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Essay Instructions: Write a 3-page paper Summary. Use the article below to help aid in writing the paper. You must “quote” from the readings in order to substantiate your points. Use APA format. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

Toward a Theory of Independent Learning and Teaching: by Michael Moore
That each scholar can and should pursue knowledge in his idiosyncratic fashion is a fundamental assumption of the University and one of its most ancient traditions. That student should be permitted to study ‘extramurally’ as they say in Europe, is another tradition, one which has contributed to the growth in America of University extension. In the 1960s and 1970s these two traditions have given rise to institutions devoted largely, or entirely, to serving the independent learner. Known by such names as open University and University without walls, these institutions have captured the popular imagination and stimulated a wave of research and experiment in nontraditional methods of teaching. While such research is underway to discover more about independent learners to develop curricula for external students to test various methods and techniques of instruction the time has now come when the success of such studies is endangered by the absence of research is what W. D. Halls riding in another feel has called the macro-factors. As we continue on the one hand to develop various nontraditional methods for reaching the growing numbers of people who cannot or will not attend conventional institutions but who chooses to learn apart from their teachers we should divert some of our resources to the macro-factors, i.e., learning and teaching, discriminating between the various components of the steel, identifying the critical elements of the various forms of learning and teaching, in short, building a theoretical framework which will embrace the whole area of education. With this conviction we have in the last two years collected more than 2000 items of literature pertaining to what we thought might be called Independent learning and teaching. By examining this literature, classifying it, and organizing it, we have developed a series of definitions a framework showing the relationship between the various concept defined and a hypothesis which is to be tested to ascertain the validity of the most important of those concepts. In this paper we will describe some features of the. Of Independent learning and teaching. We are inched individual kind of learning that requires a special though common kind of teaching. Webster defines to learn, to gain knowledge or understanding of, or skill and, by study, instruction or investigate. On the side of the learner we believe learning to be a purposeful and delivered activity knowledge which is acquired by casual experience or unsought, random, incidental knowledge is not of interest to us here. Teaching is also a purposeful and delivered activity, teaching consists of play and behaviors intended to induce learning. We are therefore interested in a broad group of learners and of teaching methods in what may in Wynne’s terms be called nonschool structures deliberately designed to foster learning. Our focus is on all forms of deliberate, plan, structured learning -- and teaching -- that are carried on outside the school environment. For us, school environment means the classroom, lecture or seminar -- the setting in which the events of teaching are contemporaneous and conterminous, with the events of learning; outside the school environment therefore means all settings in which a person pursuing knowledge and in which the teacher's assistance must be communicated by print or some other medium.
A Definition of Independent Learning and Teaching
Independent learning and teaching is an educational system in which the learner is autonomous and separated from their teacher by space and time so that communication is by print, electronic, or other nonhuman medium. Independent learning and teaching is a system consisting of three subsystems: a learner, a teacher, and a method of communication. These subsystems have critical characteristics extinguishing them from learning, teaching and communications and other forms of education. To understand the learning system we must develop the concept of autonomous learner. To understand that communication system we must consider distance teaching and to understand and teaching system we must modify traditional concepts of teaching according to both the restraints and opportunities that are consequences of distance and autonomy.
The Communications System -- Distance Teaching
At the outset of this project we were as confused as everyone else seemed to be regarding the meaning of Independent learning. For example in our first explorations of the ledger among references to independent study a title surely qualifying items for inclusion in our collection of literature we found the following: why SUNY students felt complete independence of the courses the term independent study here referring to corresponding courses a system of instruments for management of independent study here it meant individualized, program instruction in a school setting; independent study in secondary schools and final report on an independent study program for the academically able which describe supervise reading programs in schools; and any rationale and a role for independent study which focuses on out of school, part-time degree programs for adults. The most obvious characteristics common to the program such as the above is separation of teacher at the time of teaching from learners at the time of learning. We stated therefore at the time with the notion of separation and proceeded to distinguish between the two major classes of learning environment one of which recall contiguous, situations and the other distance situations. In the former, the teacher as he teaches is an immediate physical proximity with the learner as he learns. Communication in such situations is by the human voice and there is immediate, spontaneous, often emotional motivate enter actions between the learner and the teacher and usually between the learner and other learners. This is a traditional, classical, teaching-learning environment: