Have tutors faced that problem as well?
http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1404/140427-cyberbullying.html
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Fun facts about Distance Education
1. The United States spends more money than any other industrialized country on higher education
2. In 2006, Michigan became the first US state to require high school student to participate in some form of online learning in order to graduate
3. According to Newsweek magazine, the ten most “wired” colleges in the US, in order, are:
1) Villanova (where first-year students get laptops, and replacements after their second year)
2) MIT
3) Indiana University
4) Swarthmore College
5) Creighton University
6) The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
7) Michigan Technological University
8) University of Southern California
9) Quinnipiac University
10) The University of Oklahoma
1) Villanova (where first-year students get laptops, and replacements after their second year)
2) MIT
3) Indiana University
4) Swarthmore College
5) Creighton University
6) The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
7) Michigan Technological University
8) University of Southern California
9) Quinnipiac University
10) The University of Oklahoma
4. According to an estimate by Boeing, of its 2, 293 employees who completed their college degree while on the job in 2005, 40% participated in distance education programs
5. C.I.A. recruiters say 5-10% of their new employees took some of their college coursework online
6. In 1970, the first college without a physical campus, Coastline Community College, started offering televised courses.
7.
With almost 300,000 students total and 200,000 students online, the
University of Phoenix is the largest private university in the United
States.
8. There are approximately 2,500 for-profit institutions who are accredited and eligible to offer federal student aid.
9.
According to Eduventures, in 2005 there were over 1.2 million
non-traditional students enrolled in 100% online degree programs.
10. In 1995, 4% of corporations used online learning in the workplace; that number has since increased to 77%.
11. Thomas Edison, in 1913, predicted books to soon be obsolete because of motion pictures.
12. The college in the United States with the largest numbers of Pell Grant recipients
earning a degree online is for-profit: the University of Phoenix –
230,000 students & $560 million in Pell Grants per year
13. The first school to offer distance education classes was the University of Chicago in 1892.
14. 65% of colleges and universities now state online learning to be a critical factor in their long-term strategy.
15. In 2005, Boston University launched the first online doctoral program in music education; the program now admits 350 students every year.
16. 45 states and Washington, DC, have state-wide online schools
17. Advanced Placement courses are available through virtual schools in many states.
18. The Sloan Consortium, in 2006, reported 3.2 million postsecondary students in the United States took at least one online course.
19. K-12 virtual schools are showing growth rates of 47% or higher.
20. The smallest online college is DeVry University in Michigan with 6 students.
21. The oldest online college is Vanderbilt University, which was established in 1895.
22. Tidewater Community College,
in Norfolk, Virginia, currently has nearly 26,000 student enrolled in
its programs and offers the lowest in-state tuition for an online
program: $2,555.
23. The most expensive online school is Full Sail University.
Based out of Winter Park, Florida, the school’s out-of-state tuition is
a whopping $45,995 per year. The school currently has 6,150 students.
Distance education study tips
Tips for study success as a distance education student that will help youstay on track with study.Time management
- Don't procrastinate- look through your study materials as soon as you get them and plan
- Get Started. Today. Now! Reading through the study guide, or re-visiting the assignment topic will be getting you somewhere. If you have any questions, contact the support staff at CSU to get some tips or guidance
- Get organised. Improve your time management skills and get yourself organised. This sometimes means changing the way you have done things in the past or how you go about the task
- Keep your tasks bite-sized. It is amazing how much you can achieve if you set aside one hour of time somewhere in each day. All those little bites make a meal out of study.
- For larger tasks, like assignments and set aside blocks of quality time without interruptions - perhaps at a library or even on campus
- Help yourself 'get in the zone' by creating a study atmosphere. Have a special place to study with all you need on hand, put on some quiet music or use aromatherapy to get yourself focused.
More about managing your study
Get support
- Let your friends and family know what you're doing and why. Let others know what you need in terms of time; renegotiate household tasks with partners and children; and let your friends know you won't be up for a big night out just before an assignment is due.
- Contact your lecturer if you have any difficulties with the interpretation of an assignment question or the academic content. Staff contact details and consultation times are included in your subject outline.
- Learning Skills Advisors can assist you in preparing assignments, provide guidance on how to write a report or essay or how to structure a written piece work. There is also available specific support for English skills and mathematics/statistics.
- Your subject forum is another avenue of support and assistance open to you. Other students are often helpful in discussing and clarifying assignment expectations.
More on study support, and getting in touch with the uni
Get the most out of the tools and services
Get to know the resources available to you - and use them!
- Student Services can answer general (non-academic) questions
- Library: Speak to library staff and investigate borrowing facilities andonline library resources
- Learning Skills provides self-help 'how to' guides with strategies and techniques that will allow you to better participate in academic activities
- Subject forums: You will find out so much more from being involved with the CSU community, and may meet people in your area studying for the same course who can offer advice and support
- Computer training: You will need to use various software packages during your studies. CSU provides web based training which covers aspects of Microsoft Office products.
