Book Review: Teaching at a Distance with The Merging Technologies: An Instructional Systems Approach

In 1997, I had the pleasure of attending the 13th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wisconsin. Thomas Cyrs delivered several delightful workshops on effective teaching strategies, in particular for instructional television/compressed video. At that time, I was preparing to develop a new graduate course, Advanced Methods in Distance Education that would focus on instructional design/teaching strategies at a distance. I discovered Cyrs had recently published Teaching at a Distance with the Merging Technologies and decided to use this as the textbook for my course. I am still using it today.Cyrs’ dynamic personality is captured in the book. It is fun and easy to read, taking more of a “how-to” approach. It is especially appropriate for beginners in the field, whether education/teaching in general, or distance education in particular. In the introduction, Cyrs states, “This book is written for active practitioners teaching in distance learning environments utilizing any type of delivery format … The specific audiences addressed include community college and university instructors, corporate and business trainers, health professions trainers, government and military trainers, and public school teachers” (p. vii). In my opinion, it best serves those using synchronous delivery technology, (e.g., compressed video and full-motion video) because of the detail given to “performance” strategies. The author does include a chapter overview on Internet/World Wide Web and audioconferencing, but the main focus of this text is on the development of a skill-set for television teaching.Teaching at a Distance with the Merging Technologies contains 468 action-packed pages. The book and chapters are organized concisely with key points, learning performance objectives, new terminology, and bullets throughout. Drawings, visual analogies, concept maps, and other graphics make it easy to follow and understand.Cyrs begins in Part One with background information to set the context for distance education. The author provides an overview of research conclusions about learning at a distance, principles of teaching and learning, competencies, student motivation/self-direct-edness, and myths and realities of television teaching.The largest portion of the text is devoted to Part Two: Planning and Organizing. There are 20 chapters in this section. Topics include instructional design, alternative delivery systems, constructing lesson plans and syllabi, developing an interactive study guide, and activities/exercises to engage students and provide an active classroom. Specific chapters emphasize graphic design principles, questioning techniques, story-telling, using magic, and other innovative teaching strategies to improve attention, retention, and higher-order thinking.To illustrate the overlying theme of instructional systems in this section, I will elaborate using several quotes from Chapter Seven. The author states, “In order for distance learning to become a moving force in education, the present format must change dramatically … For real change to take place, instructors need training not only in the operation of the technology, but also in the design of telecourses that take advantage of the interactive and visual opportunities offered by these new delivery technologies” (p. 52). “A systems approach is a holistic way of thinking in which a planner looks at each part of an entity as it relates to every other part within a system. The concept of an instructional system is derived from the field of systems research, which has been widely used and adapted in the fields of education and training” (p. 53). “An instructional system specifies what a student should learn and do at the completion of a course and each lesson period, the means available to the student to master the learning performance objectives, how the students will be taught, and the performance criteria to determine when the student has mastered the stated learning performance objectives satisfactorily” (p. 56).Cyrs provides a systematic instructional design process with six steps: (1) identify the departmental goals and objectives, (2) specify the learning performance objectives, (3) design assessment procedures for teaching and learning, (4) provide feedback, (5) identify alternative teleteaching strategies, and (6) identify student involvement exercises and activities. “This model allows for the systematic selection of learning outcomes that reflect and make operational the goals and objectives of the other constituencies. It provides positive direction for the teaching faculty and makes public the expectations of individual courses in unambiguous language for students, other instructors, and administrators” (p. 62).Part Two also introduces different delivery modalities. I have used this section of the book to provide the background for a team assignment, with each group teaching the rest of the class about a delivery system through the teaching of a mini-lesson using that technology. For example, one group would be assigned “Teaching on the Internet and World Wide Web” (Chapter 16) and develop a lesson about this topic that would be linked to the course Web page for asynchronous participation with the rest of the class. This book does not teach how to code in HTML or use other web-design tools, but instead provides the foundation for the pedagogical/andragogical concerns. I supplement the necessary technical skills, but find it is much more important for students and faculty to understand sound instructional design principles for distance education delivery than to focus on technology tools alone.In Part Three, the focus shifts to production and presentation skills, including creating a professional image or “signature” for television teaching. Cyrs discusses developing self-confidence as a television teacher and the importance of the first seven seconds to make a strong “first impression.” The author emphasizes enthusiasm, clarity of communication, and interactions with students before and after class as the three most important characteristics of a good teacher.Part Four's theme is Course Administration. The author cleverly begins with “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Administrative Policy Issues for Distance Learning But Were Afraid to Ask.” Cyrs has an uncanny way of lightening things up when the content may seem boring or tedious! A key point in this chapter is that “Distance learning is the most discussed, least understood, and fastest growing area of technological change in higher education today” (p. 385). Cyrs promotes the importance of staff/faculty training and the need for support services such as instructional development, graphic design, editorial services, admissions and registration help, and logistical help to send and receive materials (p. 391). This section also includes the important topics of copyright and intellectual property.Part Five of this workbook discusses the necessary considerations for evaluating tele-courses. Throughout the text, Cyrs uses “tele” (i.e., telelecture, telelesson plan, telesyllabus, teleteaching, etc.) because of his experiential base in instructional television. Cyrs’ definition of a telecourse is “a course designed to be delivered in real-time or packaged electronically via audio, video, computing, print, or in any combination of these” (p. 450). Although there is only one chapter in this section, the author provides an overview of the areas needing evaluation, namely needs assessment, program objectives, telecourse administration, instructional development, television production, teleclassroom environment, telecourse design, and instructor training. In the segment on evaluating a telecourse, he incorporates assessing student learning outcomes (both cognitive and affective).At the conclusion of the book (Part Six), the author provides the reader with three helpful appendices. The first, Where to Locate Important Data, includes sources of information and professional associations for distance learning (which is useful for graduate students as they prepare for oral/written exams). This list includes addresses for 11 professional associations, 18 periodicals and newsletters, and 12 Web sites. The second, The Instructor's Glossary, includes 27 pages of alphabetical terms often found in distance learning/training environs. Cyrs concludes this appendix with an Alphabet Soup of jargon/abbreviations that are also in the glossary. The last section is a topical Index of terms with the corresponding page number(s) referenced in the text. This section serves as a handy reference for anyone who conducts training programs or courses at a distance.Teaching at a Distance with the Merging Technologies is published through the Center for Educational Development at New Mexico State University, so on occasion, my students have had difficulty receiving the book. Through on-line bookstores, or directly through the institution, students can receive shipment in 3-6 weeks with a price range of $54-$72. Students enrolled in my course are geographically dispersed; therefore, on-line ordering works best. But as university faculty, we often do not know who is enrolled until the first class day, and 3-6 weeks is too long for text delivery.In addition to a university textbook, this book would work well for faculty development workshops, at least as a trainer resource. Each chapter includes interactive workshop ideas that can be incorporated into a course or training program. I highly recommend this book as a teaching/learning resource for anyone teaching at a distance.Just as Thomas Cyrs loves to perform magic tricks, tell a story using props and puppets, or entertain his audience with his many costumes and hats, we are reminded that teaching at a distance requires a modified tool kit. In particular, if you are teaching over a television monitor, you will find this book a must to help you think differently about how to modify instruction for delivery in this format. As distance instructors, we wear many hats—content expert, media expert, instructional designer, logistical coordinator—and Cyrs will teach you how to wear these hats with style and pizzazz.