university. So the online university can appeal to a different group of students on different grounds, whereas the private campus-based university was competing directly with the traditional universities. The online university still has to negotiate successfully the rigorous accreditation process, and it will have to invest a lot of money in its technical infrastructure and in marketing, but it begins to appear as a more attractive and viable business model for investors. The Net therefore can lower the cost of entry to the market, although in the next chapter we will see that this is not always borne out—but for now let us assume it does.

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