the setting of the lecture, the class, the discussion group, and the seminar. This distinguishing element in teaching and learning in this environment is what is usually call social interaction a relationship which assumes no delay in communication note distance of time and space between teacher and learner engaged in the social business of education. Since the introduction of compulsory education for children it has become widely assumed that contiguous situations are essential for good learning and teaching an assumption that now lies almost unchallenged in many educational theories. A fairly typical statement of this assumption in a paper published in the American Association for supervision and curriculum, says, in this document the word in structure refers to the activity which takes place during school and went in the classroom setting. Learning and in structure and do take place in other situations. Millions of learners protect the adults do not learn in the classroom never meet or speak directly to their teachers and may learn from teachers with whom they have no personal acquaintance at all. As contrasted to contiguous teaching and learning theirs is a distance learning and teaching situation. Distance teaching may be defined as the family of instructional method in which the teaching behavior are executed apart from the learning behaviors including those that and eight contiguous situation would be performed in the learner's presence so that communication between the teacher and learner must be facilitated by print, electronic, mechanical or other devices. In a distance learning and teaching situation the teacher performs the task of teaching in some ways similar to and in other different from teaching in a contiguous situations. Similarly, the learner performs the task of learning by a variety of techniques the distance between the two is bridged and the more effective of the bridging the last the distance. The techniques used to provide the communication between the subsystems of learner and teacher include books, correspondence programs, television, radio, programmed texts and teaching machines, computers, telephones, dial access systems, and tape recordings. We decide that a learner's distance from his or her teacher is not measured in miles or minutes. It is defined as a function of individualization and dialogue. In some methods of distance teaching the teacher is able to provide a program which is responsive to the speed with which the student can learn. Programmed texts and computer assisted instruction are such methods. Other methods do not permit such flexibility programs being prepared for distribution at a determined rate in a determined sequence and at a determined time. A program is said to be individualized to the extent to which a learner can control the pace at which he or she receives information and at which he must make his responses. Dialogue describes the extent to which a learner may communicate with his or her teacher. Learners to receive instruction from a teacher by telephone our last distance than those in the correspondence program and both are less distance than those who receive instruction from a radio teacher. As measured by dialogue and individualization met this of distance teaching in general and programs in particular can be classified from most distant to least distant. It is obvious that a distance teaching system is more than a teaching system since media skills must be employed. Even the person who tries to teach you by writing a book -- behaviors intended to induce learning -- must be an accomplished writer as well as a teacher, and in correspondence, computer, radio, film, and television teaching the media skills are diverse, and complex. Modern distance teaching me even employee more than one communications medium. 20 years ago it was possible for learner to octane in structure and through any one of a number of media or to put together into a system of his or her own, a combination of media. Having established his or her problem for inquiry he or she could consult a textbook, in role with a correspondence teacher, look out for Rabin radio programs, and so on. Only in recent years ago Teachers and media specialists actually prepared instructional packages that are designed to employ a number of media in an integrated manner. Because it is known now that there are specific teaching functions that each medium is best suited for and because the skills for communicating in each medium are of increasing complexity, single teacher-single medium distance teaching program are becoming replaced by program prepared by teams of teacher and media specialists. One off the first experiments in constructing integrated multimedia distance teaching system was at the University of Wisconsin and the largest and most successful development has been in Great Britain's Open University.
The Learning System: The Autonomous Learner
could we defined independent learning and teaching as learning at a distance from teaching? We believe not. To focus sole attention on the communication techniques used to bridge the gap between teaching and learning and distance learning situations would be Harley less serious than to ignore the gap altogether. The existence of the gap means the behaviors of teachers, and of learners, will be influenced by it and so the theory of independent learning-teaching must take account of that influence. Because he or she is not alone perhaps in a non-individualized and therefore self-effacing program perhaps without dialogue because he or she may be very distant from his teacher that learner is compelled to accept a comparatively high degree of responsibility for the conduct of his or her learning program. Simply stated, we have decided that the influence of distance on learners and teachers can be stated in terms of increased learner responsibility the characteristics of an autonomous learner. The concept of the autonomous learner is only meaningful and the framework of one of the two great row hypotheses about the nature of man and reality. It is unnecessary here to belabor the difference between the mechanistic or reactive viewpoint and the active or organismic. However it must be recognized that we are proceeding within the framework of the active