Develop the right attitude
- Think positively and reward yourself for each achievement. You are studying for yourself, so give yourself a pat on the back each time you take a step towards your end goal then move on
- Get motivated! Think about why you are studying and who you are studying for- YOU!
- Be flexible! Study routines are important, but if something comes up that interrupts your study plans, work around it. Try to avoid frustration and feeling like you're falling behind. Just rearrange your time, reset the goals and move forward again
- Be clear about your goals. Think about why you're enrolled at university, what you want to achieve in the next year, three years, or five years. Doing a degree is a long-term commitment, but setting small goals and working towards achievable interim milestones can be a useful strategy of breaking the big task into smaller ones
- Be realistic. Successful students have realistic expectations of themselves and of the tasks they undertake, and they can adjust their expectations if circumstances change
- Be persistent. Successful students are able to sustain the effort and keep on spending time on task over a long period of time, the three years or longer that it takes to complete a course of study.
Maintain a balanced life
As
a student, you should try and engage in a balanced lifestyle, one that
has a suitable study program tied to healthy recreational activities.
- Stay healthy. Eat well, exercise regularly, and get enough rest. Around your study commitments, you should schedule some kind of regular physical activity.
- Plan for time away from your books. No-one can study all the time. Arrange an evening with friends, an afternoon at the park with the children, a trip to the movies, or a lie-in on Sunday. Any change can be therapeutic and you will return to study feeling as though you have already accomplished something.
More on study life balance
Assignments
- Read the assignment task as soon as you receive your study materials. Keep the task in the back of your mind as you progress through the subject.
- Don't leave your assignments to the last minute. The earlier you get started on your assignment, the better. Don't underestimate how long it will take you to fully research, draft and polish your work.
Exam success
- Past Exam Papers: If these are available, it's is a good idea to go over past exam papers so you have an idea of the kinds of questions that may be asked and what will be expected of you.
- It's never too early to start preparing for exams. Check in your subject outline as soon as you receive it to find out if you will be having an exam, and schedule in appropriate amounts of study time on your timetable leading up to the exam.
- Exam Stress: Some people become stressed prior to and during an exam. CSU's Student Counsellors has some great exercises for staying sane which you can incorporate into your study routine.
- http://www.csu.edu.au/distance-education/starting-at-csu/distance-education-study-tips
videos:
Learning in virtual worlds
Large scale education in virtual worlds is an emerging phenomenon. The
subject has been discussed in the literature for almost two decades but
there is little agreement on how to design an effective virtual
environment for learning (Cobb and Fraser, 2005). Many of the existing
research projects have taken a social constructivist approach to
learning in virtual worlds (e.g., Dede, et al., 2003; Dickey, 2005a; 2005b; Bronnack, et al., 2006). Social constructivist learning looks at the students as “constructors and producers of personal knowledge” (Jonassen,
1996). Knowledge, from a social constructivist perspective, is more of a
social activity than an individual cognitive process. The students do
not just listen and receive information to create knowledge, but they
actively seek information, to build their own knowledge in collaboration
with others.
Bronnack, et al. (2006) wrote that “virtual
worlds … are uniquely situated to serve as rich environments for
engaging students in meaningful communities of practice”. The fact
that distributed learning provides more opportunities for engagement and
means for interaction with more individuals have been proved to be
beneficial to the learning experiences of students (Gilman, et al., 2007; Dickey, 2005a; Riedl, et al., 2005; Dede, et al.,
2003). Distributed learning basically means using multiple tools to
support learning. These tools in turn give students various ways to
participate with students finding those ways that suit them best.
Dede, et al. (2003)
studied students learning experiences with both asynchronous and
synchronous interactive media. Asynchronous online systems allow
participants to interact with each other without all participants online
at the same time. In contrast, synchronous systems require everyone to
participate at the same time. Examples of asynchronous online systems
are blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Some synchronous systems include
chat rooms and video conferences. In Dede, et al. (2003),
students reported that their distributed learning experience positively
affected their participation, engaging them in class–related material.
In addition, the use of synchronous media helped students to get to
better know and interact with their classmates. Most of the 30
respondents in Dede, et al. felt that something would be
missing if their learning environment was only virtual. However less
than half of the respondents chose face–to–face education as their first
choice of learning. Dede, et al. (2003) summarizes their results by noting that “the
full range of students’ learning styles is undercut when interaction is
limited to classroom settings rather than distributed across multiple
media”. Bronack, et al. (2006) studied the communication
between students and teachers and among students and discovered that
interaction was easier when using different interactive media.
Jones, et al. (2005)
examined how the immersive nature of virtual worlds might affect
students’ attitudes towards these learning environments. According to
Jones, et al., virtual worlds have the potential to bring the experience of distance education closer to face–to–face education. Jones, et al. noted
that each time students logged into their virtual world, they scattered
about in the environment to explore it. There was some difficulty in
getting all students to the same virtual place at the same time.
Delwiche
(2006) studied the use of Everquest and Second Life in two separate
courses and found that the learning curve for Everquest was quite steep.
