Book Review: Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education

Teaching and Learning at a Distance is a timely addition to the growing list of foundations books on distance education. The authors of the book provide the bonus of supporting multimedia artifacts: a set of 11 videos can be purchased, and free interactive study guides and PowerPoint presentations are available on the “Companion Website.” A licensing agreement for duplication and distribution of student copies of the videos is available through the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).Although the multimedia aspects enhance the book and are particularly useful as supplements in online courses, the book nevertheless can stand steadfastly on its own. The four authors are all distance educators with decades of experience among them. The authors suggest that those who will benefit most from reading this book are pre-service or in-service teachers and individuals who wish to teach at a distance or manage distance education systems. The preface points out that the book attempts to link “what teachers and trainers know and understand about the learning and teaching process to what is new—the idea of learners in different locations and times” (p. iii).I use the book and PowerPoint presentations with graduate students in a Web-based introductory distance education course: “Foundations of Distance Learning.” Because the course is theory-based and focuses on ways that research informs practice, the book has proven to be an invaluable up-to-date course text. I haven't incorporated the videos into my teaching yet, due to its recent publication, I plan to do so the next time I teach the course. I expect that, because I teach the course via the Web, I will make the videos available to the students via the Web. I find this book very easy to use because of its comprehensiveness and well-designed layout. The students, who use the book as their primary text, have sent confirming reports about the book. They use it as they take turns cofacilitating two-week discussions via computer conference. At the conclusion of each unit's discussions, the cofacilitators are responsible for writing an orientation, or background article, to introduce the unit topic to the next group of students to take the course.Teaching and Learning at a Distance has two categories of chapters—foundation chapters and application chapters. Chapters 1 through 4, the foundation chapters, provide a conceptual, theoretical, and research-based foundation for the rest of the text. Chapters 5 through 12, the application chapters, are designed to provide educators with practical skills and information that they need in order to function immediately in a distance learning environment. This combination of foundations and applications provides a congruent mix of theory-into-practice.Each chapter begins with a general goal and several objectives to provide an organization plan for the student. This approach alleviates the need for the instructor to write unit goals and objectives. Chapters usually have from three to seven subsections that structure the information. Visuals including photographs and drawings are used liberally to show the reader in addition to telling. A summary at the end of each chapter synthesizes the main points. Each chapter has self-test questions and answers that review key ideas. Most self-test questions are divided into two sections. The first part of the question is an important fact, idea, or concept. The second part of each question requires an analysis that may not have a specific answer, one that is best answered by participating in a group discussion with classmates or with the instructor. Finally, each chapter has a comprehensive list of references and additional readings. In some instances, nonprint resources, especially Web locations, are provided.Chapter 1, “Foundations of Distance Education” discusses the status of distance education for the educator who may not be familiar with this idea. Chapter 1 also explains what distance education is and what impact it has on education. The chapter concludes with a vision for schools and learning that is possible because of distance education. Chapter 2, “Definitions, History, and Theories of Distance Education” reviews definitions of distance education that have been, and still are being, used. Because distance education is a field with a long history, that background is discussed. Beginning with correspondence study, the chapter reviews the field up to the current period. Finally, theories related to the practice of distance education are presented, including a proposed American theory of distance education--equivalency theory. Chapter 3 “Research and Distance Education” reviews the extensive research on distance education, including specific areas of the practice of the field as well as more general and comprehensive summaries of what the research says. Teaching and Learning at a Distance is a research-based textbook. The positions taken by the authors are based on a thorough study of the empirical information about distance education. This research-based approach is found in all chapters but emphasized in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 “Distance Education Technologies” offers comprehensive information about the technologies used in distance education systems. Technology is broadly defined, and this chapter includes discussions, explanations, and many visuals to provide the reader with a working knowledge of how information is communicated and how distance education systems operate.Distance educators transmit information, much of which may be copyrighted. The first chapter of the applications section, Chapter 5, “Copyright and Distance Education,” discusses the rules, regulations, and procedures that the distance educator needs to understand. Chapter 6, “Instructional Design for Distance Education,” presents the basic intellectual technique of the technology-using educator--instructional design. Instructional design is the systematic process followed by educators using technology. This chapter describes the procedures to be followed when courses or components of courses are designed for distance delivery. Chapters 7 and 8 explain the unique responsibilities of the learner and instructor involved in distance education. Chapter 7, “The Distance Education Student,” focuses on distance learners, and Chapter 8, “Teaching at a Distance,” focuses on the role of the distance education teacher. The authors of Teaching and Learning at a Distance feel that learning and teaching at a distance are more similar to than different from traditional education. However, there are some special responsibilities and expectations of those involved in distance education. These two chapters discuss those special aspects of learning and teaching at a distance.Chapter 9 “Handouts, Study Guides, and Visuals” may be the most important chapter of the book. Handouts, study guides, and visuals are important tools and techniques of the effective educator generally and of the distance educator specifically. The interactive study guide with its word pictures, visual analogies, and visualization is a significant tool used in distance education systems of all kinds. Chapter 10, “Distance Education, the World Wide Web, and the Internet,” provides in-depth coverage of the Internet and the World Wide Web as delivery mechanisms. The Internet and Web are explained, discussed, and evaluated. Finally, procedures for designing Internet/Web-based courseware are discussed.The final two chapters discuss very important and closely related topics: Chapter 11, “Assessment for Distance Education,” and Chapter 12, “Evaluating Teaching and Learning at a Distance.” Assessment and evaluation are closely related, but their importance is special to the distance educator. These two chapters discuss procedures for assessment and evaluation and provide specific examples of procedures.The 11 videos, which generally range between 11 and 18 minutes each, offer vignettes that illustrate the book's concepts in practice. The introductory video “A Room with a View” discusses the opportunities offered by distance education and presents colorful vignettes from actual distance education classrooms. Five videos focus on foundations, such as “Definitions and Background” and “Distance Education Costs.” The remaining five videos are applications-oriented, including “The Student,” “The Curriculum,” and “Three Statewide Approaches” (Kentucky, Mississippi, and Iowa). The ten foundations and applications videos incorporate excellent instructional design features and are interesting to view in addition to being content-rich. Similarly, the free interactive study guides and PowerPoint presentations are a powerful addition to the set. One could actually teach a course on distance education foundations by using the materials provided by the authors with relatively little additional input.The 1990s produced a number of books related to the foundations of distance education. Edited books (e.g., Garrison & Shale, 1990; Willis, 1994) provided timely collections of writings by knowledgeable distance educators and researchers. Other books (e.g., Bates, 1995; Duning, Van Kekerix, & Zaborowski, 1993; Keegan, 1990; Van Kekerix, & Zaborowski, 1993; Verduin & Clark, 1991) synthesized the growing literature from a variety of sources. I have used each of those books as well as others at different times in teaching my graduate classes about distance education. With the exponential growth of the Web, we can supplement textbooks for teaching our classes, as more books, journals, and documents are available electronically.Currently, the authors of Teaching and Learning at a Distance offer the only comprehensive, up-to-date integration of multimedia offerings for a distance education foundations course: a book, a set of accompanying videos, and interactive study guides and PowerPoint presentations available for free on the Web.