Lesson 1
Lesson 1: Distance Education & CMC
Goals
Define distance education and CMC
Identify important and critical research issues in distance education and CMC
Explore the concept of online learning community
Emerging Topics: Connectivism
Instructor's Notes
Distance Education & CMC
Welcome to Lesson 1!! This lesson discusses definitions of distance education, CMC, and online community, and research concerning these topics. There are extensive readings on these subjects; therefore, it is important for you to complete these as early as possible. You may find it is difficult to participate the lesson discussions if you fail to complete the reading. The goal of this course is acquire a comprehensive understanding of the research in distance education, so it is important for students to become accustomed to find research-based articles and comprehend them.
Completing the required readings will meet the basic course requirements, but it is highly recommended that students should develop an extensive bibliography dealing with research in distance education. Several useful resources are listed in the lesson reading page.They may be used to find articles that are relevant to our course and those that interest you. Accomplishment of the assignments in this course require students to read additional articles; therefore, it is advisable to search and browse various resources to identify the literature that is available as early as possible.
In this lesson, it is critical to obtain a good understanding of distance education. While you are reading, keep these questions in mind and know how to address them.
What are the developments accomplished in distance education in the past? How has research in this area evolved?
What technologies have been applied to distance education? What role do technologies play in distance education? What important concepts have been developed through research? What impacts have various distance education schema had on learning? The four constructs devised for distance education by McIsaac and Gunawardena are very important. We will discuss each individual construct in future lessons.
Why CMC is important in distance education? What does the research in CMC say about learning? What critical issues are covered in CMC research?
Online community has been one of the most important concepts in distance education. Why is online community important? What has research shown? How does it relate to online learning? How can it enhance learning? How do learners perceive online learning community? Do these perceptions affect learning?
References cited in the required reading provide a good way find additional readings to extend your literature review. Some articles are online and some are not; therefore, you may want to share your search results with teammates and classmates.
I am looking forward to meeting you in the lesson discussions.
Readings (Powered by Del.icio.us. Consider to subscribe RSS to keep updated on reading resources.)
Required Readings (Finish the required readings before the lesson starts)
Optional Readings (More readings for you to enrich your learning, to prepare for discussions, assignments, projects etc.)
Resources (Resources from our classmates, ETC students, and ETC faculty.)
Activities
Lesson Discussions (4 points) Lesson Discussion Guidelines
Discuss strengths and weakness of two definitions for distance education in addition to the one from McIsaac and Gunawardena. Use your own words to define distance education.
TECH: What is Connectivism? How does it relate to distance education?
See the discussion board for questions posted by the moderator(s).
Visit International Review Of Research in Open and Distributed Learning at: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/search/search
Search the keyword: Open Educational Resources (OERs) or Open Educational Resource (OER)
Required Reading:
Read at least one article that is related to your interest from IRRODL.
Optional Reading:
Weller, Martin (2014). Battle for Open. Chapter-4-OERs
Article: Open Educational Resources for Professionals: A New Era in the Training and Development of Legislative Counsel (Journal of Distance Education)
Discussion Question:
What is OERs? How is OERs relate to online learning?
Read: Lifelong learning in the digital age: A content analysis of recent research on participation by Alison J Head, Michele Van Hoeck, Deborah S. Garson
Discussion Question:
What does Digital Lifelong Learning mean to you? How does it relate to online learning?
ETC777 Discussion Statistical Analysis
Assignment
No assignment for this lesson.
Prepare upcoming assignments
Assignment 2: Distance Learning Theoretical Framework (Due Lesson 3/4)
Assignment 3: Web 2.0 Learning Environments (Due Lesson 7)
Assignment 4: Final Paper Proposal
Assignment 5: Final Paper (See Lesson 7 for the instructions)