He recommends that accessibility should be a deciding factor when
choosing which MUVE to use in education. Other important factors are the
genre of the MUVE and its extensibility. Students in Delwiche’s courses
wrote a course blog describing their experiences. Blog entries revealed
that students thought that the course had been informative and
enjoyable and that the students learned something. According to
Delwiche’s own assessment, the students had produced good quality
research during the course. From the students’ blog entries and from a
survey conducted after the courses, Delwiche could conclude that virtual
worlds are most effective when they are used as “a bridge between overlapping communities of practice”situated both in the physical and virtual worlds, but not completely in either.
Mayrath, et al. (2007)
shared their experience of using Second Life in education and gave an
extensive list of best practices for instructional activities. They
emphasized the importance of careful planning and preparation of courses
in Second Life as well as the need for on–going evaluation. Mayrath, et al. wrote that “course learning goals and students’ needs should be considered first and foremost when adopting new technology”. New technology should not be used just because it’s new and available.
Nummenmaa
(2007) studied emotions in a Web-based learning environment. She
discovered that interactions on the Web have an emotional aspect that is
derived from social interactions. Nummenmaa categorized the varied
behavior of students into three categories depending on their activity.
These partially overlapping categories are: 1) collaborative visible; 2)
non–collaborative invisible activities; and, 3) lurking. The emotions
of students affected their level of activity and participation,
suggesting that more effort should be placed on students’ emotions in
courses that occur in Web–based environments. Riva, et al. (2007)
found that the feeling of presence was greater in more emotional
virtual environments, suggesting the importance of design and appearance
in these environments. Engaging virtual environments may have a
positive effect on students’ emotions, which in turn affects students’
engagement and activity in courses (Nummenmaa, 2007).
Yellowlees
and Cook (2006) demonstrated that the environment and structures of
virtual worlds, such as Second Life, can be used efficiently to teach
and simulate activities that otherwise would be very difficult to
achieve in reality. Yellowlees and Cook built a house in Second Life
where visitors could experience visual and auditory hallucinations of
individuals with schizophrenia. Most (75 percent, n=549) visiting this
virtual house remarked that the experience improved their understanding
of schizophrenia.
Boulos, et al. (2007)
provided an overview of the potential of Second Life in health
education. They indicated that Second Life provides an environment where
students can practice skills and make mistakes without serious
consequences. The immersive nature of Second Life makes simulations very
realistic. As a result, Boulos, et al. think that Second Life may be an ideal place for simulation and practice.
The notion of distance
Distance
education (Keegan, 1980) is becoming increasingly common in higher
education. Various network–based methods are now used to complement
classroom education to reduce the affects of distance, making
it independent of time and physical location (Holmberg, 1995; Bates,
2005). Much effort has been placed in overcoming distance and studying
its effects on learning outcomes and satisfaction. Comparative studies
of classroom and distance education settings have largely found no
significant differences in outcomes or satisfaction (Gorsky and Caspi,
2005). However physical and temporal distances remain significant
practical variables, affecting the motivation to participate in distance
education.
According
to Paquette–Frenette (2006), physical presence serves primarily a
pragmatic function. In her study, students preferred physical presence,
because of perceived technical problems with remote connections. Another
advantage of physical presence was the possibility to ask peers for
explanations without interrupting the instructor. However, in this
study, unequal participation created significant problems. When some
students participate alone or in small groups at a distance while other
students are physically located together with the instructor, emotional
and social distance increases between the different groups.
In response Moore (1993) proposed that significant distance is not temporal or spatial but transactional.
Moore argued that transactional distance is a function of three
variables — dialogue, structure and learner autonomy. According to this
model transactional distance is a continuum between dialogue and
structure. More structure means less dialogue and vice versa. In spite
of issues related to this notion of transactional distance, distance
education is not solely dependent on physical distance (Dron, 2004;
Gorsky and Caspi, 2005). Instead of considering distance as a single
relational entity, another possible approach is to conceptualize it as a
function of physical and human distances. Within the framework
of Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, human behavior is seen as
an interaction of 1) personal factors (cognitive, affective and
biological); 2) behavior; and, 3) environment. Hence distances can be
seen as measures of proximity and remoteness of these three elements.
The Bandurian environment has an instrumental effect on the (direct or mediated) context of learning in the form of physical distance.
It consists of elements from (physical) environmental and biological
factors of interactivity based on human behavior. Similarly learning is
affected by cognitive (Nooteboom, 2000; Duval, 2006) and emotional (i.e., affective; Hargreaves, 2001) distances between individuals as well as by social (Garrison, et al.,
2000) distance, which reflects overall behavioral proximity. Swartz and
Biggs (1999) have argued that computer–mediated learning runs risks of
building up emotional distance, because personal expressions are limited
by the lack of social abrasion to other means of nurturing social participation.
About the authors
Kim Holmberg is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Information Studies, Åbo Akademi.Isto Huvila, PhD, is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Information Studies, Åbo Akademi.
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