model. We postulate people who'll find the sources of their own behavior the behavior of each organism being a function of its peculiar form and its state of development not as the reactive model a functional of stimuli applied to it. Ultimate responsibility then lies within the organism. With aging, the organism changes its form and structure so it is qualitatively different at one stage than at any other. The process of maturing is that of growing through the various stages. At the point in this process the young person acquires autonomy. In Erikson the ego quality of autonomy emergence in infancy through it would be consistent with his theory for a particular kind of autonomy such as auto not me and learning to emerge at a developmental stage in which the primary ego crisis is no longer that of auto not a me versus shame and doubt. It may well be that as learners people are struggling in an auto nominee versus shame and doubt crisis in grade school, high school, or University. Indeed it is our observation that many people in adult education are engaged in such a crisis. For healthy people soon or later the decision to be autonomous is taken from which time each person is responsible for his or her own learning. Borrowing some wording from Murray’s needs system, we defined learning autonomy as, the will and ability to exercise powers of learning, to overcome obstacles for oneself, to try to do difficult learning task and to resist coercion. The powers of learning are manifested in three sets of events which we will call established many bends, executive events and evaluated events. Establish mavens are those in which the learner decides the long-range goals of his or her learning. He or she identifies the need in the form of a problem to be solved, a skill to be acquired, or information to be octane. He or she also establishes short-term objectives and criteria by which to test their achievement and their achievement also of his or her general goals. Executive events are those in which the learner gathers the information he or she desires, collects ideas, practices skills as he or she works to soften his or her problems and achieve his or her goals. These events include reading books, attending lectures, consulting specialist, and performing experiments. Even IE away the events are those by which the learner and judges the appropriateness of newly learned skills, the adequacy of his or her problem solutions, the quality of ideas and knowledge acquired in the executive stage. He or she reaches conclusions, accepting or rejecting the materials and eventually deciding the goals have been achieved, or abandoning them. In the last general terms some of the characteristics of the autonomous learner can be gathered from the following descriptions by Wedemeyer, He says that some of the traits of autonomous learners are: they like to plan ahead a day, a week, a month, and longer; they usually stick to a play and modify it as they go along but never abandoning a plan without improving it to serve their convenience and to help them keep at it; they recognize their lives to make the best possible use of time and of the most critical ingredient of successful independent study; they realize they cannot start a new activity learning without giving up something else that formerly took the time now set aside study; they enjoy reading/writing/listening/and discussing; they have open minds to learning new things; they enjoy questioning/testing/and analyzing; they are not afraid of being different; they like to form generalizations/look for principles/and find the basic structural ideas in any subject; they have developed skills and note-taking/remembering/and relating; and they work cooperatively with others but enjoying being on their own and learning. In most educational theories stipulate the desirability of learners acquiring skills and establishment, execution, and evaluation events i.e. to conduct their own learning. Carl Rogers defines the educated man as the man who has learned how to learn; the man who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realize that no knowledge is secure, and the only process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security. The role of instruction in preparing a learner of such auto nominee is stated by a Bruner: injection is the provisional state that has as its object to make the learner or problem solver self-sufficient. The autonomous learner is one who knows how to proceed through each of the learning events. He or she has what Thelen calls Captaincy of self so that in educational situations he or she is aware of the many choices among what he or she might behave; he or she will make decisions among these ways; he or she will ban act and see what happens; he or she will review the process and study it with the help of books and other people; he or she will speculate about it and draw tentative conclusions from it. Thelen’s reference to books and other people points out that the autonomous learner is not to be thought of as an intellectual Robinson Crusoe, castaway and shut off in self-sufficiency. Autonomous learner have resource to teachers in all kinds of media for tickly in books but also in radio and television programs, correspondence courses, and even in contiguous teaching situations. The autonomous learner turns to teachers when he or she needs help in formulating his or her problems, gathering information, judging his or her progress, and so on, surrendering temporarily some of his or her learner autonomy as he or she in effect help me in my learning task. However if he or she is a truly autonomous learner he or she will not give up overall control of the learning process. He or she therefore seeks a particular kind of teaching which is in a Maslow's words, receptive rather than intrusive, does not condition, reinforce, or boss, but which helps him or her discover his or her own problems, his or her own aptitudes, and his or her own answers.
The Role of the Teacher in the Independent Learning and Teaching System
