Background

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Distributed Learning vs. Distance Learning

Traditionally, distance learning has emphasized delivering educational resources to learners in remote districts or working full-time, and providing the opportunities for open education. Distributed learning, however, enables learners to get and use educational resources distributed in different remote places. In distributed learning, the learners may be either on or off campuses. Distributed learning is based on networked learning environments. With both distance learning and distributed learning, the instructor and the learner do not have to be in the same physical location at the same time.

Distributed Learning Environments

A distributed learning environment in the real world can be examined in several ways. One way is to think about the main educational components and the interactions among them and their environments. Our analysis of distributed learning environments begins with an overview of the various entities comprising the distributed learning environments and then the relations among the various entities.

IEEE’s learning technology systems architecture (LTSA) provides a model for studying learning environments (http://ltsc.ieee.org/). LTSA is generic enough to represent a variety of different learning systems from different domains. Figure 1 shows the model used by IEEE’s LTSA. In the model, the learner entity is an abstraction of a human learner. The learner entity receives the final multimedia presentation, while the learner’s behavior is observed, and learning preferences are communicated with the coach. Then, the coach sends queries to the learning-resources component to search for learning content appropriate for the learner entity. The queries specify search criteria based, in part, on learning preferences, assessments, and performance information. The appropriate locators (e.g., learning plans) are sent to the delivery process. The learning-resources component stores “knowledge” as a resource for the learning experience, and the queries can be searched in this repository. The matching information is returned as catalog information, i.e., a set of content tags that can also be seen as “card catalog” entries. The locators are then extracted from the catalog information and used by the delivery process to retrieve learning content and deliver that content as a multimedia document to the learner. The components to the right of the learner entity correspond to performance control. Performance is measured by the evaluation component, and the measurements are stored in the records database. The coach, when locating new content, can then use the data in the records database.

Figure 1: IEEE’s LTSA

An Example

The learning environment of Athabasca University (AU) (http://www.athabascau.ca) can be viewed as an example of such an architecture. It has the following core components: the Learner, the Peer, the Instructor, the Content, the Tutor, the Administrator, the Course Production Team, and the Secretary. The “Learner” is an individual who receives a course from the system. The collection of individuals who receive the same course from the system within the same time frame and from the same instructor is referred to as the “Peers.” The “Instructor” or “Coordinator” is an individual who facilitates the delivery of pedagogical resources by performing a number of administrative tasks, including course-content sequencing, tutor recruitment and coordination, learning-progress assessment, learner guidance, authorization of the learners, and advancement of higher modules. The “Content” is the knowledge resources shared by the participants in the learning system. The Content can be divided into three categories: administrative content (activities), pedagogical content (materials), and reference content (library). A “Course” is a subset of the content, possibly supported by distributed knowledge resources (e.g., learning objects repositories), facilitated by one instructor and delivered to a well-defined set of learners. The “Tutor” is an individual who answers the course-related questions of the Learner. The “Administrator” is an individual responsible for planning programs. The “Course Production Team” is responsible for course design, production, and management. The “Secretary” is responsible for student registration, student-information management, and staff-information management. Figure 2 illustrates the main educational components and dependency model of a generic distributed learning environment.

Figure 2: Illustration of the main educational components and dependency model of Athabasca University, Canada

The dependency of the components is also illustrated in the figure. For example, the Learner depends on the Content to get course materials.

The life cycle of a distributed learning course begins with the course planning. The next stage involves course development, in which the course is designed and developed by a team of course developers consisting of professors, editors, and visual designers. Then the course package is delivered to students via the Web or seminars under the coordination and facilitation of an instructor. One or more tutors may be needed for tutoring the course, depending on the size of the class. The course continually goes through course evaluation and course revision until it is closed.

The main advantages of distributed learning over traditional classroom-based learning and traditional distance education are (a) flexibility in the time and location for learning, (b) interactivity among the learning elements due to the Web’s multimedia capability, and (c) interactions among instructors, tutors, and learners in synchronous and asynchronous modes. Furthermore, distributed learning has the potential advantages of providing access to distributed educational resources for course authors and students, personalized course materials for individuals, and virtual learning communities for collaborative learning.

However, both distributed learning and the development of distributed learning environments are associated with some challenges.

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