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Distance Education Essays and Research Papers

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Title: distance education

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Essay Instructions: You are to write a 3-page paper. The various forms of distance education discussed in the readings(correspondence, audio conferencing, Web, ect) in light of what you have found to be the “strengths and weaknesses” of the particular forms. Carefully reflect on Chere Campbell Gibson view about the future of distance education make reference to a comments in the paper.

Correspondence education and home study
Today as in the past, millions of people in the United States and even more in less developed countries study in distance education programs in which the main medium of communication this text sent through the post (i.e. by correspondence). Of these, the largest number in the United States take courses from private home study schools accredited by the distance education and training Council. The distance education and training Council estimates that more than 4 million people enroll in their courses every year. The council of credits more than 60 schools offering more than 1000 different subjects, such as training of beautician’s, truck drivers, jewelers, gun repair, Cooks, hotel managers and travel agents. Almost all these courses are presented in print and distributed by the mail, with into action between injectors and students also by mail. CD-ROMs and the Internet are also increasingly used. Two of the most famous home study schools are the American school, founded in 1897 in Chicago, and the international correspondent school, founded in 1891 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Since its founding the international correspondent school has provided courses to over 12 million students; it is now owned by the Thomson publishing and has been renamed education direct. It offers more than 40 diploma programs and technical skills, such as electronics and auto mechanics, computers (PC repair, programming), and business (accounting, marketing), as well as associate degrees in business and engineering. In other historically important home study school is Hadley school for the blind, founded in 1920, which provides high school and continuing education for the blind and their families using Braille, large print, and audio cassettes. The US military and other government agencies make extensive use of correspondents studying in their training programs. For example, the Air Force Institute for advanced distributed learning offers approximately 350 courses in every aspect of the Air Force training, from specialized military subjects to correct development skills. Home study course is generally involve a relatively low degree of interaction between student and the ensure that no interaction with other students. Assignments are submitted and graded Everett with vegetables and usually the student decides when to take the final examination; this is usually done under the supervision of a Proctor. This is generally an individual, self-directed form of study.
Independent study
The term independent study was chosen in the mid-19 60s by University administrators to decide that corresponded courses and to distinguish them from a private, for profit schools. There are more than 150 universities providing such courses in the United States. Compared with courses offered by distance education and training Council institutions, the content tends to be more academic and vocational, and it is likely there will be more interaction between inched doctors and students. In addition to the printed study guides and text, University independent study courses are more likely to include other technologies, such as videotapes, television broadcast, CD-ROMs, and the use of the Internet. Access to independent study courses for credit is not as open as access to home study course is, since students must satisfy the entrance requirements of the university offering courses. Bachelor, or Masters levels, as well as certificate programs, and none credit courses. Many universities allow their on-campus students to take their correspondence courses as well as of solving class schedule problems. Usually no distinction is made in transcription between the grades awarded for courses taken in class and courses taken by independent study. Although most homes for the schools have an open enrollment policy (i.e. students can register and begin a course at any time), universities may require students to wait until the beginning of the semester to began a course. Some universities provide high school courses through independent study. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln has been the leading institution of this, offering such horses since 1929. It currently offers 160 courses in 15 subject areas. Other universities that offer rate high school programs include Alaska, Brigham Young (Utah), Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Replacing print with electronic media
The American Association of collegiate independent study is a professional association of administrators and academics in independent study. In 2001, AACIS conducted the survey of its members. The members were asked, when would you anticipate your program’s enrollment in online courses to exceed those in print base courses? Respondents indicated: 0-5years: 7 (29%), 6-10 years: 10(42%), 11-20: 2 years (8%), 20 + years: 1 (4%), never: 0, and already has: 3 (13%).
Telecourse
The term telecourse covers those courses in which the principal communication technology is recorded and broadcast (i.e. not live) video. Course materials may be as simple as videotaped classroom sessions, or may be produced with sophisticated and structural design and to very high production standards. Telecourses can be attributed in a variety of ways: through videotapes, broadcast on cable or satellite, by ITFS (and structural television fixed service) networks, or as steaming video over the Internet. One of the first significant efforts and the telecourse area was the work of the Chicago community colleges, which started to offer an associate of arts degree by television in 1956. Today, hundreds of community colleges as well as universities across the country offer telecourses for credit in their degree programs more for noncredit learning. PBS serves as a national coordinating Center for college telecourses; its PBS campus provides access to 120 credit courses at more than 400 colleges. In 1981 the publisher Walter Annenberg made a grant of $150 million to corporations for public broadcasting (CPB)to be used for the improvement of higher education through telecommunications. One of the Annenberg project’s main contributors has been the provision of funds, typically in the $2-3 million range, for the production of exemplary telecourses. More than 170 college credit courses have been produced. The Annenberg project does not produce programs itself, but enters into agreement with producers who compete for the projects funding. For example, the Southern California consort, and dead by coastline community college, was awarded $5 million to produce the mechanical universe. Such a course includes not only television programs, but textbooks, study guides, and faculty and administrator guides. Teams of television and other media specialist, instructional designers, and content expert’s from the contracting Institute for consort of design courses, and usually including experts from universities and colleges nationwide. Once produced, and telecourses arm bought by colleges and universities that provide their own injunction and student support either on campus or through their independent study divisions, and also give their own testing and credit. Many telecourses are delivered by the adult learning service, part of PBS in cooperation with 190 television stations and over 2000 colleges around the country. In an any one year about 60% of American colleges and universities have licensed telecourses through the PBS and nearly 96% of the nation’s public television stations have broadcast college telecourses. Since its creation in 1981, more than 5 million students have earned college credit by PBS/telecourses. In addition, some states have set up their own telecourse organizations. For example, the consortium of distance education is a consortium of approximately 30 community colleges in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania set up to manage sharing of telecourses. During the 12 month 2000-2001 academic year, 56% (2320, of all degree granting institutions offer distance education courses. A further 12% reported plans to offer courses in the next three years. 