UNIT 2 Concepts of Distance Education

Assessment
Evaluation of project or course based on measuring pre- against post- awareness, knowledge, or skills.

Asynchronous Communication
Non-synchronous, two-way communication in which there is a delay between when a message is sent and when it is actually received. In distance learning, asynchronous communication most often take the form of email (e.g. your professor emails you with feedback on an assignment), voicemail (e.g. you leave a message for your professor on his/her office phone), and discussion boards (e.g. you post a reply to a classmate's question in a threaded class discussion.)

Audio Bridge
A device used in audioconferencing that connects multiple telephone lines. Audioconferencing: Voice only connection of more than two sites using standard telephone lines.

BBS (bulletin board system)
a system maintained by a host computer for posting information, carrying on discussions, uploading and downloading files, chatting, and other online services. BBSs are generally created for a specific group of users and are usually topic-specific.

Blackboard
A blackboard is a collaborative, virtual space where multiple parties contribute ideas towards the solution of a problem by posting information, solution ideas and suggestions. Each addition to the blackboard brainstorm is intended to increase collective understanding until a problem has beensolved.

Blended/hybrid
e-learning instruction, delivery combines presence and no presence and the type of presence can be physical or virtual.

Collaborative learning,
In which the communication between the tutor and the students is asynchronous: the students study individually following an arranged schedule of assignments.

Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI)
Teaching process in which a computer is utilized to enhance the learning environment by assisting students in gaining mastery over a specific skill.


Course Management System
Also shortened to "CMS." The software, usually web-based, used by colleges and universities, as well as corporations and government, that facilitates distance learning by centralizing the development, management, and distribution of instructional-related information and materials. A CMS provides faculty with a set of tools that allows the easy creation of course content - syllabi, course modules, lecture notes, assignments, tests and quizzes, etc. - and is the framework in which they teach and manage the class. To an online student, a CMS is simply the vehicle by which you, the instructor, and your fellow learners interact using asynchronous discussion boards and live chat tools; access course information and materials, submit assignments, check your grades, etc.

Cyberspace
The nebulous place where humans interact over computer networks

Distance education
Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the pedagogy and andragogy, technology, and instructional systems design that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site". Rather than attending courses in person, teachers and students may communicate at times of their own choosing by exchanging printed or electronic media, or through technology that allows them to communicate in real time and through other online ways [2]. Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason including the taking of examinations is considered to be a hybrid or blended course of study.

Distance learning
Distance learning makes it possible to earn degrees without quitting your day job. Your schedule is more hectic than ever with work, family, and errands. When it comes to continuing your education, you need a school that works with your busy schedule. That’s where distance learning comes. It’s and plenty of bangs for your buck.

Effectiveness
Measure of achieving a specific goal: Typical effectiveness measures in distance education include cost, course design, instruction, media, teaching strategies, technology. Relates to quality assurance.

E- learning
Education via the internet,network , or standalone computer. e-learning is essentially the network-enabled transfer of skills and knownetwkorledge. e-learning refers to using electronic applications and processes to learn. e-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-Rom.

Electronic Mail (E-mail)
Sending messages from one computer user to another.

Distance Education
The process of providing instruction when students and instructors are separated by physical distance and technology, often in tandem with face-to-face communication, is used to bridge the gap.

Distributed Learning
Distributed learning is a type of distance learning that makes use of information technology. Distributed learning includes most types of distance learning but not plain correspondence via the mail.

Facilitator
The online course instructor is often referred to as the course facilitator. Online instructors do not retain their traditional "teacher-centered" roles from the brick-and-mortar, face-to-face paradigm. Instead, they become the medium through which discovery learning is facilitated in a student-centered environment. The facilitator is often referred to as the "course moderator." In Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) the far-end helping staff person, whether teacher or para-educator, is called the "facilitator."

Feedback
Key element in any form of communication: the response of the receiver to the sender. Moore & Kearsley (1996) Implications for distance education

General Education Online
Is a web based project started in 1995 by Michael Viron that provides a database of links to web sites of educational facilities worldwide

Interactive Course
An interactive course is a distance learning course that incorporates at least some interactive components, such as student interaction with technology, active instructor feedback, communication between peers, communication between students and an instructor and possible peer collaboration

Interactive Media
Frequency assignment that allows for a two-way interaction or exchange of information.

Learner Autonomy
"Concept that learners have different capacities for making decisions regarding their own learning." Relates to the structure and interactive expectations of a distance education course. A key element in adult learning.

Learning management system (LMS)
Is software for delivering, tracking and managing training. LMSs range from systems for managing training records to software for distributing courses over the Internet and offering features for online collaboration.

Live Web conferencing
Participants will experience a live online web session with students in California using NetTutor. Attendees will leave with strategies and tools to create links in Blackboard to improve student retention. Make your class as personal as possible.

Online education
As per definition on the web, it is basically credit-granting courses or education training delivered primarily via the Internet to students at remote locations, including their homes. The Online courses may or may not be delivered synchronously. An online course may need that students and teachers meet once or periodically in a physical setting for lectures, labs, or exams, so long as the time spent in the physical setting does not exceed 25 percent of the total course time. Online education encompasses various degrees and courses. Through online education, one can opt for many

Study Online
Online education is a simple way to learn foreign language, get professional certificate or increase your professionalism with the help of online diploma programs or online courses

Synchronous Learning
Synchronous Learning is often referred to as 'live' learning and is used in conjunction with online learning. It means that the communications occur at the same time between individuals and information is accessed instantly. People can communicate in 'real time' using their computers to both talk to each other as well as text chat. Presentations can be made using electronic whiteboards and electronic slides. This type of interaction is referred to as a 'virtual classroom'. Presentations, conversations and text can be stored (archived) and made available online as a resource.

Threaded Discussion
In a threaded discussion users have the option of responding to one another directly. Although there may be a general topic, as in the discussion example above, subtopics emerge as students respond to specific postings. These secondary postings are the "threads" that spin off from the main discussion: a student responds directly to a comment made about the main topic, and another student responds to the response, and so a thread is formed. A threaded discussion is a group conversation with simultaneous side conversations. There is little sense of sequence in a threaded discussion; you can easily chime in at any point in the conversation

Virtual Learning Community
By taking advantage of virtual spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and Second Life, we give our students space to learn outside the classroom.

Web Administration
The Road to Xavier portal for admitted students was named Best University Web Site 2006 by the Web Marketing Association. Beyond enabling the recruitment of a banner class, this Web 2.0 project laid the foundation for the Virtual Learning Commons, Xavier's comprehensive fully integrated Web presence to support 21st-century learners.