March 5, 2010

The Future of Distance Learning

Mar. 5, 2010 at 01:13 PM | By Kate Malone | Comment Count

I read with interest, the latest New York Times Room for Debate column on the pros and cons of distance learning. As expected there was a wide range of opinion from “Online education is immensely beneficial to students,” to calling distance education a “false gold rush.” However, I was more interested to see the comments from the public, as I think that the greatest barrier for distance learning is the perception that a distance learning degree is worth less than a degree that requires you to physically attend class.

The main objections to distance learning relate to what is lost when there is no face-to-face interaction among the students and between the student and the professor. It’s true that distance learning may never be effective for specializations that require hands-on training like biology, most distance education consumers are adults looking to gain new skills for their career- not 18 year-old undergrads. While the classroom environment may never be able to be 100% replicated though an online course, technology is allowing us to come very close.

Many institutions are adopting software and other tools allowing for a more interactive and collaborative learning environment, incorporating audio, video and chat. One thing that most people can agree upon is that in order for these classes to be effective the professor still needs to understand how to deliver material and the student still needs to be engaged- isn’t this the challenge in any classroom, virtual or not? How this will be accomplished remains to be answered, but social media technology that turns what could just be an online lecture, into an engaging experience.

With the economy’s slow recovery, the popularity of distance learning will only accelerate as adults have to acquire new skills to stay relevant in the workplace. Distance learning offers the advantages of lower cost and flexibility which is crucial for adult learners who have to balance jobs and family with learning. So I can’t believe the “false gold rush” theory- the technology has already improved to meet the demand and it will be difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.