90% of public two-year and 89% of public four-year institutions offer distance education courses, compared with 16% of private to hear and 40% of private for your universities. Credit granting courses were offered at the undergraduate level 548% of all institutions and at the graduate level by 22% of all institutions. In the 12 month 2000-2001 academic year, there were an estimated 3,077,000 enrollments institutions. (Note that the survey asked only about electronically delivered programs and thus excluded some print based programs.) An estimated 127,400 different distance education courses were offered in the 2000 – 2001 academic year. About one quarter (27%) of the institutions offered 10 or fewer courses, and 15% offered more than 100 courses. The majority of institutions used Internet, with 90% reporting that they used asynchronous communication and 43% used synchronous communication. 51% use two-way video and two-way audio, and 41% use one-way pre-recorded video’s (telecourses). 29% use the CD-ROM as a principal delivery technology and 19% use multimedia packages. 60% participated in some type of distance education Consortium. Of those institutions, 75% participated in a state consortium, 50% in a consortium within a single university system more community college District, 27% in a regional consortium, and 4% of an international consortium.
Opened University’s
When the United Kingdom Open University (UK OU) was established in 1969, it was not the first major university dedicated solely to distance learning. The right to such a title probably belongs to the University of South Africa, which began its nationwide distance education system soon after the end of WWII. In fact the British studied the South African experience as well as that of Australia, the Soviet Union, Japan, and United States as they were prepared plans for their Open University in the late 1960s. Within a few years of UK OU has proven itself to be so excellent and so successful that it transforms distance education (many would say higher education in general and became a model for similar institutions around the world). With over 2 million graduates since 1972 and more than 200,000 students taking courses every year, full-time staff of 2800 and eight part-time staff over 5000 tutors and counselors, and 13 regional and 330 local learning centers across Britain and overseas, the UKOU is one of the most successful example of a total system approach to distance education. Community making them at the time of the establishment of the OU , admission to higher education was very restrictive; it was particularly difficult for to occur in a working-class homes to obtained admission. Introducing distance education was a political decision taken up by a labor government as a means of breaking down various and opening up opportunity. Thus the term open, which is often attached to distance education in Europe, very specifically reflect the political ambition of the founders of the UKOU. In the United States, where higher education was never a close as in Europe, it is important that we do not confuse the method (i.e. distance education) with the political policy (i.e. openness). In particular, it is necessary to understand that although there is a substantial body of theory about the method of teaching and learning at a distance there is a little theory of open education. Combining the vision of openness with the myth of distance education, multiple universities adhere to the following principles of the UK Open University: in a person can enroll, regardless of previous education. Study is done at home, work, or anywhere the student chooses. And course materials are provided by teams of experts. Tutoring is provided by other specialists. The enterprise is large-scale, usually national, and scope. It enrolls large numbers and enjoys economies of scale. There are large investments, mostly from public funds. A wide variety of technologies are used. A highly integrated system combined with heavy investment result in high quality.
There are exceptions or modifications to some of these principles. For example, although the UKOU admits any one on a first-come, first-served basis, it imposes a lower age limit, and enrollment in a particular course may require prerequisite; UKOU courses have fixed start dates and schedules that are all students must meet; some horses may insist on petition nations in locally study groups or residential week; purchased as well as University produced materials (such as text or tapes) may be used; and tutoring may not be provided to all students or fall courses. Since they are distance education institutions, a distinguishing characteristic of all open universities in their commitment to the use of audio, video, and computer-based technologies, integrated with print and in a very systematic way. The UKOU produces its courses in association with BBC television initially it was to be called the University of the air in Europe’s largest educational broadcasting studios. CD-ROMs, audio, and videotapes are components of most horses, and online learning is being integrated into existing as well as new courses. However, as with independent study courses in the United States, print materials provided the backbone of most Open University courses. Open universities have now established a tradition of investing money, time, and human resource to ensure their printed materials are extremely well-designed and will produce, very attractive to study from, and pedagogical sound. However, to correct any impressions that an institution that values printed text is not also capable of innovations with new technologies. Although United States does not have an open University party because he always open extension departments of the state and other universities provide the kinds of opportunities the British look for when they set up the UKOU, there are a number of other innovative institutions that share some special characteristics with the open universities. We have already mentioned some early. Western Governors University was formed following a 1995 meeting of association of Western Governors. A joint project of 19 states and Guam , WGU is a nonprofit institution designed to offer courses developed by its members. Bates (2000) suggests that the main motive of the Western states in setting up WGU was the frustration regarding University responses to business and industry’s needs in training the workforce. Its program are in the fields of