CANADIAN HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE EDUCATION: Style Over Substance or Substance over Style?

 

PART ONE:  “STYLE”

My last post saw me discussing how a lack of proper distance education programs in Canada was perceived to be an issue in the late 1990s.  I set out to see what was going on in Canada and if any substantial changes have occurred. Two “styles” of delivery kept popping up:  “synchronous” and “asynchronous”. 

I taught a televised distance education Calculus course for eight years.  At the time (2002), there were not very many of us in the province teaching distance education courses.  I taught what is known as a “synchronous” distance learning course meaning that I taught live from my classroom with a group of students in my class that was broadcast via satellite (later internet) to other schools.  Conversely, an “asynchronous” model is one where students and teacher interact at different places at different times, generally relying on text or saved audio/video files.

Even though I was given great training and had access to talented experts, I was never formally “schooled” in distance education:  I learned as I went along and got on with it. I never used the words “asynchronous” or “synchronous”.  I was simply a “distance ed teacher”.  I just thought everyone else was doing the same thing I was.  The only other modes of distance learning I was aware of were correspondence schools with their print only/audio-video-tape methods.

I found an article entitled “Asynchronous and synchronous online teaching: Perspectives of Canadian high school distance education teachers” by Elizabeth Murphy, Maria A. Rodriguez-Manzanares, and Michael Barbour.   I wanted to take a close look at this article because much of the research I am finding focuses on post-high school learners rather than those in high school.  The synchronous online teaching part of that title definitely applied to me.  I was in particular curious about the perspectives of the asynchronous teachers since I never employed this model.  I started teaching my distance ed course in 2002 and this study was published in 2011.  I was looking forward to seeing what changes or innovations had occurred in this time.

The authors cite some research by Bernard et al (2004) that I found interesting.  Here are some key facts one could refer to when deciding which style of distance learning is best for learners in a potential course offering.

PROS FOR ASYNCHRONOUS MODELS

-       more positive effects in terms of achievement and attitude outcomes

CONS FOR ASYNCHRONOUS MODELS

-       lower retention rates, higher drop out rates

PROS FOR SYNCHRONOUS MODELS

      -     structured nature may be better for younger learners

CONS FOR SYNCHRONOUS MODELS

-       inflexible with respect to scheduling

-       conducive to lecturing, instructor center for learning

These pros and cons got me to thinking about what I did in my course and looking back now, I may have done things a bit differently.  Now that I have my head wrapped around a couple of general “styles” stay tuned - I now want to figure out what “substance” is involved these methods?  What are educators using?  Have any of you used a solely synchronous or asynchronous model?  If so, leave me a comment and  give me a quick summary of what you've done or are currently doing!


Stay tuned for "PART TWO:  Substance"!

For more info:

Bernard, R.M., Abram, P.C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L. et al (2004).
            How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the
            empirical   literature. Review of Educational Research, 74, 379-439.

Murphy, E., Rodriguez-Manzanares, M., & Barbour, M. (2011). Asynchronous and

synchronous online teaching: Perspectives of Canadian high school distance

education teachers. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), 583-591.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01112.x

Photo credit:  http://torontoist.com/2010/03/the_style_notebook/