The relationship of an autonomous learner to a teacher, distance or not is obviously different from that of a non-autonomous learner to his or her teacher. For the non-autonomous learner we can speak up teaching -- learning relationship where the teacher's role is that of a director of learning and the learners is to respond to the teachers direction. The teacher tells the learner what is to be learned, how it is to be learned and when it is to be learned. The autonomous learner needs no such direction. To emphasize the different relationships in contrast to teaching -- learning we will refer to learning and teaching were the teacher's role is not that of director, but of resource. In learning and teaching situations it is the teacher who responds to the learner. Allen Tough rights of this kind of teaching as helping and of the teacher as a helper. The function of the teacher in this learning and teaching relationship is providing information, advice or suggestion and recommendations and reasons that help the learner make the decision and understand the reasons for it. The help provides detailed information about the various possibilities that are open but let's the learner himself or herself make the decisions. This is similar to the role of the consultant will enable someone else to do something the consultant does not him or herself make and implement decisions. The distinction between help control is important because it helps us realize that I learner can receive a great deal of help without giving up any a his or her control or responsibility. The learner autonomy is heightened by distance. Indeed the learner is compelled by distance to some degree of autonomy that he or she might find uncomfortable in other circumstances. Certainly the teacher in a distant situation is compelled to assume the ancillary, supporting, helpers role to be used and drawn upon by the learner to the extent that the learner desires. When the teacher prepares instruction for a correspondence course, a radio broadcast, or text, it is with the intentions that his or her material will meet the goals established by the learner and will be used in their executive events. What the material issues remains outside the distance teachers control the decision depends almost entirely on the worth of the material in the program. Distance learners literally turned out on to the executive material that meets their goals and turned all that which does not. Back comparison in most contiguous situations assumption events are entirely in the purview of the teacher not the learner. The teacher also dominates the evaluative processes invariably establishing the criteria of successful learning and passing judgment on whether the criteria has been satisfied. When teachers goals do not: sigh with the learners as is often the case, learners through fear, apathy, courtesy, or for a score of other non-learning motives, invariably adjust themselves to comply with the establishment behaviors of their teachers. Democratic and progressive instructors for to encourage their learners to participate in establishment and evaluate of process but seldom do the result of such participation fell to conform with the teachers own wishes and intentions. It is hardly surprising less surprising perhaps than that such teacher should even attempt to be democratic and what is intrinsically authoritarian social setting. However much progress of teachers may protest in their classroom they have not been able to disassociate themselves from the role of the loco parentis nor to discourage learners from deferring to the authority that proceeds from that role. We have shown that in independent learning and teaching the learner is likely to be more autonomous and teachers are more auxiliary van in contiguous teaching-learning. However because of the distance the events up teaching in independent learning and teaching situations must be especially carefully contrived. Since they are to be communicated by nonhuman devices programs must be most carefully prepared with the teachers aims and intentions unambiguously stated and the target population clearly, defined materials well devised, well illustrated, appropriately paced. The contiguous teacher can hope to improvise alternatives if he or she senses that what he or she has tried to communicate has not been understood. The distance teacher cannot. If his or her media permit he or she can arrange feedback but generally he or she tries to anticipate questions and problems and prepare responses and demands of the questions. The principal is best seen in branching forms of programmed instruction and also in a grosser or form in the bibliographic sources provided at the end of the textbook chapters were the learner is directed to sources for answers to his or her anticipated questions. Independent learning and teaching, teaching is perhaps paradoxically both responsive and anticipatory. Consider the analogy with dining. HL sits expectedly at his mother table, and consumes the meal she places before him. He may try to reject that which he finds unpalatable or seeks extra helpings of what he enjoys but the nature of the meal is limited and is determined by his mother with little contribution from the child. By comparison in the cafeteria in anticipation of the patrons demand a selection of dishes has been prepared and exposed of view. Those in the diner likes he may select those he dislikes he will certainly reject. In choice is made be nutritionally sound or foolish. He made, in search of a particular fare, which he may find, or, if unsuccessful, he may reject the whole offering, and take his appetite elsewhere. So with the learning and teaching compared with teaching-learning; and the latter, the learner tastes only be intellectual plumes prepared by his loving teacher, while in the form of, his consumption is determined by his own appetite, and the production of teaching programs is in anticipation of his demands. In independent learning and teaching theory therefore teaching is thought of a system of behaviors intended to induce learning but no inducement occurs until the learner him or herself has already stated to behave in a way of a learner by approaching the work of the teacher already completed perhaps in anticipation of such an approach.
A Hypothetical Framework and Proposal for Testing It
