Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

The Pedagogical Flexibility of the Virtual University
The most important one among them is autonomous and self-regulated learning. For
about a hundred years this has been a pedagogical goal for the education of school
children and even more so of adults. Hence, trying to realise it is nothing new.
However, we are now challenged by the fact that the digitised learning environment
provides for many new, unforeseen, unexpected and extremely effective possibilities for
being successful in this pedagogical endeavour. In fact, the digitised learning
environment is full of promise in this respect. For the first time in the history of
learning, autonomous learning can be developed, applied and practised relatively easily.
The old pedagogical idea of the independent, self-acting, self-confident, self-assured
and self-competent student who learns by studying on his or her own can be realised.
And in the long run, practising this model of learning will become even a sheer
necessity in the face of the lifelong learning that is required in our post-industrial
information and knowledge society.
Precisely, what is self-regulated learning? Malcolm Knowles (1975, p. 18), a world
famous representative of the adult education movement, described self-directed learning
in this way: Self-directed learning is “a process in which individuals take the initiative,
with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating
learning goals, identifying human or material resources for learning, choosing and
implementing learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes”.
This definition is still valid. Knowles speaks of self-directed learning as the opposite of
teacher-directed learning, which is, as we all know, the traditional form of learning. In
self-directed learning the students have taken over most of the functions of the faculty
member. Knowles´ (1975, p. 14) “immediate reasons” for this transformation are
convincing: People “who take the initiative in learning ... learn more things, and learn
better, than do people who sit at the feet of teachers passively waiting to be taught”. And:
“Self-directed learning is more in tune with our natural processes and psychological
development.” Many “of the new developments in education – the new curriculums, open
classrooms, non-graded schools, learning resource centres, independent study, nontraditional
study programs, external degree programs ... and the like (have already) put
heavy responsibility on the learners to take the initiative in their own learning.” This
quotation shows again that the concept of the autonomous learner is not a new one. It
was developed long before the first digitised learning environment was established. As a
quintessence of his ideas Knowles said that it is “no longer realistic to define the
purpose of education as transmitting what is known. – … Thus, the main purpose of
education must now be to develop skills of inquiry”.
Exactly this will be the main objective of the virtual university.
A Psychological Contribution: The Constructivist Model of Learning
The revival of the model of the autonomous learner is supported and intensified by a
change of paradigms in the field of learning theory. This change is of great consequence.
The traditional view is based on epistemological realism. This means that experiences
imprint the structure of the real world into the minds of the individual. Cognition is thus
a passive process of copying the structure of the objective world. Accordingly, teaching
means presenting objective facts to the students. Learning is absorbing these facts.
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