ERIC ED358820: Research in Distance Education: 2. Revised Papers from the Research in Distance Education Seminar (2nd, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 1991).

224 Pages·1992·4.6 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
1
IR 016 100
ED 358 820
Evans, Terry, Ed.; Juler, Philip, Ed.
AUTHOR
Research in Distance Education: 2. Revised Papers
TITLE
(2nd,
from the Research in Distance Education Seminar
Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 1991).
Deakin Univ., Geelong (Australia). Inst. of Distance
INSTITUTION
Education.
ISBN-0-7300-2012-6
REPORT NO
92
PUB DATE
224p.; For the 1989 seminar papers, see ED 342
NOTE
383.
Conference Proceedings (021)
Collected Works
PUB TYPE
MF01/PC09 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Adult Development; College Students; Computer
DESCRIPTORS
Assisted Instruction; Conference Papers;
Constructivism (Learning); Disabilities; *Distance
Education; *Educational Research; Epistemology;
Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Nontraditional
Education; Research Methodology; Research Problems;
Student Participation: *Telecommunications
Australia; Research Teams
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Nineteen papers concerning various aspects of
in
distance education and distance education research are presented
(1) "Introduction, Celebrating
this document. The papers are:
Evans);
(2)
Difference in Research in Distance Education" (Terry
(Philip
"Discourse or Discord? A Dilemma of Distance Education"
Gillard);
(3) "Reconceptualising Distance Education" (Garry
Juler);
(4) "Constructivist Epistemology and Its Implications for
(Olugbemiro Jegede); (5)
Contemporary Research in Distance Learning"
Harris); (6)
"Distance Education: Researching Formations" (David
Education"
"Revealing Links: Post-Fordism, Postmodernism and Distance
(7) "Privileging Others and Otherness in Research in
(Mick Campion);
(8) "Openness in Distance and
Distance Education" (Richard Guy);
Disabilities:
Higher Education as the Social Control of People with
(Christopher Newell and Judi Walker);
An Australian Policy Analysis"
in
(9) "Theorising Adult Change and Development through Research
Analysis and
Distance Education" (Alistair Morgan); (10) "Life Course
Farnes); (11) "A Method for
Research in Distance Education" (Nick C.
Terry
Assessing Student Use of Study Notes" (Stephen Relf and
Geddes); (12) "Research in Teleconferencing: Proximics and Student
Rahim
Participation" (Mohammed Razha Rashid, Omar Majid, Abdul
Attendance and
Ibrahim, and Mohammed Ridzuan Nordin); (13) "Student
Education Students" (Eve
Costs of On-Campus Commitments for Distance
Education
Cuskelly and John Dekkers); (14) "Computers as Distance
Learning for
Research Tools" (Lin Thompson); (15) "Language
(16) "Creative Conflict
Off-Campus Students" (James Butare-Kiyovu);
Education" (Ernst Ralf
Theory and Postgraduate Research in Distance
and
Hintz); (17) "Distance Education: Targeting the Primary Producer
Wilson); (18)
Computer Technology" (Robin Pilcher and Ross
Succeed
"Alternatives to Residential Schools: Empowering Students To
Mahony); and (19) "Reflections
at Home" (John Eiseman and Mary Jane
Education" (David Kember, Tammy Lai,
on Team Research in Distance
Yuen). (Contains
David Murphy, Irene Siaw, Julianne Wong, and K. S.