So far we have shown that an independent learning and teaching system have: autonomous learners engaged in learning events, this is teachers preparing programs out instruction for transmission through communication media, and communications media system to bring teaching programs to learners in response to learner's demands. It are has turned into relations between these three subsystems we tried to order a sample of distance teaching programs according to the kind of extent of auto nominee the learner is expected -- or permitted -- to exercise. We place programs inappropriate positions on a continuum with those permitting the exercise or most often on a meet at one extreme and those with least at the other. For every program we sought to identify the relationship between learners and teachers and were control of each instructional process lay by asking: is learning self initiated and self-motivated?, what identifies goals and objectives and selects problems for study?, who determines the pace, the sequence and the methods of information gathering?, what provisions is therefore development for learners ideas and four creative solutions to problems?, is emphasis on gathering information external to the learner?, how flexible as it each instructional process to the requirements of the learner?, how is the usefulness and quality of learning judged?, we also as previously noted classified programs according to the distance between learners and teachers and obtain the following hierarchy of independent learning and teaching methods: when we compared the two classifications we found that there is a relationship between the situation programs in the distance hierarchy, and in the autonomy hierarchy. Programs that were placed for providing more auto nominee in the learning events were also placed more distance. Our definition of independent learning and teacher in terms on both distance an autonomy is based on this observation. There are degrees of independent learning and teaching. The more distance the more independent but simultaneously the more distance the greater the learner autonomy. The concept of independence therefore must be two-dimensional. The above observation has given us a hypothesis which are proposing to test their by seeking empirical support for our theory. Our hypothesis is that more autonomous persons will be attracted to more distance methods of learning and teaching and therefore that measure would difference will be found in the auto nominee of learners in programs varying in distance. It seems reasonable to suppose that if it is indeed true that more distance methods of learning and teaching require the exercise of greater learn on anatomy these kinds of people purchase of a successfully in such programs will be measurably more autonomous than learners and less distance programs. The measurement of auto nominee may cost us difficulties if we plan to use selected items of one of the major non-projective test a personality to get at this. We will octane samples learners and very distance situations -- students engaged in personally-directed study in public libraries and less distance students -- some using an educational television program others setting the correspondence and some by the educational telephone network. The hypotheses under test will be that between these groups there are no difference in the distribution of auto nominee scores. If no differences are found i.e. if highly autonomous people are found to learn is happily in less distance methods as in more distance and less autonomous people to learn in more distant methods as well as less distance it would suggest that there is not the strong relationship between distance and not amount to me that we believe we observed in our examination of program types and the basis of our theory would be falsified.
Systems of Independent Learning and Teaching
Our research has been limited definition description an explanation in the field of independent learning and teaching. However in conclusion it is appropriate that as educators concerned with overwhelming impediments to good learning we use some of the notions described so far suggests why the expansion of systems of independent learning and teaching is desirable in the form that such systems might take. The educational argument for developing systems for independent learning and teaching has both psychological and economic-social aspects. Psychologically speaking adulthood is at a time of differentiation of interest, attitudes, skills, social roles, even intelligence. In other words as one gets older one becomes more peculiarly oneself, more unique, more unlike all others. While stages of growth are general and problems of growth have generalizable, common characteristics, for each individual every problem is a function of his organism in transaction with his environment and therefore in many respects entirely unlike the problems of authors. In economic-social terms in the 1970s are a time of ever increasing specialization of technology and of labor. The better of an adult's formal education the more advanced specialize is his or her employment likely to be in the more rapidly changing. The level of education of all adults is rising the degree of specialization is increasing the rate of change is accelerating. We are now generally aware that vocational redundancy occurs so frequently that for most workers frequent retraining is necessary. At the level of the university teaching for example at every teacher is a continuing, independent learner. The education needs of adults are derived from the work problems or problems arising in the course of personal growth. We have suggested that both kinds of problems are highly specialize. Therefore while it may or may not be practical to bring children into continuous learning situations for teaching-learning relevant to their supposedly common needs it is entirely impractical to try to develop such situations as the normal environment for adult education. Except for the most gross, the most common needs teaching of illiterates in urban centers for example it is possible to find at the same place and at the same time enough adults with common learning needs and teachers qualified to help them. For the overwhelming majority of adult needs tailor-made programs are necessary. An independent learning-teaching system is a tailor-made program. It consists as we have described of a learner who has developed the will