business, information technology, and education. Therefore, the WGU does not design courses itself. Rather, it is an administrative body, which endorses, presents to the public, and coordinates the provision of distance education courses through participating traditional universities. However, it does provide its own degree program in certification. Western Governor University is innovative in that it opens the educational process by focusing less on how much time he still puts in two octane credits, a more on evaluating outputs; that it is to say, that knowledge to student of choirs, regardless of where, how, and when it is acquired. This allows students to make progress toward a degree based on work and life experiences as well as traditional study. All Western governors University courses or online; it does not spend money on maintaining traditional tenure teaching faculty, but instead as signs mentors to help students design and complete their individualized academic plans. In spite of the highly publicized launching of this initiative, Western Governors University was slow to take off. Student enrollment was just 208 in the 1999 – 2000 academic year. In September 2000 the state of Utah released the port with severe criticism of the organization for its low enrollments. Later that year, the interregional credit the committee (IRAC) granted Western governors University of the status of candidate of accreditation. By the mid-2001, the accrediting commission of distance education and training Council, granted accreditation to Western governors University. In early 2002, the university claimed its enrollment had risen to 2500 students. Of those, 450 to Western governors University’s degree or certificate program and the other 2050 students took courses to supplement other educational goals. Some observers think the Western governor University lacks sufficient funding to develop its full potential. Certainly, the experiences of many open universities have shown that costs are often under estimated in the beginning. Also, the organizational structure that makes Western governors University a broker of both individual courses and full programs, and the defendants on the state institution for course development seems to be not yet completely refined. Empire State College, which is a part of the State University of New York and Thomas A. Edison State College in New Jersey are other notable examples of American universities that emphasize open collar sees in making admission convenient and flexible and provide study opportunities that are equally convenient and flexible through distance education methods. Nova Southeastern University, founded in 1964 and based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, offers graduate degrees, Master degrees and doctorial degrees through a system of regional learning centers. It achieves cost-effectiveness, like the UKOU, by relying on an adjunct faculty. Students are assigned to groups called clusters that meet together for week in face-to-face seminars. A professional educator and usually a professor located at a university in the area is hired to coordinate the academic and administrative affairs for each cluster and serve as liaison between the students, faculty, and the University. Students stay in their clusters until they complete their program. Walden University, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, offers graduate programs in a ministrations/management, health services, human services, and education. Walden University use this procedure similar to Nova, organizing weekend sessions regionally, with adjunct faculty and three summer sessions held at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. Perhaps the most important point to bear in mind about open universities, from the American point of view, is the pressure and the stimulus that their success into mistreating the principles of a system approach have had on institutions in this country, including new virtual institutions that have emerged with the availability of online technologies. It is not a coincidence that the quality of courses designed and delivered in the United States improved and distance education became much more excepted following the establishment of the UKOU van had been the case for nearly 100 years before that.
Interactive television: satellite and cable networks
The use of satellite to deliver courses was the most talked about form of distance education and training in the last two decades of the 20th century, just as delivery by Internet is uppermost in people’s mind at the beginning of the 21st century. It is estimated that there are over 60,000 received sites in the United States by the middle of the 1990s. Unlike the other forms of distance education discussed so far in this chapter, satellite-based courses are usually delivered to students in groups according to a schedule determined by the teaching institution. What makes them different from telecourses is that they are enter active, with feedback, questions, and discussions transmitted usually by telephone links from the audience to the content experts in a distance studio.
Business television and corporate training
Distance education became a training approach of significant interest to American corporations with the evolution of interactive television delivered by satellite, which became known as business television. Companies found they could provide training that was very specific to their particular products at their branch offices and plants around the country and the world, use their own private television network, and was received by means of a satellite dish located outside local business offices or plants. In recent years there has been a tendency to outsource programming and delivery to specialist vendors. Business television link is a corporate satellite user group that includes satellite television pioneers such as Ford Motor Co., American Express, General Electric, Anheuser-Busch, and Re/Max. This is a television proved to be a cost-effective way to apply employee training. For example, when there is a new product, the capability of training the entire sales force at one time means more standardized training, more immediate sales, and his extra revenue. One of authority reports, on the behalf of a bender of satellite programs that this is television results in a: 64% decrease in cost for new product introductions, 81% reduction in product cycle time, 50% reduction in Time out a field. This is television program in accomplishes other functions important to companies besides delivering formal training courses. One of these is the development and maintenance of company morale and employee’s motivation. These broadcasts provide details about current operation or problems as well as focusing on examples of outstanding employee performance. It is common for the senior executives of companies to make regular appearances to explain policies and answer questions. At one point there was over 80 private business television networks and the United States, some which reach thousands of sites and millions of employees. Today many of these had given way to online communication systems.
Interactive video and higher education