247 references.) (SLD)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
C This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or OrgintZattOn
Onpinating .1
C Minor changes have been made to improve
reprOduCbOn Quality
Points of new or opinions stated in this docu
ment Co not necessarily represent official
trot
OERI position or policy
!Am
REPRODUCE THIS
"PERMISSION TO
GRANTED BY
MATERIAL HAS BEEN
Terry Evans
RESOURCES
TO THE EDUCATIONAL
(ERIC)
INFORMATION CENTER
2
BEST COPY AVAIL
Research In
Distance Education
2
Revised papers from the second Research in Distance Education seminar,
Deakin University 1991
Edited by Terry Evans & Philip Juler
DEAKIN
Institute of Distance Education
Published by the Institute of Distance Education,
Deakin University
Distributed by Deakin University Press,
Deakin University, Geelong, Vic. 3217
First published 1992
© 1992 Deakin University
Printed by Deakin University Printery
ISBN 0 7300 2012 6
4
Contents
Introduction: celebrating difference in research in distance
1
education
1
Terry Evans
5
Discourse or discord? A dilemma of distance education
2
Philip Juler
16
3 Reconceptualising distance education
Garry Gil lard
epistemology and its implications for
Constructivist
4
21
contemporary research in distance learning
Olugbemiro Jegede
30
Distance education: researching formations
5
David Harris
6 Revealing links: post-Fordism, postmodernism and distance
45
education
Mick Campion
7 Privileging Others and Otherness in research in distance
52
education
Richard Guy
8 'Openness' in distance and higher education as the social control
68
of people with disabilities: an Australian policy analysis
Christopher Newell & Judi Walker
9 Theorising adult change and development through research
81
in distance education
Alistair Morgan
89
Life course analysis and research in distance education
10
Nick C Farnes
105
11 A method for assessing student use of study notes
Stephen Reif & Terry Geddes
5
12 Research in teleconferencing: proximics and student
participation
112
Mohammed Razha Rashid, Omar Majid, Abdul Rahim Ibrahim
& Mohammed Ridzuan Nordin
13 Student attendance and the costs of on-campus commitments
for distance students
122
Eve Cuskelly & John Dekkers
as distance education research tools
14 Computers
137
Lin Thompson
15 Language learning for off-campus students
144
Butare Kiyovu
Creative conflict theory and postgraduate research in distance
16
education
157
Ernst Ralf Hintz
17 Distance education: targeting the primary producer and
computer technology
163
Robin Pilcher & Ross Wilson
Alternatives to residential schools: empowering students to
18
succeed at home
178
John Eiseman & Mary Jane Mahony
Reflections on team research in distance education
190
19
David Kember, Tammy Lai, David Murphy, Irene Siaw, Julianne Wong
& K S Yuen
203
References
Chapter 1
Introduction: celebrating difference in research in
distance education
Terry Evans
THE 1990s HAVE given the world's citizens a feeling of social, political and
economic turbulence. Although there have been granitic islands of
conservatism and tradition, most ideological lanIforms have been
eroded and reformed with a speed and doracter which belies their pasts.
Forms of distance education are influenced by this continuing turbulence and,
indeed, are playing a part in the reformation processes which are taking place
locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. As practitioners and re-
searchers in particular, we can easily be focussed on our local circumstances as
increasing efforts.
we worry about the changes which constantly require our
There is enormous energy in distance education these days, but there is also
exhaustion; an exhaustion induced by politicians, bureaucrats and policymakers
who do their frenetic best to rebuild and reform their nations to cope with the
global turbulence.
Distance education, as part of any nation's educational fabric, is being called
than ever before. The
upon to do more, more efficiently and more diversely
people who learn through distance education these days are also increasingly
diverse. No longer are they 'marginal' people doing 'second-best' correspond-
education can be
ence courses in isolated circumstances. Nowadays distance
anything from mass to 'boutique' education. It can be for literacy, agricultural
for mid-career professional
or health education in developing nations, and
development among the burgeoning middle classes. It can also provide school
subject diversity and choice for children, and workplace education for the
'restructuring' working classes. Within and beyond these examples, distance
education is also expected to provide a more equitable form of access to educa-
tion for people whose circumstances or disabilities have often made other forms
of education difficult or impossible.
In the course of such global and local changes to the uses of distance education
there is a continuing reconfiguring of distance education itself. The cumber-
bedfellow
someness of the term 'distance education' and the philandering of its
'open learning' leave people outside the field mystified as to what they mean.
7
1
CHAPI UR 01E
Education more broadly is always under challenge and is currently adapting
itself to the demands of the contemporary circumstances. It is very difficult to
see what these re-formations will mean for distance education, open learning
and other forms of education. Sooner or later, one can envisage an implosion as
each re-forms within the emerging circumstances using technologies and ap-
proaches to teaching and learning which have come from different education
sectors. Moreover, there is the possibility that new borders may be drawn
around different aggregations of educational practice and student population.
Research has an important but difficult place in the changes which surround
distance education. One the one hand the nature of research is that it requires
time and resources for planning, fieldwork, analysis and writing up. On the
other hand, time and resources are being concentrated into surviving and keep-
ing pace with the turbulent demands of contemporary educational worlds. Not
only does research require time for its implementation, but the processes of
reflection and change to policies and practices which follow also demand time.
It appears as if research processes need to adapt to/with the new circumstances
and technologies; perhaps a reformed 'action research' will emerge in which the
cycle of reflection, research and action is compressed into a whirl of bureau-
cratic/democratic, information and change?
