OMDE 601 - Foundations of Distance Education and E-learning
Professor Lisa Blaschke -- Spring, 2011
"(Developed by Ulrich Bernath of Germany and Eugene Rubin of the United States, in collaboration with Borje Holmberg of Sweden and Otto Peters of Germany.) An overview of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are required by a competent practitioner of distance education. Critical concepts and issues identified in the distance education literature are explored and the history and theories of the field are critically examined."
What I learned from this class: As recommended OMDE 601 was the first of my MDE program since, as per many other students, this was the first time I got in contact with Distance Education (DE), its fundamentals and some of its theoretical principles and practices that so much have contributed overtime to the establishment of DE as discipline of study and research. I came across readings from Holmberg, Peters, Moore, and Wedemeyer just to cite few. I would like to recall below Wedemeyer’s list of desiderata that has constituted the benchmark I have used along my MDE journey.
1. Instruction should be available any place where there are students –or even only one student – whether or not there are teachers at the same place at the same time.
2. Instruction should place greater responsibility for learning on the student.
3. The instructional plan or system should free faculty members from custodial duties so that more of the teacher's and learner's time can be given to truly educational tasks.
4. The instructional system should offer learners wider choices (more opportunities) in subjects, formats, and methodologies.
5. The instructional system should use, as appropriate, all the teaching media and methods that have been proven to be effective.
6. The instructional system should mix and combine media and methods so that each subject or unit within a subject is taught in the most effective way.
7. The media and technology employed should be ‘articulated’ in design and use; that is, the different media or technologies should reinforce each other and the structure of the subject matter and teaching plan.
8. The instructional system should preserve and enhance opportunities for adaptation to differences among individual learners as well as among teachers.
9. The instructional system should evaluate student achievement not by raising barriers concerning the place where the student studies, the rate at which he studies, the method by which he studies, or even the
sequence in which he studies, but instead by evaluating as directly as possible the achievement of learning goals.
10. The system should permit students to start, stop, and learn at their own paces, consistent with learner short- and long-range goals, situations, and characteristics. (Wedemeyer, 1981, p. 36)
Following the first immersion in the readings I found exciting the opportunity of interacting with one of the fathers of DE, Otto Peters, and to discover how an asynchronous conference can be engaging. Due to the fast pace of DE discipline, I realized how significant is theorizing about it and, probably more important, how reading about the evolution of the theoretical approach is a prerequisite condition for becoming an expert on DE.
Professor Lisa Blaschke -- Spring, 2011
"(Developed by Ulrich Bernath of Germany and Eugene Rubin of the United States, in collaboration with Borje Holmberg of Sweden and Otto Peters of Germany.) An overview of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are required by a competent practitioner of distance education. Critical concepts and issues identified in the distance education literature are explored and the history and theories of the field are critically examined."
What I learned from this class: As recommended OMDE 601 was the first of my MDE program since, as per many other students, this was the first time I got in contact with Distance Education (DE), its fundamentals and some of its theoretical principles and practices that so much have contributed overtime to the establishment of DE as discipline of study and research. I came across readings from Holmberg, Peters, Moore, and Wedemeyer just to cite few. I would like to recall below Wedemeyer’s list of desiderata that has constituted the benchmark I have used along my MDE journey.
1. Instruction should be available any place where there are students –or even only one student – whether or not there are teachers at the same place at the same time.
2. Instruction should place greater responsibility for learning on the student.
3. The instructional plan or system should free faculty members from custodial duties so that more of the teacher's and learner's time can be given to truly educational tasks.
4. The instructional system should offer learners wider choices (more opportunities) in subjects, formats, and methodologies.
5. The instructional system should use, as appropriate, all the teaching media and methods that have been proven to be effective.
6. The instructional system should mix and combine media and methods so that each subject or unit within a subject is taught in the most effective way.
7. The media and technology employed should be ‘articulated’ in design and use; that is, the different media or technologies should reinforce each other and the structure of the subject matter and teaching plan.
8. The instructional system should preserve and enhance opportunities for adaptation to differences among individual learners as well as among teachers.
9. The instructional system should evaluate student achievement not by raising barriers concerning the place where the student studies, the rate at which he studies, the method by which he studies, or even the
sequence in which he studies, but instead by evaluating as directly as possible the achievement of learning goals.
10. The system should permit students to start, stop, and learn at their own paces, consistent with learner short- and long-range goals, situations, and characteristics. (Wedemeyer, 1981, p. 36)
Following the first immersion in the readings I found exciting the opportunity of interacting with one of the fathers of DE, Otto Peters, and to discover how an asynchronous conference can be engaging. Due to the fast pace of DE discipline, I realized how significant is theorizing about it and, probably more important, how reading about the evolution of the theoretical approach is a prerequisite condition for becoming an expert on DE.
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