Page |1 Ralph Hameni Bieleu OMDE 601 Section 9040 02/19/2013 A Definition of Distance Education

After the two weeks of reading different articles on distance education, we came across several definitions of the term distance education. Among them, there is the definition of Moore & Kearsley(2012): Distance education is teaching and planned learning in which teaching normally occurs in a different place from learning, requiring communication through technologies as well as special institutional organization (Moore & Kearsley, 2012, p.2). In the next paragraphs, I will present my reasons for this choice as representative of understanding of DE. The distance between teacher and learner (different place from learning) is essential component of any good definition. Distance education was created to fill a need in the education field. At its origin, it was for people who were not able to attend traditional school because geographic, economic, or/and time constraint. The greatest demand, and this is most impressive, comes from learners. They are rushing to enroll in distance teaching institutions, especially distance teaching universities, all over the world (Peters, 2004). The concept of different place from learning requires different teaching pedagogies because the ones used in traditional education could not be applied in the distance education due to the fact that teacher and learner are normally in different places. The technologies in DE have traditionally been put in place to support delivery of instruction and to close the distance teacher-learner and learner-learner For example, in correspondence study, corporations used print to distributed learning materials to learner. A definition of distance education should have a component that related to the institutional organization. The distance education is a form of education, where by definition involves teaching and learning. Teaching requires individuals or institutions that will plan instruction and learning materials that will be used in the learning process. The following steps must be taken:

Page |2 Ralph Hameni Bieleu OMDE 601 Section 9040 02/19/2013 A Definition of Distance Education

intensive and long range planning, instructional design, development of writing of selfinstructional teaching material, production of this material (Peters, 2010). In addition, in each of the major theories in distance education, especially the industrialization of teaching theory of Otto Peters, corporates and institutions have an essential role in teaching and the mass production of learning materials that cannot be substituted. Finally, the implementation of the different teaching pedagogies over the years could only be possible because of the different type of institutions from corporates during correspondence studies wave, to the single and dual mode universities during the systems approach and web-based communications waves. (Hlsmann, 2012) Teaching is an important term because teaching pedagogies of distance education are different than traditional education one. They are very connected to the technology used for communication over the different waves of distance education. From cognitivism/ print in the correspondence wave; the constructivism /multimedia (audio and video broadcasting) in the system approach wave, to connectivism/ media convergence (internet, web 2.0 tools) in the webbased communication wave, the teaching pedagogies tend to be dictated by the technology available during that period. Andrerson & Dron states: Given the requirement for distance education to be technologically mediated in order to span the geographic and often temporal distance between learners, teachers, and institutions, it is common to think of development or generations of distance education in terms of the technology used to span these distances ( Anderson & Dron, 2011) Planned learning, in this definition, represents what Dr. Peters called division of labor (Peters, 2002) in his theory. A team of specialists is involved in the creation of course and learning resource to ensure that the learner is able to learn independently. Resources should be subjected

Page |3 Ralph Hameni Bieleu OMDE 601 Section 9040 02/19/2013 A Definition of Distance Education

to instructional design procedures that organize them into learning experience that promote learning, (Schlosser & Simonson, 2010, p.3). Communication through technology Teaching and learning cannot happen in distance education without technology. Moore and Kearsley write: Because communication is so central to distance education, every student and practitioner needs to know a little about each of the technology, and also the media they deliver (Moore & Kearsley, 2011, p. 72). Other the years, technology evolves and allows a better content-learner, learner-learner, and teacher-learner interactions. That evolution also allows a change in teaching pedagogies as demonstrated above. A definition of distance education should regroup all the important components cover in the different researches and theories published by the different scholars. In my view, the definition of given by Moore & Kearsley covers each of these components teaching and planned learning, communication through technology, and distance between the learner and teacher. The definition could evolve overtime and add different dimensions that Moore did not account for; however, these components should figure in each definition of distance education.

References
Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research in Online and Distance Learning (IRRODL), 12(3), 80-97. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/890 Hlsmann, T. (2012). The DE waves [Table]. Retrieved from http://tychong.umuc.edu/tycho/OMDE/601/1302/9040/conference/launchconferencing.tycho

Page |4 Ralph Hameni Bieleu OMDE 601 Section 9040 02/19/2013 A Definition of Distance Education

Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2011). Distance education: A systems view of online learning. (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Peters, O. (2004). Distance education in transition - New trends and challenges (4th ed., Volume 5). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universitt Oldenburg. Peters, O. (2010). The theory of the "most industrialized education". In O. Peters, Distance education in transition: Developments and issues (5th edition) (pp. 11-32). Oldenburg, Germany: BIS-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky Universitt Oldenburg. Schlosser, L.A. & Simonson, M. (2010). Distance education: Definition and glossary of terms (3rd ed.) . Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.