EME 6458: Distance Teaching & Learning
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Brief Description:
This course examines how distance teaching, learning, and other confounding variables intersect with each other. As Thomas Cyrs states, "Students don't learn from technology. They learn from competent teachers who communicate through the technology." In this course, we'll look at the history and foundations of distance education, strategies for teaching in a distance environment, support structures for students, and more!
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Expanded Description:
“I teach in a face-to-face classroom. Why would I need to know about distance education?”
“Who makes a good distance student? Would I be a good distance learner/teacher?”
“What are effective ways to teach via distance that promote student learning?”
“How do the roles of instructors and students change in a distance teaching and learning environment?”
“What have the leaders in distance education left us as foundational stepping stones on which to build our distance lessons/units/courses/programs?”
In this eight week course, participants will explore the answers to these and other questions. This course examines how distance teaching, learning, and other confounding variables intersect with each other. As Thomas Cyrs states, "Students don't learn from technology. They learn from competent teachers who communicate through the technology." In this course, we'll look at the history and foundations of distance education, strategies for teaching in a distance environment, support structures for students, and more! We will spend significant time considering issues associated with the online learning environment. This course strives to allow educators to focus on producing lessons and courses that are effective and appropriate for distance education technologies while maintaining the purity of the course. Without quality distance teaching, you decrease the chances of successful distance learning from students.
This course is designed to provide teachers and instructional designers at all levels with the foundations to enable them to be successful in teaching in a distance environment. As technology capabilities increase and the teacher shortage continues to be a problem, teachers at all age levels and in every arena will want to have some foundations of being a quality distance educator.
By the conclusion of the semester, students should be able to:
- discuss the foundations and timeline of distance education.
- compare and contrast traditional theories of education with those of distance education.
- create a profile of distance education learners.
- create engaging learning environments for the distance learner taking into consideration the types of interaction required in distance education.
- consider elements necessary for building learning communities in the online learning environment.
- discuss elements of distance education support structures.
- elaborate on various instructional strategies that can be appropriate used in distance learning environments.