The national University telecommunication network has a membership of approximately 50 universities, community and Junior colleges, and vocational and technical institutes with nearly every state represented. The national University telecommunication network courses consist of one or more broadcast, with video delivered by satellite, and with interactions conducted among receiving sites by telephone. Most courses offered by the national University telecommunication network and continuing education courses produced by the members institutions. A member institution developed the videoconference on a topic of current interest, using expert presenters, and offers a program to other institutions throughout the country. Other members provide reception facilities. The typical program consists of a live video presentation transmitted by satellite and an audio discussion by question period. Each receiving site pays a registration fee to the originating institution; these fees typically range from $200-$500 per site the national University telecommunication network administration help member market their horses, but does not get involved in their production or transmission, which is responsibility of the originating site. The national University telecommunication network also conduct some training activities. When it was established in 1984, was also based on the idea of delivering satellite video courses. It offers its own master degree and a variety of engineering fields, as well as continuing education courses, mainly in engineering also. The national University telecommunication has no sovereignty of its own or campus, and uses satellite, compressed digital video, and computer technology to deliver more than 1000 courses taught by faculty from 50 major universities to more than 1000 work locations internationally. National telecommunication University clients are not individual students, but organizations. Over 200 major corporation and government agencies subscribe to national Telecommunication University and pay fee’s for each course they receive. Corporations cooperating and national Telecommunication University including Boeing, Kodak, General Electric, IBM, Motorola, and Xerox. The organizations decide which employees will participate and arrange on-site facilities for taking part in the programs. National telecommunication University has granted more than 1600 master degrees to individuals left completed one of their programs of study. In any one year, more than 30,000 technical professional participate in national telecommunication universities noncredit professional development short courses. In recent years, all these systems have had to accommodate their programming to the emergence of online technologies, in some cases Michelson programs and in others by merging what can be offered by the two technologies. The satellite deliver program can be more suitable for presentations of live lectures, demonstrations, or film; while the online program provides opportunities for small group enter activity, communication from individual participants to instructors, and in-depth follow-up search activities. In the 2000s, the star schools program evolved away from satellite teleconferencing programs toward programming for delivery on the Internet. Although some of the original Star schools consortia had disbanded, among those that have survived are the satellite education resources Consortium, and the telecommunication education for advances in math and sciences.
Online learning and virtual universities
The biggest technological development in distance education in the past decade has been the rapid emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web. Almost all distance education programs, including correspondence and independent study, now have some online presence. In some institutions online learning has replaced telecourses and interactive video courses. Some institutions have been created specifically to offer online learning usually calling themselves virtual universities. Jones international University was originally established in 1987 by entrepreneur Glyn Jones when did it was called mind extension University. Mind extension University provided courses through cable television, but it turned to the Web in 1995, changed its name, and claimed to be the first fully online, accredited university. Like many other online universities, and Jones international University aims to capture an adult audience, mainly working professionals. Is courses had a professional development character with emphasis at undergraduate, Masters and certificate level in the fields of business, education, communications, and information technology. About half of the students had tuition paid by their employers, and most are enrolled in non-degree or certificate programs. In 1999, the North Central Association of colleges and schools accredited Jones international University, a decision that rendered the university more credibility. Some and academic community contested this accreditation, which was defended by the association. The University of Phoenix is one of the largest and most successful online universities. He is a for-profit, proprietary higher education institution, founded in 1976 by the CEO John G. Sperling . The north-central Association of colleges and schools granted it accreditation in 1978. The University of Phoenix is a dual-mode institution; it delivers courses both the classroom through 55 campuses and 98 learning centers in 18 states and through distance education. Most 90% of Phoenix online faculty is part-time. It’s full-time faculty designs the courses, and instructors facilitate the online lessons. There is an emphasis on standardizing courses, the doctors worked in a highly structured environment. The university claims that it prefers practitioner faculty who have full-time employment in the discipline they teach. Methods emphasize teamwork, problem-solving activities, and practical application of knowledge. Since it began offering online courses in 1979, it has grown tremendously, in 2003, it had over 70,000 students and 4000 online instructors. The focus of Phoenix is working adults, and its courses have a vocational orientation. Degrees are offered online in business, management, technology, education, and nursing. The degrees range from associates of arts in general studies to a doctor but management and organizational leadership. The majority of students 43% are enrolled in the College of undergraduate business, followed by the college graduate business 20%. Of the university is another private, for profit web-based virtual University and its CEO Steve shank founded it in 1993, aiming at an adult professional audience. Capella University has institutional procedures that resemble those of the traditional universities: the individual professor teaches his or her own courses, for no more than 12 students. However, most of its 170 from two members are part-time, as with Phoenix University online and Jones international University. Capella University was granted accreditation in 2000 Iva North Central Association. It offers degree programs in business, education, psychology, human services and technology, at the certificate, bachelors, master’s, and Doctoral levels. The Fielding graduate Institute was founded in 1974 as a distance learning institution specifically for midcareer adults one would create a national learning community in the behavioral sciences. It was an earlier adopter of computer conferencing and now makes extensive use of online learning. Some virtual universities have been created by conventional universities for the delivery of their own programs; examples are pinned state’s moral campus, University of Illinois online, and the University of Texas Tele campus. Temple University establish virtual temple, New York University created in why you online, and the University of Maryland University College set up it’s for profit unit. Cornell University has to redesigned its eCornell either it into a non--degree continuing education effort. States have created virtual universities serve as portals for the whole secondary institutions in that state, and not awful courses or programs of their own. Examples include Arizona, Florida, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas. However, some of the most talked about virtual universities quickly passed away. California virtual university was abandoned in 1999. Fathom an ambitious consortium of megastars in education and the arts, closed in 2003. Some institutions described as virtual universities have been created as a means of marketing a product. For example Barnes & Noble’s University offers free courses to the public talk about authors and experts as a way to increase book sales. Macromedia University provides online course to teach people how to use the multimedia design programs sold by Macromedia. Other information-technology companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Sun, and Novell provide extensive online education programs relevant to their products.