and the skill to be an autonomous learner, teachers who can anticipate learners needs and respond to them with varying degrees of dialogue and individualization. What strikes the concerned educator is the reluctance of formal educational institutions to encourage the development of independent learning and teaching systems. Although there have been signs of change in recent years independent learning teaching is still regarded by most institutions and educators at best as a minor appendage to reckless schooling, autonomous learning is seldom positively encouraged and learners who do succeed in constructing their own learning and teaching programs are discriminated against. In view of this and collect it is surprising -- and perhaps a sign of little influence that educators really have -- that vast numbers of papers to pursue independent teaching and learning programs. It usually surprises educators of children in school who hear how large a proportion of the learning community is adult and how many of those learners are seriously learning without the benefit of could mention of teaching. Estimates of numbers vary depending on differences in definitions. The authoritative Johnstone study estimated that up 24 million adult learners in the US nearly 9 million were engaged in independent studying, that was a conservative estimate. At the up the extreme, Allen Tough states that all adults are engaged in programs of independent learning almost everyone undertakes at least two major learning efforts in here and some individuals undertake as many as 15 or 20. It should be emphasized that Tough was not describing incidental learning but projects which were major highly delivered efforts to gain new knowledge, insight, or understanding. He writes, “it is common for any man or a woman to spend 700 hours a year at learning projects. About 70% of all learning projects are planned by the learner him or herself, who seeks help and subject matter from a variety of acquaintances, experts, and printed resources.” From this perspective it seems that be contemporary world of learning and teaching like the iceberg it is not really as it appears. Above the surface, visible to all, floats the world of youths oriented, formal, school and college education, Kinney Garden to graduate school. Here teachers motivate common sure, measure, and take roll-call, whilst it was respond, learn, and take examinations. And researchers research. However below the surface of the public schools and universities for every youth in the formal system there would seem to be several a dopes organizing their own learning programs setting their own objectives, pursuing the relevant materials, evaluating their progress, and in all of these have been seeking out what help they need. Concerned educators are pace with the practical problem of how to mobilize resources of our traditional institutions project lead those resources that are underused, or misuse, and to apply these resources in a system that wait to meet the needs of large numbers of presently neglected learners. In Wisconsin 1978 Governor's commission on education identified a potential population of 800,000 independent learners one third of the adult population and propose the establishment of a system to serve them. The proposed system was called the open education system and became generally known as the open school. The open school would be an integrated system of autonomous learners, distance teachers, and communications media. It would be governed by an open education board composed of members of the governing board of each of the main existing educational institutions, and members presenting private education, libraries, business and in Street, commercial broadcasting, labor and students. The existing institutions where and therefore offered the opportunity to work together and providing programs of ensure option to independent learners. The system was intended to supply opportunity to those who to reckless schools did not reach but in doing so to complement and not to rival need educational programs and services already provided. The system would be responsive to learners trying to provide the learning programs that were needed as the need was expressed by the clientele to provide all citizens of the state with the means of learning throughout their lives as needs and circumstances require new learning at the convenience of the learner citizens. The emphasis in the open school approach is on providing the service people need more than on providing what institutions may desire to offer. If the system would consist of: a learning resources Center -- the teaching subsystem, with a small staff of teaching and learning specialists with access to every education institution in the state, and a communications resource in a -- the communications subsystem with access to the states television, radio, ETN, film, library, computer, and other communication resources, and, of course, the state's independent learners. Over a period of years by borrowing specialist from the learning and communication resources the open school would develop a bank of education programs covering an ever widening area of knowledge. These programs would consist of a balanced offering of credits and noncredit programs,... a curriculum of learning as a life loan experience... the programs... match to people's needs and abilities as they emerged, not solely to age or previous schooling. Open school staffed would include program teams, delivery systems and access system to serve as distance learners and see that particular individual needs were being met. Such services would range from the minimal assistance that a highly autonomous, and noncredit seeking learner might have -- in many ways similar to the service of a reference library and -- to full-fledged counseling and instruction for less autonomous, but distance, credits seeking learners. The open education system has not yet been established. It is our hope that it shall will be, as it is also our hope by developing the theory of independent learning and teaching, we will contribute to his establishment. However to enter into the open education system we require a major adjustment of philosophy by many long-established institutions and that of course takes time.

