Different Ways to Help Distance Learners

According to Ron Howard “Traditional distance-learning systems have been designed around the learning isolate, an individual learner who generally works by him- or herself and has communication links with his or her tutor through the postal and telephone systems.” (Howard, 1995, p.105) understanding for distance learners all those individuals who take a course in an autonomous way keeping in touch with his/her tutor either through postal, telephone, and nowadays different social networks and platforms. Stating this, it is important to identify some of the main difficulties that distance students face throughout a distance course. Therefore, some of those difficulties involve asking and providing help, learning to be autonomous, lack of communication and difficulty to understand instructions. In this text we are going to explain each of those main difficulties and we will propose solutions to avoid them as well. 

It is well known that  being autonomous is one of the most important characteristics that a distant learner must have, however not all distance students have developed it and this is why it becomes a major issue when having to succeed on a distance course. Knowles (1990) suggested that as a person matures and ages his or his independence on an educator decreases (cited on Doodlers and Lindner, 2005, p.57) therefore, it is expected that sooner or later students will acquire that certain degree of autonomy required to succeed in distance education.  The question is, as future teachers or distance teachers, how can we motivate our students to reach that maturity needed to become autonomous? A good way to help our students and solve this problem could be motivating our students to work by themselves, showing them the wonders of being independent, creating activities to help hin/her to experiment being autonomous. Another way of helping them would be encouraging them to self assess their activities, that way they will realize how well they are performing at the subject, it will also provide them with the information to know their strong and weaknesses, and therefore it will encourage them to work their way into autonomous learning. 

The second most common difficulty that most distance learners face, is communication.  Probably, this is a difficulty that can be experienced not just on distance education but probably even in traditional education, since there are different factors that contribute to bad communication among teacher-students or student-student. Those could be that the student is shy and he is not used to ask for help or to ask to clarify instructions or even to ask for help. the lack of communication may lead to misunderstandings giving a result frustrated students who eventually will drop off the course. So one way to help this kind of students is providing as teachers a good environment of secureness so they would feel confident to ask without the fear of being judge for having doubts or ask for help. Maybe the teacher could also, create different activities to encourage team work, to get to know their classmates and develop an environment in which learners share and help each other. Richard Slatta (2007) in his article “Diversifying and Improving Student-Instructor Communication” mentions that communication is essential to succeed in any class. He also suggests that either students and teachers must show respect when communicating, remarking that all opinions are important and encouraging all students to participate in all activities through the course. It is also important to keep in mind that as distance teachers, it is difficult to keep communicated with all students. Therefore, we have to make an extra effort to keep in touch specially with those students that aren't participating or that we may think that they need some extra help to enrole in the activities. 

Lastly, Bad habits such as lack of discipline, proactivity and responsibility could be part of the major difficulties that the distance student has to upfront at some point of the course. Even when attending traditional courses, some students struggle when having to overcome some bad habits, making it even harder to deal on distance courses, because as we mentioned before, the distance learner must have some degree of autonomy in order to succeed. Said that, as teachers, we need to find ways to help our students to work on those difficulties and break the bad habits. It is not as simple as it seems because it requires the student willingness to leave behind those difficulties. However, there are some ways we can help. For example, just like we mentioned before with autonomy, we can motivate our students through self-assessment and or creating activities in which all students can help each other and contribute to improve their classmates experiences at class. It is good helping them find their strong and weaknesses. 

As a conclusion, the distance course teacher has a hard work to do, since they do need to work harder to get close to their students, they need to make things work in the course, and motivate students to enrole the course in a respectful and friendly way. It is also important to know students and to encourage them to get to know their classmates keeping their autonomy and helping others around. 

Bibliography: 

Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and Practices for Educators, Administrators, and Learners

Kim E. Dooley 

James R. Lindner

Larry M. Dooley 

2005

Distance Education for Language Teachers : A UK Perspective Multilingual Matters

Ron Howard

1995

Distance Learning Basics: Skills for Being a Successful Online Student

Paul Alford 

Amy Lawson

2009

Diversifying and Improving Student-Instructor Communication

Richard w. Slatta

Jennifer Blossfeld

2007

 Distance and Open Education 

  

 Professor Bernard Spodek describes open education as an open system of thought, one that is constantly being modified… However, the concept of open education is quite vague, mainly because it’s being used as a slogan or concept depending on how it is used. According to professor Spodek’s definition, open can find that the term might be overlapping with other definitions. In the other hand, the author, David Nyberg, proposed that open education is that form of educational practice which is characteristically regulated by some Of the following rules: 

-Students are to pursue educational activities of their own choosing. Yet, it does not give the student the freedom to do whatever they want, but it suggests that students may pursue any educational activity of their choose.