Research in distance education is both well and poorly placed to adapt to the
changing circumstances in which we find ourselves. It is well placed because
distance education does not have the established research structures of other
forms of education which means that it has less tradition to respect and remake
and fewer traditionalists to resist reforms of their research fields. However, it
also means that there has not been a powerful and resourceful research seam in
distance education culture. In those parts of the world where distance educa-
tion has a long history there have been people who have endeavoured, indi-
vidually or through organisations, to promote research and publication in the
field. However, these cannot be said to constitute even one tradition of research
in distance education, let alone several competing traditions as one can see in
education more broadly. Some of the distance education institutions, especially
the larger ones in both developed and developing nations, have forms of institu-
tionalised research into their practices and procedures which contribute to
research in distance education. However, their contributions are heavily cir-
cumscribed by their institutional needs and they rarely make significant contri-
butions to knowledge in the field.
Postgraduate research students can be viewed as an emergent band of pioneers
who make significant contributions. However, they are too few in number at
present to have more than occasional effects on research, theory and practice in
distance education. There are alsc the individual scholars of distance education
who through their publications and other contributions have occasionally
substantial, but usually minor, effects on research, theory and practice.
2
1 E RRY EVA 1.S
Gradually, through the various distance education organisations, the major
journals, the computer-based networks and databases, and through the research
groups throughout the world, research in distance education is being articulated
in order to make it an important element of the field. The Research in Distance
Education (RIDE) seminars at Deakin University can be seen as an Australian
contribution to this global movement towards the articulation of research in
distance education.
The first seminar, RIDE '89, was held in November 1989 and was intended
principally as an opportunity for people in Australia to meet and discuss their
work and interests in research in distance education. Over forty people at-
tended RIDE '89 including a few overseas participants who provided an invalu-
able connection with the international cactance education community. A selec-
tion of revised papers from the seminar was published in a book entitled Re-
search in Distance Education 1 (RIDE 1) which is the predecessor to the present
volume. These books are intended to allow others to share in the presentations,
discussions and debates of the RIDE seminars.
RIDE '91 clearly benefitted from the success of RIDE '89. Over sixty people
attended in November 1991 and several potential latecomers were turned away
as we attempted to keep the seminar to a size which would enable the forms of
interaction that a seminar implies. This representation from the Australian
distance education community was very strong and the overseas participants
came from ten different nations. We were particularly grateful to the British
Council which provided David Harris from the UK with a travel grant to visit
Australia and to attend RIDS: '91 as part of his itinerary. The British Council's
commitment to distance education was also in evidence during 1991 as they
provided a large exhibition of distance education materials from the UK which
was displayed at venues throughout Australia.
In addition to the overseas participants, an audioconference presentation was
held with a research group in Hong Kong. Obviously, the demand for events
such as RIDE seminars is high in Australia and, by virtue of the overseas partici-
pation, one can conclude that internationally people are keen to meet and dis-
cuss their research in distance education. There are a few other other research
in distance education seminars and conferences which have occurred occasion-
ally around the world. Perhaps we are on the brink of a new era in distance
education and open learning where research and theory will form an important
core to their development.
At the RIDE seminars we endeavour to keep the focus specifically on research
confer-
so as to distinguish them from the broader national and international
ences on distance education. We encourage everyone who attends to participate
in some form. Apart from the audioconference, there were paper presentations,
accounts of research in progress and postgraduate research roundtables, a
3
CI APtIllt 0 \ E
debate on research and policy, playlets and workshops. As with RIDE '89, we
undertook to involve people more widely in the experience through the produc-
tion of the present book of selected and revised papers, Research In Distance
Education 2 (RIDE 2). Summaries of chapters in the RIDE 1 book are available
on the International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL) database and the full
text is about to be included. We anticipate that this book will be similarly
accessible.
As this book and the RIDE 1 book show, there are diverse research interests,
approaches and topics being pursued in distance education. This is a matter to
celebrate, especially as people are not only bringing their diverse interests to
bear, but also drawing theoretical perspectives into their research from a range
of fields and disciplines not merely beyond distance education but beyond
education as well. This means that there is a powerful potential for everyone to
learn of different approaches and perspectives. For some this is a little troubling
as they are confronted by so much with which they are unfamiliar, but for
others it is challenging and exciting as they make the connections with their
own thinking and work.
For Philip Juler and myself, as editors the diversity of RIDE2 is also both trou-
bling and exciting. We are aware that we have chapters which span the differ-
chapters to-
ences and yet, as editors, we have the ability to select and group
gether as if there were explicit themes. So it should be declared that we have
ordered the chapters in a way which conforms to our understanding of the
of conjecture as to
resonances between particular contributions. It is a matter
If
whether the authors, let alone you the reader, appreciate these resonances.
you don't, we hope you can celebrate the differences.
Further information on RIDE seminars and publications can be obtained by
contacting:
RIDE
Institute of Distance Education
Deakin University VIC 3217
Australia
phone
271437
+67 52
(0)
272177
+67
52
fax
(0)
4