Distance Education (at a Distance).

Distance Education (at a Distance) I have not taught a "distance education" class in several years now, so I view both the experience and the subject from a "distance." Over the years I have been involved in distance education as both an instructor and an administrator. I taught the first telecourse in the North Harris Montgomery Community College district, and I was the first Telecourse Coordinator for this district. In addition, I was the Division Head over the Liberal Arts area when we were developing our distance education program, and I served on the state's distance education consortium. All of the above is by way of establishing my background in the area before I begin to explore the topic.

"In the beginning ..." (not exactly a creative opening I understand), there were independent study and telecourse programs. These courses were designed to fit the needs of the "atypical" student; the student who could not, for whatever reason, regularly attend classes on campus. For most of the people involved in these courses there was a basic understanding that a distance education class could, at best, approximate an on campus class. That is, there was never a real sense that these courses were an end in themselves. Most of us (and in those days this movement was primarily instructor-driven) saw these classes as an entry point for non-traditional students and/or as a supplement for traditional students with special circumstances. However, in the "old days" there was little sense that these classes could (or would) ultimately replace on-campus instruction. That a certain amount of on-campus/in-class experience was an essential portion of a solid, well-rounded college education was, for most of us, a given.

Somehow, over the past ten years or so, we have taken this thing in an entirely different direction. Part of the reason is simply because we can. That is, the technology has boomed so that we can now do things with distance education that no one even dreamed about as recently as ten and fifteen years ago. Part of the reason is because some excellent teachers and instructional leaders have developed courses, materials, methods, and media that equal and exceed some of the finest instruction any one might experience on any college campus. Finally, another part of the reason is that dedicated administrators have provided both funding and expertise in order to make these courses available and convenient to the community at large. The result has been an explosion of distance education across the curriculum. Unfortunately, as is often the case with explosions, there were casualties.

Most significant of these casualties was the value placed upon the on-campus/in-class college experience. There is no question in my mind that there is significant value in the experience of the personal interaction that takes place between students and their instructor in a college classroom. In addition, there is question in my mind that this cannot be reproduced in any distance education format. For better or worse, there is no distance education option that equals the experience of personal, "live" instruction and discussion. Some of the Internet and interactive television experiences might come close (and I am familiar with the arguments that they are superior), but they are not the same thing. The student who manages to get a degree with all or most of that degree coming through distance education has missed an important part of being a college student. Furthermore, they have missed an important part of maturing, developing, and learning in a classroom "community" environment. Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of this and bought into the notion that it was all the same or, at least, as good; this is not the case.

Please, do not think for a moment that I intend to de-value distance education, but to suggest to me that a student who has never participated in the learning community of the college classroom has had the same or, at least, as good of an experience as the traditional student is an absurdity. For me, it is the same as suggesting that a student could complete a college degree without some exposure to philosophy, literature, history, science and other academic subjects. Students need the arts and sciences, and they need to see their college experience as a growth and learning process. Instead, our colleges are often simply viewed as a stepping stone to a job or career. The real tragedy is that so often we, as educators, have bought into this point of view.

Over the past several years I have seen higher education (at least at the community college level) increasingly focus on the "quickest, easiest, and most convenient" way to deliver our "product" (education) to our "service area" and our "customers." This mentality has left us with a "the customer's-always-right" approach to instruction and an emphasis on information and skills education. A part of this movement is the trend toward making enrollment and the budget priorities rather than instructional issues. Much like the medical profession and the HMO problem, education today is often in the hands of lawyers and accountants not teachers. As a result, since distance education is, by comparison, low overhead with the potential to reach a very large audience, it has become the "end" rather than the "means." It is no longer an "entry" for students and/or a "supplement" for students, but rather it can be "the" instructional format for an increasing number of our students. It is their loss and the bureaucrats gain, but make no mistake about it, this will not replace a traditional classroom environment in the long term growth and maturation of a new generation of students.

So, in conclusion, as a self-professed curmudgeon, from the distance of a few years away from distance education, I think we have gone too far, too fast, and for the wrong reasons. From a beginning, where we were concerned with providing new opportunities for non-traditional students to a "new age," where we are concerned more with enrollments and "bottom lines," has been a short, but very rapid trip. It is certainly time to take stock of the twists and turns this road has taken and question whether or not this is truly where we intended to go. Maybe, just maybe, we might remember to value the traditional approach to classroom education as highly as we seem to value "high tech" and distance education. I am not opposed to distance education and can peacefully co-exist with high tech/multi-media presentations in the classroom. However, from my own personal experience, I have learned far more from people (teachers and students) in the classroom than I have ever learned from any of many fine educational technologies available. There is so much more to be learned in the classroom than simply information and skills. Sometimes it "ain't" so bad to just go on and "dance with the one what brung you."

Link Hullar Kingwood College, TX

Link is a Professor of History. He has taught at the college level for twenty-five years and has also served as interim Vice President for Educational Programs, interim Dean of Student Services, interim Dean of Community Education, and Division Head for Liberal Arts. E-mail: <[e-mail]>.