-Teachers are to create an environment rich in educational possibilities. Creating with this the ideal environment for students activities. This rule provide the teacher the chance to help students in their pursue of educational activities. 

-Teachers are to give students individualized instruction based on what they are interested in, but teachers are also to guide the student along educationally worthwhile lines. Here the teacher should focus on what the students are interested in without losing the purpose of the class. It also includes the guide of the teacher and their judgment in the interests of the student. 

-Teachers are to respect students, considering: 

 -Student’s autonomy

 -Students interests and ideas

 -Students and teachers are equal in some sense

 -A minimum use of authority

 -Students feelings

It is important to point out that to define open education is to define a program for action, which means that each program is unique, because they have different norms. Therefore, the notion of open education is still in the process of being defined. 

Advantages	Disadvantages
-Ss have the freedom to learn at their own pace.	-Makes communication difficult between Ts and Ss
-Ss have control in the way they learn	-Group work is hard to accomplish due suitable times
-Ss control the content and they can emphasis in what they need to learn	-It can lead to delays in the learning process.
-Ss have complete control of their goals and evaluate their learning	-For Ts it is imposible to make casual oversight of learning progress.
-Ts are able to call for deep thinking	-It makes difficult the relationship between Ss and Ts
-Ts can use different resources that are unavailable in the classroom	-Inhibits corporate activity
-Ss can become independent and effective learners

Personal Definition

   

Open education: 

It is not easy to describe in my own words open education, because it doesn’t have a concrete definition itself. However, open education represents the way in which teachers along with institutions, execute the teaching process, always taking the students into consideration.

 Distance education: 

This concept i found it a little bit easier to explain, because it relates to a type or branch of education in which the student and the teacher are linked, but they can be situated in a different geographical position. This type of education also relates to the use of different material, devices, and criteria to achieve the learning process, such as platforms, online forums, ibooks, chats, email, or even conventional mail. 

Comparison Between Distance and Presential Education

Talking about presential classes can be easily related to traditional education, and therefore we might think of it as the better option related to education. However, lately the term distance education has cough people’s attention, mainly because of its accessibility. But, are we really aware of what this two terms really are? To understand this, it is important to compare them both. Here, we have that both terms have certain similarities: time and place, strategies and procedures, and learning.  

  First of all, distance and presential education  resemble the similarity of time and place. With both modalities one spends time, the difference is that in the traditional way one gathers in a classroom at the same time and place, while in distance classes one may have the option to work in each and every task they are ask to accomplish in a different time. They also have in common a geographical space, but again, it can be totally different geographical space. While traditional education occurs in a classroom, distance education can be made not only online, but trough the mail, book, audiobooks, etc. No matter where the student is located, as long as they want to study. Here is important to mention the accessibility, while presential education may limit their accessibility to a certain number of students, distance education has the option to provide more accessibility when talking bout space, time and place. 

  Second of all, among other similarities, distance and presential classes have similar strategies and procedures, but they both are very different. Distance classes should be carefully designed and developed before instructions begin, focusing and encouraging the student’s autonomy keeping in mind the students capabilities. Presential classes are meant to have a guide to lead the classroom and help the students to achieve the goal in an effective way. In other words, both modalities require the willingness to get things done; the difference is the procedure in which students get to reach the goal. While in the presential class the teacher might guide their students to the desired goal, in the distance class the student will have to take the lead in whatever he wants to achieve. 

 Finally,  distance and presential education have a related learning process. However, it is achieved differently. While presential education may offer the advantages of having a guide, distance education will offer the chance to share feedback and learn from each other in a healthy way in which students may enrich their knowledge and contribute to each other learning. It is important to mention that even though it sounds easy to take a distance class, not all students are meant to be distance students. Specially if do not have the skills, independency and willingness to built their own knowledge, share and give feedback.

Teaching and Learning  at a distance

Foundations of distance education 

Fourth Edition

Michale Simonson

Sharon Smaldino

Michael Albright

Susan Svacek