Virtual schools
Although K-12 schools have been interested in the use of technology for a long time, they have been slow to set up virtual schools. Reason for this includes lack of network access, face-to-face teaching Coulter that includes some political resistance, and lack of teacher training. However, in recent years at least 12 states have established some form of virtual schools intended to offer K-12 class of systems anywhere in the states. In addition, there are virtual high schools offered by some universities, as well as locals who districts and private/charter schools. Some examples are the secondary curriculum via distance education offered by University of Idaho, and the program of University of Nebraska. All these programs started out with a correspondence course model, and have been adding Internet based course. Surveyed virtual schools are reported that at the time of this report, estimated 40-50,000 students were enrolled in online courses and most of these students were taking advanced placement courses. One of the first and most established virtual high schools is called virtual high school inc. Established in 1996 as a partnership between the Hudson, Massachusetts school district and the Concorde consortium , VHS offers over 100 horses in arts, business, four languages, language arts, life skills/health, math, science, social studies, and technology education. These courses are developed and taught by teachers at the virtual high school 162 in 2003 located in 21 states and overseas. Each participating schools space and annual membership fee to belong to virtual high school and this entitles its to us to course access. For a detail evaluation of virtual high school based upon studies conducted by the Center for technology and learning. Another example is Keystone national high school, which was founded and licensed by the state of them something and and 94 and a credit in 1998. It provides both correspondent courses and Internet based courses and offers year-round enrollment, with a full credit high school curriculum that aims to meet the needs of home school students as well of souls in road of public and private schools. Major information technology, these also offer educational training programs to K-12 schools IBM has formed partnerships with 15 school districts and six states and a project that declares as it contains the reinvention of American schools and selling a line of products and services as well. Microsoft also provides programs to K-12 including an online magazine.
Corporate training
Marchese in 1998 states that private business stands about $58 billion annually on employee training and about 85% of the Fortune 500 companies are subsidizing distance education for their employees. A survey conducted by in 2003 reported that 41% of responding organizations were using online learning. Most large corporations develop their their own online training to meet specific needs of their business and employees, and many have set up their own corporate universities. According to one estimate by corporate University exchange, there are over 1000 such entities. Some of these corporate universities like more Motorola University have bilked physical campuses, other such as the old university only exist virtually. Companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, and Cisco are all in the direct provision business. Sun Microsystems education services division off for over 200 courses and classroom, web-based, and CD modes. Hardware and software manufacturers have provided a plethora of training products as a means to support their customers. Sun Microsystems wraps support, education, consulting, integration, and channel services, as well as direct access to Sun’s online support tools, under one umbrella; further indicating the integration of training into the design, manufacturing, and distribution of information technologies. Some businesses have teamed up with universities to provide training for their employees. For example, MetLife has teamed up with Drexel University to offer distance master degrees in information systems; the Saturn Corp. and the Bechtel National Inc. formed a partnership with the University of Tennessee, Western governors University is supported by 14 business partners including Sun, IBM, and AT&T.
Vendors
There are vendors will offer off-the-shelf online distance education courses as well as tailor-made courses for specific companies. For example, the college is a company comprised of educators and technologist that partner with University of Colorado and in other five universities to deliver courses online; a contracted with Microsoft to deliver Microsoft 2000 productivity courses to university faculty. The 100 degree online grant program is eCollege effort to sell a range of online degrees and certificate programs. Smart force, another in the learning Company with sales of 168,000,002 thousand, claims to be the world’s largest the learning Company, serving over 2500 corporate customers and having over 30,008 learning objects into its library. It provides online mentors, a library of laboratory simulations, threaded discussion forums, and the chance to interact with guest speakers on a pay-per-view basis. Vcampus Corporation distributes a library of more than 5200 web-based courses, and has delivered more than 2.5 million horses to over 700,000 adult learners. A method example is NETg, which has provided 700 online modules for the national Institute of health, including over 100 codeveloped with Oracle education, with the majority devoted to database administration, and an Internet Master series developed by Netscape. In one form of online learning that is frantically popular and corporations is Web conferencing. This involves the simultaneously use of voice and shared whiteboards the latter usually used for showing PowerPoint slides, and may also involve video all sharing of application programs. This form of distance education is readily adopted by trainers who had their first exposure to distance education in the video teleconferencing and audio graphics boom of the 1980s. Deliver a Web conference is very similar, except that the numbers up trainees at each screen are generally smaller than the audience is distributed more widely. There are a number of vendors that sell Web conferencing services. All the company has to do is to provide is the subject matter experts who deliver the presentation.
Certification and testing companies
