Course design and development for distance education as presented by Moore and Kearsley is a broad topic that can be broken down into several components. The content, sequence, assessment, media, interactions and teaching strategies all have to be accounted for in order for design to be successful and effective. Teaching strategies take new importance in light of the idea of learner autonomy. In most distance education the learner has an increased control in the path they will take to reach to intended learning outcomes. The isolation of the learner from face to face interaction with the instructor and classmates puts an increased responsibility for learning on the individual. While Moore and Kearsley do not spend much time on teaching strategy, absent entirely from their conversation is the idea of constructivism.
Constructivism is one of the current developing trends in the design and delivery of instruction and is based on the work of Piaget and Vygotsky. >From their work comes the idea that learners are capable of constructing their own knowledge. Central to Vygotsky's work is the idea that within a society knowledge is developed based on the shared meaning that the society develops. This shared meaning in any given area is the standard to which all quests for knowledge in the same area reach. Between what the individual knows and the shared meaning held by society is what Vygotsky termed Zone of Proximal Development. This provides us with a practical goal. Develop instruction to target the learner to a point in between what they already know about something and the standards set by society.
Constructivist teaching strategies would appear to be a good match for distance education given the learner autonomy and the isolation factors involved. Developing constructivist instruction is a departure from traditional instruction where the instructor acts as the deliverer of knowledge. If the learner is to be involved in constructing knowledge, constructivists believe the learner should be given a voice in determining what should be learned and the method used to learn it. Here is where applying constructivism to the development of instruction delivered over a distance is problematic. First, in many courses, there is very little dialog, so the student may have no voice. Second, it is very clear that many of the components that make up a distance education course must be carefully attended to by someone trained in distance education if the course is to be effective. What room is there to ask the learner about content and outcomes when the instruction has been developed prior to meeting with students for the first time?
A pure constructivist approach may not be the most appropriate strategy for distance education, but making slight modifications, sacrificing in some areas and choosing appropriate media can allow for designs that put the task of constructing knowledge back into the hands of the learner. A good understanding of constructivism and the use of under-developed technologies like virtual reality might make the difference in applying constructivism to distance education. The following guidelines address some potential deficiencies of constructivism for distance education and provide a framework for implementation of constructivism in distance education.
The following resources will provide additional information about constructivism and the implementation of constructivist strategies.
What is constructivism? How is it applied?
About Learning Theories: How People Learn http://www.funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how1.html
The short version of constructivist learning theory. No need to read
all about Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner, this site synthesizes the thought
into easy to understand concepts.
Constructivism: From Philosophy to Practice
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/cle.html
This site is the opposite of the previous sight. Many of the important
details of the philosophy along with practical information on the use of
constructivist principals can be found here. This is one of the only resources
I located that links application with on-line courses. This site provides
a checklist for evaluation of courses with the constructivist eye, as well
as examples of the checklist in use. This same evaluation tool can be used
by developers to assess their own distance education offering for constructivist
traits.
Appropriate Technology and Teaching Strategy
Collaborative Learning and the Internet http://tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/research/CMC/colla/iccai95_1.html
This article addresses the idea of choosing an appropriate delivery
technology. The author proposes that in order to successfully use the Internet
and the associated groupware that has developed for collaborative learning,
educators must step back from the technology and examine the cognitive
processes that collaborative learning strategies use and the difference
in the environmental factors of face to face vs. distance collaboration.
Computer Mediated Communication in Distance Education: An Annotated
Bibliography http://www.mit.edu:8001/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/d/j/djkahle/www/hgse/cmcbiblio.html
A comprehensive list of print resources and summaries that can help
guide the selection of CMC technology.
Constructivism, Technology, and the Future of Classroom Learning
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/k12/livetext/docs/construct.html
This article addresses the proper function of technology in the K-12
constructivist classroom. The authors attempt to redirect the trend of
using technology in ways that do not allow students to direct their own
learning.
MOOs and MUDs and Their Constructivist Potential
MOOs and Education: Their Role, and Relevance
http://angus.interspeed.net/eduvr/
In this article, the author addresses integrating MOOs and MUDs into the educational
system. Benefits and deficiencies are pointed out as well as their flexibility
and potential
MUDs AND MOOs: AN OVERVIEW http://www.susqu.edu/ac_depts/arts_sci/english/lharris/mudsmoos.htm
This article offers a good description of what MUDs and MOOs are and
how they work. The author describes the technical aspects of the M*s and
history behind them. Several different MUD and MOO environments are described
in detail, and there is a focus on several professional and academic sites
as well.
Virtual Reality in Education: Education and MOO, MUD and MUSH
http://www.cris.com/~angus1/
A resource and link page with information on Internet safety, getting
started with M*s and using virtual reality in education.