United States Distance Learning Association

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THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ECONOMY A detailed discussion regarding the megatrends affecting society and the economy—globalization, technology, outsourcing, consolidation, demographics, and branding—is beyond the scope of this article, but here are some general changes being felt within many organizations (Moe, Bailey, & Lau, 1999) (see Table 1). These economic shifts demand new ways of building competent employees (see Table 2) TRENDS IN TRAINING The trend in the United States is that the number of face-to-face training events is down and technologically mediated training is increasing. Technology used for training delivery in 2005 (the most current data available), was 36%, with 60% of that occurring online. Since 1999, technology used to deliver training has risen each year, while in-person training has steadily gone down (HighTop Company, 2007). Change of this magnitude within the system causes expectations of persons throughout the organization to change. Leading-edge companies are starting to see a well-educated and well-trained workforce as a competitive advantage in the global workplace. The perception of training is changing from a cost center to a revenue-generating investment. NEW ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Whether one decides to embrace distance training and education to reduce costs, improve quality, remain competitive, or for some other combination of business reasons, to do so across the organization usually requires a significant cultural change. This move to a learning organization is a move toward each person taking responsi- Table 1. Old Economy A skill Labor vs. management Business vs. environment Security Monopolies Plant, equipment National Status quo Top-down Shifts in the Economy New Economy Life-long learning Teams Encourage growth Risk taking Competition Intellectual property Global Speed, change Distributed Table 2. Old Economy Four-year degree Training as cost center Learner mobility Correspondence and video One-size fits all Geographic institutions Just-in-case Isolated learners and learning events Shifts in Education and Training New Economy Forty-year degree Training as competitive advantage Content mobility High-tech multimedia centers Tailored programs Brand name university; celebrity professors Just-in-time On-going virtual learning communities Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 3
Table 3. Changes in Learner and Instructor Roles Changing learners’ roles Changing instructors’ roles • from learners as passive receptacles for hand-me-down knowledge to learners as constructing their own knowledge; • learners become adept at complex problem-solving activities rather than just memorizing facts; • more activities in which learners refine their own questions and search for answers; • more collaborative/cooperative assignments with learners working as group members; • group interaction significantly increased; • increased multicultural awareness; • independent, self-motivated managers of their own time; • discussion of learners’ own work in the classroom; • emphasis on knowledge use rather than only observation of the teacher’s expert performance or just learning to “pass the test”; • emphasis on acquiring learning strategies (both individually and collaboratively); and • access to resources is significantly expanded • instructors’ role changing from oracle and lecturer to consultant, guide, and resource provider; • instructors become expert questioners, rather than providers of answers; • instructor provides structure to student work, encouraging self-direction; • from a solitary instructor to a member of a learning team (reduces isolation sometimes experienced by instructors); • from instructor having total autonomy to activities that can be broadly assessed; • from total control of the teaching environment to sharing with the participants as fellow learner; • more emphasis on sensitivity to student’s learning styles; and • instructor-learner hierarchy is broken down bility for his or her learning (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006; Murray, 2001). To remain competitive, an instructor-centered approach to training will no longer work in today's workplace. The new emphasis helps employees to handle a variety of jobs and unpredictable problems (see Table 3) (Berge, 1996). STAGES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES Organizations struggle with this type of change—and they do not have it all figured out yet, but some companies are closer than others in their understanding of when, where, and how distance training can help them become competitively advantaged. These organizations have a better understanding because they have integrated a combination of project management, program management, change management, and strategic planning to include distance education as part of the profile of their organization. When considering the distance delivery of education and training, it is useful to think of the learning “stages” the enterprise goes through that are analogous to the learning processes of maturing individuals. A brief model that describes stages of organizational maturity, or capabilities, with regard to the delivery of distance education (Schreiber & Berge, 1998) might be: • Predistance Training and Education Stage: The organization has not attempted to use distance learning. • Stage 1: Separate or sporadic distance learning events occur in the organization. • Stage 2: The organization’s technological capability and infrastructure can support distance learning events. When distance education events occur, they are replicated through an interdisciplinary team which responds to staff and 4 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4
Page 2 and 3: DISTANCE LEARNING FEATURED ARTICLES
Page 4 and 5: DISTANCE LEARNING MAGAZINE SPONSORE
Page 6 and 7: SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE Barriers and the
Page 10 and 11: Table 4. Rank Order of the 10 Facto
Page 12 and 13: ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE STRATEGI
Page 14 and 15: Table 5. Solutions to Barriers to D
Page 16 and 17: Table 5. Continued Social Interacti
Page 18 and 19: management. In L. Lau (Ed.) Distanc
Page 20 and 21: compensation, incentives and releas
Page 22 and 23: Pedagogy --Course Development --Cou
Page 24 and 25: Quality in Distance Education A Tri
Page 26 and 27: ability to understand and apply tec
Page 28 and 29: CONSTITUENCIES IN DISTANCE EDUCATIO
Page 30 and 31: control and responsibility for the
Page 32 and 33: Kirtley, K. E. (2002). A study of s
Page 34 and 35: Distance Education in the Public Hi
Page 36 and 37: distance education courses and Inte
Page 38 and 39: need, in a distance education class
Page 40 and 41: Using IT-Based Distance Education f
Page 42 and 43: to participate and share and exchan
Page 44 and 45: to a teacher and get to get filled
Page 46 and 47: Online High School Courses Preventi
Page 48 and 49: students. Fourth, a program that in
Page 50 and 51: independently (November, 2001). Thi
Page 52 and 53: tion. Both classes had a 100% compl
Page 54 and 55: that allow instructors and students
Page 56 and 57: own graduate experience as being fa
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tional delivery. The knowledge that
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APPENDIX B: WIMBA LIVE CLASSROOM IN
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Access to College for Nontraditiona
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coast through by quietly sitting in
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institutions. According to Shanika,
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Distance Education at the Universit
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Figure 1. UF/IFAS IT’s relationsh
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Figure 2. IFAS 2005-06 operating bu
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ida Division of Continuing Educatio
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Institute of Food and Agricultural
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Learning Objects What Are They, and
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Table 1. Goals of Learning Object D
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easoning as to how they are built,
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INTERVIEW The Perils and Promise of
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4. Limiting the enrollment in dista
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esponsibility to make sure that thi
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ence since it did not figure in the
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INTERVIEW Here Come the Marines! An
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demonstrate, within a set of proced
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and this is significant, the Corps
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Ends and Means Developing a Digital
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artifacts one wants to include in t
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New Media, New Learning School for
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And Finally … continued from page
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United States Distance Learning Association

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