Distance education moves closer to mainstream

Posted by in Uncategorized Mar 24th, 2004

The College of Education at Temple University has released a document about the present and future of distance education. Online learning is more mainstream than most traditional faculty thought it ever would be. I found this at Distance Educator…

Read it here.

And an excerpt…

Distance education (DE) is now closer to being main stream than many faculty and administrators in universities thought it would be. No longer is DE considered to be novel, or only for the technologically savvy. BlackBoard and WebCT, the two most widely used online course management systems, have made it easier for faculty to reach out to students at any time, in any place. And yet, Bradburn (2002) reported data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty in the fall of 1998 that showed only six percent of instructional faculty and staff who reported teaching for-credit classes indicated they taught at least one distance education class. While the data was from 1998, the sample included 980 postsecondary institutions and a total of 18,000 returned and usable faculty questionnaires. Granted in 1998 easy access and use of the World Wide Web through web browsers was still relatively fresh. The Web was in the process of changing the nature of communication and educational opportunities, and asynchronous learning networks were being established in many institutions. So, while it may not be remarkable that only 6% of faculty reported teaching through distance education in 1998, it is an important benchmark for current thinking and planning.

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