Advantages and Disadvantages of Distance Education

         Distance education has come, nowadays, a great option for most people who want to get an education all over the world due its effectiveness and practicality; these aspects bring many possibilities and opportunities for a wide range of people when they decide to get an education, despite certain characteristics that might have been an issue for them in a traditional in-class learning system. To better serve this purpose, distance learning has been changing and improving its methods in order to help students to acquire and develop their knowledge and proficiency. Consequently, this kind of teaching-learning alternative is increasing its popularity day by day. Although this is a fact, there are a few points that those who want to take a chance on it should consider before starting a distance course. For this reason, it is important that recruits have a suitable conceptualization of the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning education.

In a personal note, distance education has been a great resource in my academic practice since it has allowed me to combine my educational, my personal, and my professional interests. Another convenience of this learning system is that I was in control of the pace in my learning; I chose what to study and how long to study according to my own learning style.  I noticed that despite what everybody might think, it could be hard for a person to engage into this kind of learning due most of the time it is up to the students to prepare their class material and homework; most of us are used to have the presence of a teacher who is guiding us step by step all along the course. Besides, the success of the course depends mostly in how well the instructions are given by the teacher and followed by the students.

There are great advantages for distance learners students. One of them would be the ease for time management. According to Lindner & Murphy, “distance education occurs when the instructors and learners are separated by time and/or location” (as cited in Dooley, Lindner, & Dooley, 2005, p.2). This gap of time/location between teachers and students, allows trainees to distribute their time according to their own needs and obligations.

Normative openness is another great advantage; as well as students manage their time, they also are able to manage the literature and materials for their education according to their own learning styles. So, learners have the choice to follow the material suggested by teachers and reinforce it with some other sources that might help them to have a better comprehension of the topic of study.

Economical expenses is an issue that cannot be overlooked, since it allows students to study at home, work, or any other place, without the need of spending money on traveling or food.

In contrast with the points established above, the absence of a specific schedule can be a great disadvantage; students might not stick to their study schedule, or they might not have one at all, and get involved sporadically with their time of study and their role of students. This is known also as procrastination; students tend to leave every homework or exams preparation to the last minute jeopardizing their grading results.

Lack of immediate positive feedback is a factor that can lead down the motivation of a student. When teachers take too long to assess the homework of their students, apprentices tend to flounder in their effort to learn. This happens also when the feedback is not given properly. The students have to feel comfortable with their feedback, and feel like they effort is paying off; even when they are not doing as well as expected, a positive feedback could encourage them to keep working and improving themselves.

Distance education could lead indirectly to individual initiative; since learners work most of their time by themselves, cooperation among classmates is virtually non-existent. The consequence of this individuality is the isolation of students. Although a learner might be smart enough to understand and develop a topic, it is always important to check other points of view to enhance the perception and reinforce the knowledge of every subject.  Teachers can promote students interaction with the help of technology; “anyone who wants has the technical capability for connecting with the Internet is connected automatically to the global part of the hyped global village, but educators and learners need to work more carefully to build effective communities.” (Porter, 2004, p. 193). These kinds of communities would have to be well monitored by the teacher, who should check that every participation is made to enlighten the topic in turn in a congruent and proper manner.

The use of sessions, videoconferences, conference calls and voluntary group chats is a great resource to improve distance education system. As it was exposed previously, creating a community where there is teachers-students and students-students interaction creates a sense of camaraderie which is fundamental in every learning process. It is recommendable, as frequently as possible, to establish a schedule where teachers and students can interact in real time despite the location; in this way, any doubt or discrepancy in the course information or instructions given to a certain task can be explained and solved.

Distance learning represents the solution to a wide range of people with the desire of getting an education, but do not have the time, economical resources, or adequate geographical situation. Nowadays, most people tend to be multifaceted and multitask; and for all of them, this kind or learning gives them the chance to reach the kind of education they are looking for.  Despite it is an effective and practical resource, it is not easy to keep up with the system; as anything else, it has a lot of advantages as disadvantages. In order for the student to achieve their goals successfully, it is required that they get committed to the course, organize their time to complete their homework and projects, and look the way to benefit from the advantages and overcome the disadvantages of the system.

