Internet Resources

Distance education: Delivering instruction in cyberspace

updated June 22, 2005

by Michael Lorenzen

Index

Best starting points
Discussion groups
ERIC digests
Electronic periodicals
Organizations
Higher education
Diploma mill warning

Perhaps more than any other field, distance education has been remade with the advent of the Internet and the Web. Once entirely in the domain of correspondence courses, distance education is now the trend in education, with institutions at all levels providing instruction to remote and local users through the use of computers and the Web. The Internet has made it possible for teachers to provide their instruction to mass audiences at the same time an institution makes university information and resources available to paying students online.

Institutions of education worldwide are rushing to become "virtual" universities. Dozens of new institutions are coming online with distance education programs every month. With this rush to cyberspace, an old bane of higher education has reemerged with new strength. Diploma mills are cleverly copying these legitimate virtual universities and using the tools of distance education to sell students worthless degrees. Online resources to fight these new diploma mills are also going up at a fast pace.

While most of the distance education push is coming from colleges and universities, private companies and K-12 schools are also getting involved. Further, many institutes and organizations are being created to further the aims of distance education. Many electronic journals and discussion groups are being made available to educators using distance education. While the constant exponential increase in distance education resources makes it impossible to cover all sites, the resources listed here should help anyone seeking information on distance education find several good starting points.

Best starting points

The following sites are good places to begin finding information on distance education.

• Open Directory Project (ODP). This directory is a volunteer-operated directory of the Web. All sites are reviewed by real humans before they are included in the directory, which cuts down on spam and makes for a high-quality directory. The ODP category for distance education is Reference: Education: Distance Learning, and it has more than 1,000 sites listed. Access: http://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/Distance_Learning/.

• Yahoo! While more commercially oriented than the Open Directory Project and having a lot fewer listing than the comparable ODP category, the Yahoo! Education > Distance Learning category has enough good content to be worth visiting for finding distance education information. Access: http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Distance_Learning/.

• Distance Education Clearinghouse. The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance education information from Wisconsin, national, and international sources. New information and resources are being added to the Distance Education Clearinghouse on a continual basis. The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners and other University of Wisconsin institutions. Access: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/.

• Technology-Mediated Learning Resource Center. This lists resources for course makers, administrators, and teachers interested in this topic. It includes examples of online courses, as well as links to additional Web resources. Access: http://www.bobhails.com/.

• Ed-X.Com: The Distance Learning Channel. This is a search engine and Web resource for distance learning and online education with comprehensive information more than 20,000 online courses and degree programs from 700 online colleges worldwide. It also has a nice message board area for sharing information on distance education with others. Access: http://www.ed-x.com/.

• Resources for Distance Education. This is a good list maintained by Professor Charles Darling Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut. Access: http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/distance.htm.

Discussion groups

There are many discussion lists for those interested in distance education. This is a selective list of available sites.  To subscribe to these lists, send a blank subject message to the listed address with the command “subscribe list name your name.”

• Distance Education Online Symposium (DEOS-L). This is an international discussion forum for distance learning sponsored by the American Center for the Study of Distance Education at Pennsylvania State University. Its purpose is "to promote communication among distance educators, and to disseminate information and requests about distance education around the world." Subscribe: LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU.

• AEDNET. This is a forum for the discussion of issues dealing with adult education, including distance education issues. Subscribe: listserv@alpha.acast.nova.edu.

• OCC-L. This is the On-Line College Classroom electronic forum, which is devoted to discussions, announcements, papers, etc. that are pertinent to those who are teaching (or planning to teach) college classes online. The emphasis is on both the practical considerations of planning and implementing online instruction as well as on theoretical or philosophical issues. Subscribe: LISTPROC@HAWAII.EDU.

ERIC digests

The ERIC Clearinghouse system (which was eliminated in 2003) produced a large number of short (1,500-2,000 word) articles on distance education, which did a good job of summarizing the issues and trends facing educators in distance education.  While some of these are getting dated, they are excellent starting points for research in this area.

• Quality in Distance Education. Written by Katrina A. Meyer, this article looks at studies that compare the effectiveness of traditional instruction with online instruction. Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/distance-education.html.

• Effective Teaching in Distance Education. This article, written by Dan Mielke, examines which practices worked best in the online setting for teaching students. Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/distance.htm.

• Distance Education and Accreditation.   This article by Shannon Loane reviews the challenges that distance education posed for accreditation agencies and how the accreditors were dealing with the issue.  Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/distance.htm.

• Implications of Distance Education for CTE.   This article was written by Michael E. Wonacott; it shows how distance education was changing the way that career and technical education was delivered and what the potential consequences of this were. Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/2002-1/cte.html.

• Future Learning: Distance Education in Community Colleges. This article by Sarah Parrott focuses on distance education and how it relates to community colleges. It discussed several aspects of distance education in community colleges including the technologies utilized, characteristics of distance learners, and the issues surrounding the application of technology as a form of instructional delivery. Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-1/future.htm.

• Distance Education and the Changing Role of the Library Media Specialist. Written by Linda Schamber, this is the oldest ERIC Digest I am listing, but it is noteworthy in that it explores how distance education at the elementary and secondary level could potentially alter the role of the school librarian. Access: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/role.htm.

Electronic periodicals

The following sites contain electronic publications that deal with distance education. All of them are free or have portions of their offerings for free.

• Australian Journal of Educational Technology.   This is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on research and review articles in educational technology, instructional design, and teaching with computers and the Web. Access:  http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet.html.

• Journal of Asychronous Learning Networks (JALN). This is published twice annually by Vanderbilt University for the ALN Center. It includes articles that look at the various policies, strategies, and models of asynchronous online learning. Access: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/index.asp.