There are three testing companies that dominate the market. They are Prometric acquired from Sylvan learning systems by Thomson Corp. of Canada Forest $775 million cash, CatGlobal a division of Houghton-Mifflin, and virtual University Enterprises a division of national computer systems. Prometrics operates about 2500 testing centers and 140 countries. Virtual University Enterprises has nearly 1500 locations, including 20 in Mexico, 28 in Russia, 23 in Brazil, 19 the South Africa, and 50 in China. CatGlobe offers wholly online computer-based testing from servers and 16 countries. Some vendors have developed their own certification. Learning tree international, for example, will qualify you as a certified professional and Cisco router or Oracle7 database administrator on completion of coursework minimum of 22 days and $4500 for Cisco; 19-24 days and $4500 for Oracle and passing examinations.
Military education
US military has always been a major user of distance education, and he should come as no surprise that it has actively embraced online learning. There have been doers distance education programs involving interactive satellites and television in military settings. The Army logistics Management College has offered one-way video/2-way audio programs on its satellite education network for a number of years 2000 of learners with the armed forces and government agencies. The pair technology network is operated by the Air Force Institute of technology; the program reached over 18,000 students at 69 sites across the United States. The Navy operated the CNET electronic schoolhouse network with downlink’s classes to major naval training centers around the country that government education and training network provides programs of interest to the Department of Defense agencies. The army’s TNET system can seem and received training from over 110 other TNET locations and over 300 site and other military and state networks including all SEN sites. TNET provides the full transfer of video, audio, and data between all sites and allows tactical communication equipment to be included as part of the videoconferencing infrastructure. The navy’s video teletraining system used digital video compression to network 11 sites and 16 classrooms it was available 24 hours a day and in use for 10 hours a day. Over $2 billion have been in allocated for distance education in 1997-2007. United States General accounting office, national security and international affairs division 1997. Distance education program and the Department of Defense are supported by vertically and horizontally massive technological infrastructure. For example, the National Guard’s distributive training program is compromise of 250 learning centers, with another 150 under development, supporting programs and 50 states and all US territories. The centers are outfitted with two-way audio and videoconferencing and Internet and Web capabilities. This network was conceived from the beginning as the basis for supporting distance education in the civilian communities, and so the centers are open for Adult Education in college programs, professional teleconferencing meetings, and telemedicine in rural and small communities. In 1997 the Army had only 100 military and television network sites United States General accounting office, national security and international affairs, 19 and seven but plans to have established over the hundred high technology, high bandwidth distance learning centers linked by land-based, commercial telecommunications network by 2005. The goal is to have a digital training facility within 50 miles of every soldier’s work location. Unique perhaps to the armed forces, Molson systems are required to meet the needs of most geographically isolated military learners. The US Marines and Navy have been working on setting up deployable learning resource centers that will deliver courses to sailors and hard to reach locations such as on ships in the middle of the ocean. One of the most ambitious effort of the Army’s virtual University. The six leaned on luncheon will be spent on the target of having 80,000 soldiers studying via the Army University access online, that unknown by the name of this Internet portal, EArmyU. Launched in 2001, it provides soldiers with access to over 116 certificates and degree programs offered by 32 institutions, with the most enrollment going to Central Texas College, Troy State University, Thomas Edison State College, Saint Leo University, Rio Salado College, and Embry-Riddle aeronautical University. The levels of these programs range from certificate, an associate, bachelor, and master’s degrees. All soldiers taking EArmyU courses are eligible for tuition assistance in all courses credited earned are transferable across participating universities. The army continuing education system includes the work of learning centers at Army bases worldwide. In addition, soldiers receive computer equipment, technology support, Internet accounts and service through Galileo online library at the University system of Georgia. In 2003, nearly 31,000 me and women at more than 20 Army bases in the United States and abroad were enrolled in the program. In the beginning, the consortium of institutions that provide courses was managed by noneducational rations, and Price Waterhouse Coopers consulting firm, on a 359 million multi-year contract. Online curriculum was provided through smart thinking, a specialist company hired by Price Waterhouse Coopers. In November 2000, the U.S. Navy entered into an agreement with 16 institutions to provide a variety of associate and bachelor degree programs. Because of the mobile lifestyle sailors, and the Mimi London institutions to provide courses through various technologies and not only online. The same types of degrees are offered by several of incorporating institutions, thereby providing sailors with the choice of program and institution. In the guidance in the selection process is given by the Navy advisers and the institutions representatives. Institutions selected in the first stage of the Navy program included: Dallas County community college District, and George Washington University, University of Maryland University College, City University( Renton, Washington),coastline community college, Embry-riddle aeronautical University, Empire State University, and Florida community college, Florida State University, Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Old Dominion University, Rogers State University Oklahoma, Thomas Edison State College, Troy State University, Vincennes University Indiana. The Air Force Institute for advanced contributed learning, a merger of Air Force distance learning office with the extension course Institute, provides training and who education programs for the Air Force, and air National Guard, and Air Force reserve. The institute also provides career development courses to personnel throughout the Department of Defense and to civil service employees and other federal agencies. The Air Force Institute for advanced distributed learning offers a resident and nonresident curriculum. The nonresident curriculum covers over 400 horses in three categories: professional military education courses, and specialized courses and corporate development courses. Specialized and career development courses are available on CD-ROM or computer-based instruction, in such subjects as: weather, aircrew operations, medical, nursing, command-and-control system operation, communications-electronics systems, and information management. Other military schools that are developing their own distance education programs including the Army National Guard, the defense acquisitions University and Air University.