 

Dooley, K. E., Lindner, J. R., & Dooley, L. M. (2005). Advanced methods in distance education: Application and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

Howard, R. (1995). Distance education for language teachers: A UK perspective. London: Ian McGrath.

Porter, L. R. (2004). Developing an online curriculum: technologies and techniques. Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

What should ESL teachers do to evaluate their in-class students?

In the classroom, teachers are the principal assessors of students. Teachers design their own assessment tools in order to check over the progress of students during their study period and the achieving year-end learning outcomes. Classroom-based assessment allows teachers to give periodical feedback to their students so they can reflect on their development and adjust their learning techniques.

When ESL teachers are developing the assessing tools for their classes, it is important to keep in mind the following points:

• Use a variety of assessment techniques that clearly reflect the progress for each basic skill according to the approach used for the second language learning.

• Teachers should use assessment to give positive and effective feedback. If students, somehow, appreciate feedback, they will use it to improve their language development.

• The percentage of the final mark allotted to each of the basic skills should reflect the amount of time that the students spend on that component. For example, if students are spending 70% of their time on oral activities, 70% of their final mark should be determined by oral evaluation.

• Tests should measure what they say they are measuring. For example, if students are being tested for comprehension and they are asked to write their answers, teachers should focus on their responses instead of whether or not the information was spelled correctly.

• Evaluation should take place in the context of meaningful activities which are congruent with the way in which students are taught.

• Evaluation should be based on the English Language curriculum objectives; in general, the teacher will use foundational objectives for summative evaluation and learning objectives for formative evaluation.

• Students should be aware of the characteristics of the assessment procedures that will be used during the course.

In the next link, you will be able to find a text about Distance Learning Evaluation. Please read it to compare with previous information. Any comments will be highly appreciated.

https://docs.google.com/a/uabc.edu.mx/document/d/1ngN8ExySmqBSboYnzxpvgT49l4v8NGklkTA5bnXi3VE/edit

Comparatives Online Exercise

Materials for online classes should have certain characteristics, starting with easy access to the right material required by the students, so they can complete their objectives. To get the students attention and keep them focused, it is important to have dynamic and interactive activities. Finally, to get the best out of the activity, students have to get feedback about their performance. 

In the following link, there is an exercise that helps students to evaluate their comprehension in the use of comparatives.

http://uk3.hotpotatoes.net/ex/119073/BBEHFEWO.php

I hope you have the time to take a look and make your comments.

Thanks for your support.

Moshe Moto.

Ways to support and assist the student in a distance learning course

Distance education has become a great phenomenon due its advantages on time management and distance issues. Every day, the number of distance learners is increasing, and more and more students are achieving their goals; which are also the purposes of teachers in charge of the distance learning programs administration. However, not everyone who starts this kind of learning manage to finish the courses; the reason is a combination of characteristics as could be personality, learning styles, level of organization, motivation, and some other related factors. To reduce the amount of students who abandon their distance education programs, the teachers have to acquire the responsibility of helping students to overcome their learning obstacles; and so, they can successfully complete their objectives.

Following instruction can be an issue for many students due the interpretation that they might give them; even more when these instructions lack of explicitness and precision. James and Galbraith (as cited  in E. Dooley, M. Dooley & Linder, 2005, p.67) recommend that educators match instruction to their learners’ styles of perception. To accomplish this, a survey of learning styles of the students should be made and, as Rita Dunn, co-creator of Dunn and Dunn’s model recommends, develop the teaching program according to the style that gets the highest number of learners, and re-teaching programs for secondary styles. Another way of dealing with this issue might be the creation of a section of questions for every topic that it is being studied; if the learning program is permanent and changes to it are made rarely, it would be wise to have a “Frequently Asked Question” section. Both alternatives are good options because they aim to the needs of the student and try to solve their problems with the perception and the interpretation of instructions.

Procrastination seems to be another of the most common inconveniences for distance learners due the tendency of most of the people to stay in their comfort zone and leave behind their duties and obligations; students in this situation tend to leave their home works and projects for the last minute. This is an issue that concerns mostly to the students; they must create a schedule of activities and due dates and stick to it as possible. But even then, to help students who are struggling with this predicament, teachers in charge can conceive a step by step checking program where they can monitor the advancement of learners during the process of their tasks until they reach the final goal. This action could stimulate students to keep working regularly on their assignments and keep them in time.