Essay Instructions: The essay reqirment is:

Analyze a media event that can be argued to be a "pseudo-event"and discuss the implications that this event might have on a viewer's undrstatnding and/or perception of the social roles of communication media (for example: does the knowledge that an event is "staged" lessen the impact of its information-providing role?)

Words:2500

Essay Instructions: ASSESSMENT OVERVIEW
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AS THIS IS A SHORT BUSINESS REPORT ONLY

You are required to research and write a report about three selected communication mediums
best suited for announcing important news to all employees within a small organisation. YOU WILL NEED TO PRESENT THIS INFORMATION IN A SHORT REPORT AS A 2ND OR 3RD PERSON!

ASSESSMENT DETAILS
You are the communication manager of a discount electronics retail warehouse called Lee
Electronics. The general manager has asked you to communicate to all staff, including middle
management, the news that sales targets were met for the year and bonuses will be paid at
Christmas time.

From the list below, choose three mediums you believe would be effective tools to communicate
the message to all staff:
? email to all staff
? posters to be put up around the factory
? company letter to be sent out to all staff
? article to go in the company newsletter
? general manager presentation to staff i.e. Powerpoint style.

YOUR REPORT WILL NEED TO: identify three media
? report on why you chose them, and why they?re effective
? explain how each medium will communicate the message to the audience
? follow the conventions of short report style.

Assessment criteria
1. Knowledge of communication media for a given audience.
2. Knowledge of content, layout and presentation for each communication medium.
3. Adherence to short report style and layout.
4. Professional presentation of work including grammar and spelling.
5. Correct Harvard referencing

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU
**Explain why the chosen media were selected and why they are considered to be the most effective for the particular audience. Also explain how they can be effectively used.
**Provide excellent evidence of the content understanding as well as the requirements of layout and presentation of the chosen mediums.

Formatting the Short report
** purpose is to persuade the General Manager about the best means for communicating a particular message to the staff. You need to JUSTIFY WHY you are recommending each of the 3 methods chosen.

REPORT might include:
Title page
Executive summary (word count not included)
Introduction
Analysis (where you include the discussion on the chosen tools)
Conclusions/recommendations
References

SOME Q's to consider:
who is your audience?
what is the context?
what type of organisation? (e.g. small business, large government department, retail outlet)
Any unique challenges?

THIS IS A SHORT BUSINESS REPORT NOT AN ACADEMIC REPORT

THANK YOU :)

Essay Instructions: This is a formal paper, use readings below to help aid on answering the discussion question. You must quote from the readings in order to substantiate your points. Use APA format when quoting from the readings. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

Question:
1.If you had to pick just one of these to talk about to a manager who was setting up a distance education program, which one would you choose and why?

Michael Moore’s Tips for Managers Setting up a Distance Education Program

In a recent meeting I was asked to give some tips and tricks and point out some traps for people in the organization that is thinking about setting up a distance education program, in this case within the training division of a very large multinational corporation. Such requests make me nervous, but I don't want people to underestimate what is involved in developing a good distance education program and the word trick suggest what is involved may be rather trivial. Trainers and teachers may learn techniques (the tricks), but they also need to learn principles, and they must then be organized in ways that allow them to apply those principles and addressing the learning needs of the organization. In the second point lies my concern. I fear that if we talk too much about techniques and technologies, we may reinforce the tendency of managers to avoid the more important issues involved in reorganizing their human and capital resources, a resort extremely damaging to interests of the organization. However, in this particular meeting I was able to use the very point as a tip, and then to make of the generalizations that I realized I make very frequently and that I have decided to share here. I suppose these points could be described as tips and tricks, although I think I can dignify at least a few of them as principles! Perhaps the main value of thinking about tips is that, by definition, they are short, without deep elaboration or explanation. (In listing the tips below I will use term trainer and trainees to reflect the audience I was addressing, but the terms are interchangeable with teacher for instructor and student.)
Tip One: Get the Support of Top Management
The survival and success of your organization in the information age will depend on on-the-job education and training; distance education can provide the key to this training. This fact should be impress upon your top management because you must have its support as you go about setting up your distance education program the support of top management does not guarantee a successful distance education program, but the lack of four, ongoing, and open support of management is a guarantee you will not be complete the successful. Before preceding you will have to assess how much support you have, and the end play and the type and extent of your distance education program accordingly you must not try to establish a full-scale system unless you are sure you have the unwavering support of top management.


