lesson-1-SP-2017OLD

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

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)