NOTE: SEE MY SEPTEMBER 7, 2012, POSTING OF "UPDATED E-LEARNING DEFINITIONS" FOR A REVISED DRAFT OF THIS DOCUMENT INCORPORATING CHANGES SUGGESTED BY READERS.
Colleagues: The following draft document is posted here for your comment and feedback. Our goal is to evolve some standard definitions surrounding online distance education to encourage better sharing of research data and effective practices. Please review and leave your comments below. Thanks.
Colleagues: The following draft document is posted here for your comment and feedback. Our goal is to evolve some standard definitions surrounding online distance education to encourage better sharing of research data and effective practices. Please review and leave your comments below. Thanks.
Definitions of
E-Learning Courses and Programs
Version 1.0
Developed for Discussion within the Online Learning Community
By
Frank Mayadas
and
Gary E. Miller
As e-learning has evolved into a global change agent in
higher education, it has become more diverse in its form and applications. This increased diversity has complicated
our ability to share research findings and best practices, because we lack a
shared set of definitions to distinguish among the many variations on
e-learning that have arisen. This
paper is designed to provide practitioners, researchers, and policy makers with
a common set of terms and definitions to guide the ongoing development of the
field. Our hope is that it will
move us toward a set of shared, commonly understood definitions that will
facilitate the sharing of research data and professional standards in our
field. In developing the
definitions below, we have tried to incorporate existing definitions developed
by others. We do not present these
as the ultimate definitions, but as a step toward more commonly held standards
as our field continues to evolve.
Additions and revisions will be published as needed.
The Impact of
E-Learning
While e-learning has become the primary form of distance
education, it is also transforming instruction on campus. Higher education historically is a campus-based
institution. Many students live on
campus for the duration of their studies; others live near campus and commute
to campus to take classes and to receive campus-based support services. This physical connection has defined
the relationship between the student and the institution. It has also helped to shape the
curriculum itself. E-learning has
blurred these traditional relationships, removing geography as a defining
element in the student-institution relationship.
Technology-enhanced learning has evolved both from enhancements to
earlier generations of face-to-face teaching and enhancements to earlier
generations of distance education. Engaged intentional design of learning experiences has also
evolved to promote the most effective design to serve the learners, their life
experiences and the opportunities and limitations of the particular
environment. For example, many graduate programs have deliberately
designed programs for working adults, which are predominantly offered online but
also include short-term face-to-face residencies.
At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
define a common measure for instruction.
The “seat time” measure on which common understanding of a “credit hour”
is largely based, is being challenged as new instructional models and
alternatives to traditional classroom lectures become more widely accepted. However, the credit hour remains the
most widely accepted measure used to compare courses across different delivery
environments. Continued growth in
the number and diversity of learning environments will increase the need for a
common standard by which different learning environments can be compared. The following definitions assume the
credit hour as the primary means by which courses are defined, regardless of
delivery environment.
As e-learning has matured, several models have emerged that
have different geographical and curricular implications. The following definitions are designed
to help both faculty and students better understand the different kinds of
e-learning that are now practiced in higher education and to provide
institutions with some standard models to encourage effective sharing of data
about e-learning, at both the individual course and the curriculum level.
COURSE-LEVEL
DEFINITIONS
Traditional Course
– Course activity is organized around
scheduled class meetings.
Traditional courses are measured by the number of hours
spent in required class meetings.
Such courses may involve some sort of computer usage—for example, a
software simulation or laboratory or design software for art or engineering
applications—but the course is still anchored to the normal time spent in
classes. For the purposes of this
paper, these course are considered to be “traditional” courses.
Web-Enhanced
Course – Online course activity complements class sessions without reducing
the number of required class meetings.
The University of Central
Florida was among the first institutions to adopt this term as an official
category. When Internet access is
required to complete course requirements, and when this Internet-based work
augments but does not supplant classroom activity, the course is considered a
“web-enhanced course.” Traditional
courses and web-enhanced courses are very similar, but are placed in separate
categories because web-enhanced courses require additional faculty and student
support, and very likely additional technology. Web-enhanced courses are not normally considered to be
e-learning courses, but are described here because they may be a step toward a hybrid
or online course. The National
Center for Academic Transformation calls this a “supplemental” approach, in
which some technology-based,
out-of-class activities are used to encourage greater student engagement with
course content.
Hybrid Course
– Online activity is mixed with classroom meetings, replacing at least 20
percent, but not all required face-to-face meetings.
When the technologies used for education and communication
outside the classroom are used to supplant some of the classroom work, reducing
the time actually spent in the classroom, the result is a hybrid course. For example, if a course traditionally
meets in a classroom three times per week, a hybrid or blended version might
use online sessions to replace one or two of the traditional weekly classroom
sessions or to eliminate all but a few key face-to-face sessions for laboratory
work or examinations. A general rule is to classify a course as hybrid if online
components replace a minimum of one class meeting per week in a typical
three-credit course or to replace all but a few key face-to-face sessions for
laboratory work or examinations. NCAT
describes this as a “replacement” approach, in which online activity replaces some
class meetings. The Sloan Foundation required that funding for such
courses use online experiences to offset at least 30 percent of traditional
classroom experiences.