• E-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology.   This is published online by the University of Southern Queensland. It is international in scope and peer-reviewed. Access:  http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/.

• CADE : Journal of Distance Education/Revue de l'enseignement à distance. This is an international publication of the Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE). The journal "aims to promote and encourage Canadian research and scholarly work in distance education and provide a forum for the dissemination of international scholarship. Original material is published in either English or French." Access: http://www.cade-aced.ca/pub_jde_pub_article.php?i_nMode=.

• D-Lib Magazine.   This is an electronic publication with a primary focus on digital library research and development, including new technologies, applications, and contextual social and economic issues. Access: http://www.dlib.org/.

• The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC).   Publishes online articles that focus on distance education in third world countries. It is a joint publication of City University of Hong Kong, the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Access: http://www.ejisdc.org/.

• Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. This is a peer-reviewed electronic journal offered free each quarter over the Web. The journal welcomes manuscripts based on original work of practitioners and researchers with specific focus or implications for the management of distance education programs. Access:  http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html.

• Academic Exchange Quarterly.   This is a peer-reviewed higher education journal devoted to teaching and learning. While not devoted entirely to distance education, it publishes many articles on the topic. Access: http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/. 

Sample articles:
"Quality Online Education New Research Agendas" (http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2268w03.htm)
"A Case Evaluation in Internet Assisted Laboratory Teaching" (http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2020z01.htm)
"Factors Affecting Student Adoption of Online Education" (http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho25934w.htm)
"Usage of Content in Web-Supported Academic Courses" (http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho23003w.htm).  

Organizations

There are a growing number of organizations that deal with distance learning. Here are a few of the better known.

• American Distance Education Consortium. This is a national consortium of state universities and land-grant institutions providing distance education via different information technologies. This site has resources for those running the distance programs, but there is enough general background information included to give a novice educator or student an idea of what distance education is about. Access: http://www.adec.edu/.

• Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE).   Established in 1983, CADE is a national association of professionals committed to excellence in the provision of distance education in Canada. Although some of the content is limited to members, there are some links and resources that are available to nonmembers. Access: http://www.cade-aced.ca/.

• Commonwealth of Learning.   This is an intergovernmental organization created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources, and technologies in the British Commonwealth. It provides both news and resources. Access: http://www.col.org/.

• United States Distance Learning Association. This association which promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training. Includes resources for K-12 education, higher education, continuing education, corporate training, military, and government training. Access: http://www.usdla.org/.

Higher education

The higher education community is in many ways driving the growth of distance education on the Internet. Not surprisingly, a large number of universities and colleges are going "virtual" to reach a larger student base. There are far too many to list here. One thing that is certain is that an even larger number of higher education institutions will be getting into the distance learning business in the near future.

• World Lecture Hall. This site contains links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver class materials. There are hundreds of courses listed by category. It is possible to find course syllabi, assignments, lecture notes, exams, class calendars, and multimedia textbooks. This is a good place to learn how to design your own Web-based course or to unofficially "audit" the course of your choice. Access: http://web.austin.utexas.edu/wlh/.

• MIT's OpenCourseWare.   Several years ago MIT made the decision to place all of their courses online. This site is the result. Although students and faculty can not take courses online through the site, much of the material taught in the MIT courses is placed online for use by the greater educational community. Access: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html.

• Penn State’s World Campus. While it is not possible to list all of the institutions of higher education offering distance education in this article, it still is appropriate to include Penn State University, which was one of the first online providers of distance education and still one of the best known. This site has all the information one needs to take courses from Penn State virtually. This includes a listing of regulations, programs, courses, faculty resources, etc. The current catalog of both credit and non-credit courses is also located here. Access: http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/index.shtml.

Diploma mill warning

"Fake" universities are springing up online to take advantage of the willingness of students to be educated virtually. Universities that consist of nothing more than Web pages designed to mimic universities that are using distance education and nontraditional methods of student assessment are fooling students into buying worthless degrees. The language and accreditation (they also often "own" their own accreditation agencies) of these diploma mills make them a dangerous by-product of the information age. Several good sites have arisen to deal with them.

• Office of Degree Authorization, Official State of Oregon Website. This Oregon state government site provides a list of illegal suppliers of degrees that are not accepted in Oregon. It offers information on a variety of “schools” which lack legitimate accreditation and are considered diploma mills with some annotation about the geographic location and time of existence (if it is closed) of the institution. Access: http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.html.

• "Diploma Mills: The $200 Million Dollar Competitor You Didn’t Know You Had." This is an article by John Bear (a well known advocate for alternative degree-earning routes) from the March 2000 issue of University Business , which gives an overview of the diploma mill business and how it operates. Access: http://www.degree.net/html/diploma_mills.html.

• Ivory Tower Rip Offs - How Online Degree Mills Work.   This is written by David W. Butler and is at eLearners.com. It looks at the type of bogus degrees offered, how the diploma mills get away with their trade, and how consumers can protect themselves. Access: http://www.elearners.com/resources/diploma-mills.asp.

• Diploma Mills. Provides an overview of the diploma mill problem with links to related resources. Access: http://www.wes.org/ewenr/DiplomaMills.htm.

• General Delivery University. This humorous site is a parody of online diploma mills. Clearly intended not to be confused with a "real" distance education provider, this site shows how easy it is to get into the diploma mill business. Access: http://www.bandersnatch.com/gduedu.htm.

Michael Lorenzen is head of reference services at Central Michigan University. If there is a site that you'd like to see added to this Internet Resources listing, e-mail the author at: loren1mg@cmich.edu.

Broken links? Let us know. E-mail sorphan@ala.org.