Finally, motivation is a factor that affects students most of the time and the lack of it is a major cause of abandonment. According to Howard, Schenk, & Discenza (as cited in E. Dooley, M. Dooley & Linder, 2005, p.57) Distance education as a contextual application, we would argue, is mature. The widespread appeal and acceptance of online learning, however, has not resulted in changes necessary to maximize its effectiveness and efficiency (p. vi). In this case, the teachers that create online distance learning programs could aim to this effectiveness and efficiency by trying to motivate their students to persist on their study objectives. Taking advantage of technology, teacher can include in their learning programs online interactive and auto-evaluating activities. Knowing how well they are performing is very important for learners; so, another measure to keep them motivated is the prompt and positive feedback by their teachers to their assignments.

There are many issues that distance education learners have to face in order to achieve their educational objectives. Despite overcoming them depends mostly on the efforts of students themselves, teachers can plan play a very important role as guides and advisors. Adapting to the learning styles of the students, helping them to keep on track with their assignments, and motivating them with entertaining activities and positive feedback could be great resources to succeed over their obstacles.

References:

Dooley, K. E., Linder, J. R., & Dooley, L. M. (2005). Advanced methods in distance education. London: Idea Group Inc.

Howard, R. (1995). Distance Education for Language Teachers : A UK Perspective. Great Britain: Cromwell Press.

 

 

Promoting Self-learning and Autonomy

Promoting Self-learning and Autonomy

It is logical to think that learners, who get involved into a learning situation that requires self-learning and autonomy, do not have the knowledge and skills to plan, monitor, control, assess, review, and evaluate their learning development. It would be cleaver that self-learning students would have a learner advisor who guides them through the learning process; helps them to identify their goals; suggests them proper material and strategies; motivates, supports, and encourages them; shows them how to self-evaluate; and helps them to identify the most conventional learning approach. Advising, according Carson and Maynard (2013), is “the process of helping students to direct their own paths and become better, more autonomous language learners” (p. 57)

To achieve the tasks mentioned previously, the learning adviser must be aware of the knowledge and abilities that each student has to succeed in his or her autonomy development. A good way to measure these characteristics in a student, introspective and retrospective self-reports, diaries, and evaluation sheets can be great tools. With these kinds of work, the adviser is able to find out the techniques and strategies that the students have been using, their feelings towards a particular skill, problems in the studies, and expectations of a course.

As can be seen, developing autonomy in a self-learning process is not an easy task; the students have to be organized, have motivation, and work hard. The best way for a student to keep up in the learning process is to have a learning advisor who can guide them, advise them, and keep them motivated to achieve their goals.  

 

Mynard, J. (January, 2011). Association Internationale De Linguistique Appliquée. Recovered March, 2014, from http://ailarenla.org/lall/january2011/mynard_b_2011/

Mynard, J., & Carson, L. (2012). Advising in Language Learning: Dialogue, Tools and Context. New York: Pearson Education Limited.

Thanasoulas, D. (November, 2000). The Internet TESL Journal. Recovered March, 2014, from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html

 

 

Strengths and weaknesses of the distance learner

Since each student is different, their strengths and weaknesses will also be different; they are determined by the skills and the interest that students have for the courses being taken; a student may have the ability in one area of study and succeed, but find difficult another and fail.

The main strengths that are essential in students are organization and hard working. For students, being able to coordinate and give the time to as many courses they might have is imperative. Organization goes together with hard work, which includes keeping up to the studying schedule. Working hard may involve spending too much time in libraries or in the house preparing their homework and projects.

Having a good level of reading comprehension is a valuable strength for students since most of their work, being on distance, will be on written texts.

           On the other side, the most common weaknesses seen in students are lack of motivation and procrastination. Most students begin a course with great expectations, but as time goes by, they might lose their motivation due that they find the course boring, difficult or too hard to keep up with it. But what seems to be the biggest weakness of students is procrastination. Putting off assignments or waiting until the last moment is can lead to a bad grade or adding months, if not years.
           Distance education can be a pleasant and satisfying experience. But, distance education is not for everyone. While some persons do well on the autonomy and liberty offered through such classes, others find themselves regretting their decision and craving they had enrolled at a traditional education system.