Course sharing initiatives
There have been a number of initiatives aimed at sharing in the distribution of web-based materials. One of the earliest was the world lecture hall created by the University of Texas, Austin in 1993, which has a database listing thousands of courses and over 70 subjects. In 1997, Merlot multimedia education resource for learning and online teaching was established by the California State University system and down compromises 15 other partner institutions. The multimedia education resource for learning and online teaching database includes thousands of courses and seven subject areas. All courses are peer reviewed and reviewer’s ratings and comments can be viewed with the course description. The Maricopa learning exchange is a method database of web based courses aimed at the needs of community college students. One of the most talked about efforts and course sharing has been the Massachusetts Institute of technology open courseware project in an effort to make MIT course materials available free to the public. At the time of its official launch in September 2003 in, materials related to more than 100 courses offered by MIT online by 2007 for each course, the syllabus, readings, and lectures notes, schedule, assignments, exams, and study materials are provided. The considerable discussion that the project has provoked within the higher education world highlights the issues of product versus process in higher education, (i.e. although it appears that MIT has given away valuable intellectual property, it really has not since the education process requires a resource more valuable than reading a lecture notes. This is the value added by the instructor and involvement in interaction with peers.

Viewpoint: Chere Campbell Gibson
Technology has brought us access to information to a degree unheard of in the past. As I reflect on the future of teaching and learning with technology and distance education, and I see a decrease in the presentation of content and an increase emphasis on the learning process. Learning through authentic problem-solving, inquiry-based learning and context-based problem posing will be accentuated at all levels of education. Learners will be challenged to work on increasingly more complex problems as well as to engage in problem identification itself. Working with others, both within disciplines and across disciplines in interdisciplinary problem-solving teams, will be encouraged to help learners broadened their repertoire of skills to critically assess information and create knowledge, as well as apply it. Actually believe the future will focus on the use of the available tools and information for personal, organizational and community growth. Teaching content becomes less relevant—tool mastery, mastery of the processes of learning, both alone and with others, working within and across disciplines for problem solution, as well as problem identification and critical assessment of resources, will come to the fore.(I hope!)