Tip Two: Be Conservative, Focus on Specific Projects
Your challenge is to change the way people think about training, learning, and teaching. If top management decrees it, you may be able to set up a total distance education system; however, it is more likely that will have to restructure the existing system. Not try to do this all at once! Identify one content or subject area, one for which you can accept support from the trainers involved, and concentrate on developing a distance education program in that one area. Success there will demonstrate the effectiveness of distance education method and will demonstrate the non-threatening nature of the changes involved. The best advocates of the new approach will be the trainers and trainees in bulk, who will speak from experience. If the program is done well, other trainers will as to be involved. Everything hinges on good quality, which is another argument for progressing conservatively. It is better to take more time and do less -- but do it superbly -- than to try to do too much too quickly. You are not likely to have a second chance. There aren't too many doubters ready to say, I told you it wouldn't work here.
Tip Three: Take Time to Design
Since distance education uses technology and techniques (people who work with technology), the ratio of resources for design and course preparation compared to course implementation is higher than in conventional training. Probably the most common cause of failure is impatience on the part of managers as well as instructors to get into the implementation phase of the program -- to see the students and trainees at work -- before a proper foundation of course materials and strategies have been laid. While there can be no cookbook prescription of the time needed in design, I sometimes help managers appreciate the scale of what is desirable at pointing out that there are organizations that vote 50 hours of design for every hour of implementation. Such time spent in designing and producing high-quality materials, planning teaching strategies, training trainers will increase the chances of success. There is a direct relationship between the institutional the effectiveness of a program and the time and money spent in its design.
Tip Four: Choose Communication Media Carefully
It is surprising how many organizations install a training tool -- in other words a technology -- and then try to design their training programs around that particular tool. At different times the fashionable tool has been programmed text, videos, video by satellite, audiographics, seedy ROM, and today, the World Wide Web. These are other technologies are all valuable under some conditions, a virtual junk under others. Careful selection tools to meet specific needs critically important. Since learning depends on both reviewing new information and processing it, there has to be both presentation of information and interaction with it. Some media are better suited for the presentation role, others for interaction. Therefore, media must be mixed and matched to meet the needs of communicating particular content to particular learners in particular locations using various teaching processes. There is no magic medium, and a mixture of media will always be better than any single medium. You should always consider mixing at least one asynchronous medium to provide presentation of information and one synchronous medium to provide interaction. Always look for the most simple medium for a given content, teaching process, and clientele. There is no relationship between the cost of medium and its instructional effectiveness. For example, a text (asynchronous) supported by an audio-conference (synchronous), when both are well designed, may be a perfectly effective mix the media for a relatively small number of well motivated, well read students were able to meet occasionally in real-time. Be especially cautious about selecting video media; Mara ruled is to pass, for this content and these learners do we need pictures? If so, do we need moving pictures? If so, do we need moving pictures in real time? This simple test results in saving money by using for grabs is that of videotapes, or videotapes instead of full-motion, satellite-delivered program. More important than saving money, it means that the right medium was used for the educational purpose and that the program was better as a result of destroys.
Tip Five: Learners Support is as Important as Good Design
A good distance education system is one that provides a humane environment for learning. One goal of the media selection process is to identify those educational functions that can be delivered better by technology than by people and thus released people to do those things that people do better than technology. This trade-off usually mean providing support to individual learners and groups of learners as they enter at the subject matter delivered by technology. This role, that of the learning facilitator, is vitally important, and the organization should be systematic and setting up its learners support and in training personnel for this function, monitoring them, and rewarding them. In many Corporation, branch managers will have responsibility for training their staffs sense that training may be a little prayer achieve for their senior management. The branch managers are neither trained for nor rewarded for the training role. If this situation exist and is not changed, there may be no point in spending money on communication technologies or even on course design. Setting in place well-trained learners support network is essential for a successful distance education system. There is a direct relationship between the instructional effectiveness of the program and the time and money spent on learners support.
In summary, here are my five tips for managers who are thinking about distance education: and do all you can to obtain support from your top management, focus on specific projects and do them superbly, take time and resources to plan thoroughly and designed well, select media tools according to the needs of the program, and select, train, monitor, reward learners support personnel.
My last word is about getting help. Setting up a distance education program is more complex than it appears. You should probably seek expert help, and I suggest you might use the above five tips as a checking list to evaluate the experience of potential consultants. Do not be distracted by consultants knowledge about a particular communication technology. Knowing how to set up and running video, computer, and audio-graphic system is fairly system. There are more important questions to ask about the consultants: in June they have experience with setting up and training a learners support network? Do they have experience with putting together integrated media packages, or do they seem wedded to a particular technology? Can they demonstrate knowledge of techniques necessary to design in distance learning program? Have they, for example, written a successful study guide all worked in a course team? These are the areas that you will need most help in.