Making Distance Education Successful

Distance Education and my explanation of it, may be found on: Powtoon.

First experience with distance learning

Reflecting back on the courses I have taken as a graduate and undergraduate student and reflecting on the reading in chapter 1, the first experience that I had with distance learning would have been as an undergraduate student.  I have a BFA with a concentration in Graphic Design.  The course was one of four methods courses in graphic design that focused on the principles and problem solving in the field of graphic design.  The course setup was very intense and we met as a class 2 1/2 hours twice a week and had online lectures that we were required to do each week.  The online lectures focused on the various printing formats and methods that are available in the field of graphic design. Each lecture was approximately one hour-long and was structured with the instructor presenting on a printing format. The instructor was situated at the front of a classroom with a whiteboard behind her. During the presentation she would write important key points and facts from her presentation on the whiteboard. The camera was set up, so that the instructor and the whiteboard was covered in the recorded presentation. The instructor was a very good presenter and knew the material very well, but the problem with the recorded presentation was that the key points and facts from her presentation written on the whiteboard were almost impossible to see and read with how the camera was setup.

The concept that the instructor was attempting to add to this course of recorded lectures that focused on just one portion of the course materials being covered online, so that when we met in the traditional format of face-to-face, this particular portion of the material did not need to be discussed during our class meetings and this left the class time for designing. Unfortunately, because of how the recordings were done students had difficulty seeing the various points and facts of her presentation that were placed on the whiteboard. As a student I was focused on trying to make sure that I was getting each of the key points and facts that were being written on the whiteboard during the presentation and found myself missing key information from the presentation.  As students we were able to watch the videos as many times as we needed too, but with how intense the course was setup and with all the others course requirements the videos became more of a frustration to the students.  A key point in the reading from Teaching and Learning at a Distance (chapter 1) was that distance education, may "change, even restructure, education, but only if it is possible to make the experience of the distant learner complete, satisfying, and acceptable." (p. 26) When designing a course for online format, whether it is a portion of the course or the entire course, it is essential that the design of the course materials be presented, so that students may be able to easily and smoothly access and learn from the presentation.