Hybrid courses are one component of E-Learning. They are particularly relevant in
programs that serve students within commuting distance of campus. They increase flexibility but do not
totally eliminate the need for students to have physical access to a campus
facility. Hybrid courses will be
attractive to many traditional full-time students, in addition to non-traditional
learners, typically working adults who are within commuting distance and who
wish to earn a degree.
Note that, in the past, the terms “blended” and “hybrid”
have been applied at both the course level and the program level without
differentiation. This has created
a degree of confusion. Our definitions
use “hybrid” at the course level and “blended” at the program level to allow
for clearer distinctions in usage.
“Emporium”
Course – This model,
designed for on-campus use, eliminates all
class meetings and replaces them with a learning resource center featuring
online materials and on-demand personalized assistance.
This model was developed through several NCAT-funded innovations designed
to give campus-based students control over when they study. The purpose is to allow students to
choose when they access course materials, to choose what types of learning
materials they use depending on their needs, and to set their own pace in
working with the materials. It
assumes that students have access to sophisticated instructional software and
one-on-one on-site help. It
replaces formal class meetings with increased access to instructional
assistance and allows institutions to combine multiple lecture sections into
one large section.
Online Course
– All course activity is done online; there
are no required face-to-face sessions within the course and no requirements for
on-campus activity.
Online courses totally eliminate geography as a factor in
the relationship between the student and the institution. They consist entirely
of online elements that facilitate the three critical student interactions:
with content, the instructor, and other students.
While these courses may appeal to on-campus students, they
are designed to meet the needs of students who do not have effective access to
campus. They may reside near the
campus, or they may reside quite a distance away in other states or even in
other countries. Over the
years, universities have sought to serve this “non-traditional” population
through a variety of media—from correspondence courses to satellite
teleconferences—but only since the mid-1990s has technology enabled easy and
continuous communication—interaction—among the learners and instructors at a
distance. The Internet also has made library and other information resources
available to this group. Improvements
in basic technology also permit this user group access to complex data as in
precision images, mathematical visualizations and simulations of various kinds. Social networking applications allow
these learners to participate in both formal and informal learning communities.
PROGRAM-LEVEL
DEFINITIONS
Similar distinctions among delivery environments can be made
at the program level. Degree and
certificate programs can be designed with a mix of traditional and e-learning
courses in order to serve populations who have different levels of access to
campus.
Traditional Classroom
Program—The program may include a mix of traditional, web-enhanced, or
hybrid courses, but all courses require some face-to-face sessions.
These programs take advantage of web-based applications to
enhance learning, but without changing the traditional requirement that
students attend classes on campus or in other traditional learning environments. As a result, online elements do not
significantly improve access to commuting or distant students.
Multi-Format
Program – A program mixes, along
with traditional classroom courses, other formats that use a variety of
different delivery modes, web-enhanced, hybrid, fully online courses, synchronous
distance education, etc., without a specific access goal.
These programs use a variety of technologies and course
designs to provide a variety of learning experiences. Typically, choice of technology is less related to the
geographic or time needs of students than on curricular goals or instructional
needs.
Blended Program – A significant percentage, but
not all of the credits required for program completion are offered fully online. Typically, up to 30 percent of the
curriculum may be offered as face-to-face or hybrid courses or other
face-to-face formats or as independent study.
These programs provide increased access to distant students
who are able to come to campus for some courses, laboratory work, intensive
residencies, or other occasional group sessions. Ideally, face-to-face
sessions will be organized to minimize travel requirements for distant
students. Some academic support services should be available to distant
students as well.
Online Program – All credits required to
complete the program are offered as fully online courses. Students can
complete the program completely at a distance, with no required face-to-face
meetings.
Fully online programs are designed with the truly distant
student in mind. Institutions that offer fully online programs should
also take care to provide support services—registration, testing, advising,
library support, etc.—at a distance.
Implementation
The authors are indebted to the many colleagues too numerous
to list individually who have contributed to these definitions by providing
feedback on earlier drafts and who, in some cases, have pioneered in developing
innovative applications of technology to create new learning environments.
These definitions are a work in progress that will be
updated annually as needed.
The authors welcome comments and anticipate that they will prepare
occasional companion pieces to add new definitions as the field evolves, in the
hope the community will come together around a common set of definitions that
will guide research, practice, and policy. We encourage researchers and professional associations to
adopt the definitions with the goal that a shared vocabulary will facilitate
the sharing of research data, increase the transfer of research into practice,
and, ultimately, promote standards of excellence for the field.
Your comments are welcome in this ongoing discussion.
Version 1.0 8/2/2012
