Professor: Dr. Lynette Molstad Gorder

Spring 2020

3 Credits

​Grade Received: A

LT 741 Intro to Distance Education

Course Description: This course is an analysis of the history, philosophy, design, and evolution of distance learning systems. Distance learning is a worldwide concept and course uses examples from many countries to emphasize institutional, program and course design methods and approaches. The course assumes a system perspective in the analysis of distance education and the distance learner. The carious components of distance learning systems are introduced and overviewed including a) course development and design; b) course production; c) course delivery; d) learner support; e) evaluation of courses and the methods of cybernetic control of both student performance and instructional effectiveness; and f) research and evaluation of distance learning systems.

Reflection:

This course is designed to take a look at Distance Education as a whole unit. The book discusses theories and information on various online learning settings (i.e. synchronous and asynchronous). Methods of being an online instructor were included. Weekly discussions included the foundations in best teaching practices. Distance education teachers should use a Learning Management System and should be prepared, knowledgeable, able to connect with the learners, use multiple methods of instruction, conduct assessments to guide instruction, and give quality feedback. One unique area in this course was that after about 4 weeks into the course, COVID-19 struck. Our classrooms for our own students were sent home to learn from school online. The 4 or 5 weeks of background knowledge learned from this course prior to COVID-19 provided a great foundation to begin my distance education with my own students.

Areas of learning:

• Discussion Boards

• FlipGrid Video

• 4 Article Summaries

• 8 Case Studies

• Research Tidbits

Textbook:

• Teaching and Learning at a Distance – Foundations of Distance Education.

7th Ed. Michael Simonson, et al. Information Age Publishing, Inc. (www.infoagepub.com), 2019.

How I Will Use This in my Professional Career:

I learned how to incorporate best practices in the online learning environment. I will be able to use this as I design online courses.

Artifacts: