Rflection

As I reflect about how distance education has changed over the past ten years. Distance education has become very popular among young adults and is seen as the first options instead of going to a traditional college or university. According to Sloan Consortium Survey shows that over 90% of public universities offer online course. 85% of public universities consider online education critical to their long-term academic strategies (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012). With rapid advancements in technology it has allowed greater interaction with web 2.0 applications such wikis, blogs, Google docs and many others. This advancement has helped adult’s learners to see the many options and flexibility that distance education brings to adults who have busy lives.

The perception of distance learning in the next ten to twenty years will be much more excepting then it is now. The majority of adult learners will obtain their bachelors, masters, and Phd’s online. There will be increase in online communication with different video tools, a growing since of comfort with online discourse and the ability to communicate with diverse and global groups. Distance education will allow learners to bridge that gap with others more than it is now (Laureate Education) . There will be many factors that will contribute to the growth in distance education that adult learners will be more comfortable with new technology tools that will benefit their online learning. An increased of multimedia, games, and simulations will also enhance the way people view online education (Laureate Education) . Also in the next 5 to 10 years increase of global expectance of distance education will have profound effect of on distance education (Laureate Education). The increase ability to communicate with diverse and global groups will help learners to take courses from instructors from all around the world. Distance education will allow learners to communicate with different groups and learn different perspectives from instructors and classmates which will help the learner to increase their knowledge.

As instructional designer the way I can help to improve the perception of distance education is to always look for new opportunities to improve the quality of distance education.  As, an instructional designer I will continue to search for new web 2.0 technologies that will help the learners to grow in distance education.  As an instructional designer I should consider all aspects of the instructional environment following a well-organized procedure that provides guidance to even the novice distance instructor 9 Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012). As a designer I must consider looking at all learning environments that will impact the learner.  I must designed and plan a course that will consider all learners and apply technology tools that will foster positive learning outcomes for all learners. Continue to also search and improve the technology tools which will increase the accessibility to distance education and .

As an instructional designer the way I will make positive changes is to continue to always make improvement to distance education. I need to stay aware of new improvements to distance education and the best way to implement those changes to the designed. The more an instructor understands the members of the audience, the better the distance learning experience will be for all involved (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012). As an instructional designer I must understand how the learners will be impacted by the learning experience and apply a systematic process that will impact all learners.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.) The future of distance education [Video file]. Retrieved from https:// class.walden.edu

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.