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Distance Education Teaching Methods and Technologies |
Instructional designers should be well-versed in the teaching
methods
and technologies (media) that instructors can use in their
courses. At
the bare minimum, a course should provide a variety of media and
teaching
methods for students. Destination
5: Distance Education Teaching Methods examines
teaching
methods, and Destination
6: Distance Education Technologies is devoted to
technology selection.
Technology (Media) Considerations
Instructional
designers
should help instructors select the technology to meet
the needs of their classes. The technology (medium) choice
should
come after instructional designers and instructors decide what
should be
covered (content).
Budget
also should be a consideration in the selection of technology. Some
technologies, such as satellite broadcasts, can be expensive. If an
instructor
wants to do a satellite conference for three sites in one state,
there
may be less costly alternatives to a full-scale satellite broadcast. On
the
other hand, it may be extremely cost-effective to have a national
satellite conference that can be downlinked to many locations across
the
country.
Relatively new technologies that
can be distributed
via the Internet can cut costs. Streaming video, narrated PowerPoint
presentations, chats, audio chats, and others appear to be the
direction that
many universities are going because the institutions do not have to
build
technological infrastructures, such transmission lines for dedicated
videoconference delivery. More technology considerations will be
presented in Destination
6.
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Click here for a text-only version.
Teaching
Methods
Considerations
Perhaps the most striking difference between a traditional classrooms and a
distance
education course is in the area of communication and interaction.
In the
distance education environment, instructors don't have the benefit of
seeing
students' nonverbal cues (unless live videoconferencing is used) to
gauge how
well they're teaching. In a distance education environment,
instructional
designers have to help instructors plan for interaction.
Interaction in a distance education environment
can be either live (synchronous) or
delayed (asynchronous, or
not in "real time"). Synchronous interaction takes place with
such technologies as online chat rooms and videoconferencing. Asynchronous
interaction
can be done with bulletin boards, e-mail, and correspondence carried on
by
mail. The key, then, to interactivity is thoughtful
instructional design that takes into account the teaching
objectives, creative teaching methods, and appropriate distance
delivery
technologies.
One method to
encourage
interaction is to develop strategies for student reinforcement and
feedback.
For example, in a videoconference class, use several minutes at the
beginning
of class to review material from the previous week, and use electronic
mail as
a reinforcement tool. For a Web-based course, instructors may include
materials
that reinforce content they've gone over.
Destination
5 focuses on specific teaching methods that can be used
to
encourage and increase interaction. For now, though, a few
teaching
methods and possible delivery methods are provided in the table below
to let
you start thinking about how you could incorporate technology choices
into
distance education courses.
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Teaching Method |
Possible Delivery Methods |
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Lecture |
Videotape (CD-ROM, DVD), Web course tools (w/ bulletin board and chat) |
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Small group interaction; individual projects |
Web course tools, supported by written materials or video (videotape, CD-ROM, DVD) |
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Question and answer, discussion |
Videoconferencing, Web course tools (w/ bulletin board and chat) |
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Mix of lecture and discussion |
Combination of videotape and videoconferencing, combination of Web course tools (w/ bulletin board and chat) and videoconferencing |
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Laboratory, hands-on |
Suitable facilities at remote sites |
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Rudd discusses how
to use teaching methods effectively (1:06) |
Click here for a text-only version.
Let's finish this destination with assessment and evaluation.
Destination 3: 8 of 11