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: distance education can help poorer countries

Total Pages: 3 Words: 926 Sources: 2 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: You are to write a 3-page paper. This is a formal paper; use the reading to help in answering the question(s)/ writing the paper.“You must quote from the reading in order to substantiate your points.” For Outside Sources Use Journal Article or Internet Article, Only! State the question first and then continue to answer. Use APA format

Discussion Question

Do you think distance education can help poorer countries catch up with richer countries? What evidence can you show to support your views? What is the role of the international agencies?

There are faxes for this order.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Distance Education

Total Pages: 3 Words: 872 References: 5 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: Choose any question about Distance Education that you feel could be worth researching. Connect the question to a recognized theory if you can. Find at least “5 Journal Articles” of research on that topic and write 600-word review of this research. In this paper you are trying to show a pedigree (i.e., what has been researched already) so as to point out where there are missing links that would be filled by further research. You will need to add another 150-word: ‘to explain what data you would need to answer your question, where you would find the data and how to collect.’

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: distance education institutions

Total Pages: 3 Words: 911 Works Cited: 0 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: This is a 2-part paper, with separate activities. Do Not Mix the Assignments together, they are separate entities.

First: You are to write a 2-page paper. This is a formal paper; use the information to help aid in writing the paper. “You must quote from the information in order to substantiate your points.”

“Search the Web and identify 1-distance education institution each in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Compare and contrast their policies and methods for delivering distance education.”


Second: You are to write a 1-page report. This is a formal paper; use the information to help aid in writing the paper. “You must quote from the information in order to substantiate your points.”

“Search the Web to identify 1 inter-governmental, international agency providing distance education aimed at national development. Write a 1-page report about policies and practices of this agency. There are two possible sites to begin your search: www.col.org and www.unesco.org “

Excerpt From Essay:

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