What is Distributed Learning?
Maureen Bowman

Higher education is littered with terminology that often finds its way into our day to day conversation without introduction or definition. "Distributed learning" appears to be one of these terms, and lately it has been present in the dialog of several campus meetings.

What does it mean? How is it different from distance learning? How is it important to CSUMB? A definition for distributed learning published in Syllabus Magazine in 1995 states:

"The distributed learning model can be used in combination with traditional classroom-based courses, with traditional distance learning courses, or it can be used to create wholly virtual classrooms."

"Distributed learning is not just a new term to replace the other 'DL,' distance learning. Rather, it comes from the concept of distributed resources. Distributed learning is an instructional model that allows instructor, students, and content to be located in different, noncentralized locations so that instruction and learning occur independent of time and place. The distributed learning model can be used in combination with traditional classroom-based courses, with traditional distance learning courses, or it can be used to create wholly virtual classrooms."1

Distributed "resources" is a concept we can wrap our arms around. Shifts in focus to environments where learners have access to content, experts (the teacher and beyond), peers, and services that are independent of time and place, and which utilize a variety of approaches match the CSUMB vision. Enabling faculty to produce these learning opportunities is central to distributed learning.

In a distributed resources environment:

• Learners gain a greater degree of control of how, when, and where their learning occurs. They also increase their level of responsibility for their own learning and are no longer passive receptacles of information and knowledge.
  
• Faculty gain greater ability to organize and design environments that maximize learning opportunities and more freedom to experiment with effective new learning modes.
  
• The university gains greater ability to allocate resources for learning opportunities. "An abundance of research shows that alternatives to the traditional semester-length classroom-based lecture method produce more learning. Some of these alternatives are less expensive; many produce more learning for the same cost."2

Faculty at CSUMB are including distributed resources in their teaching and learning environments.

• A communication design professor at CSU, Chico offers a case-based instructional design and development course to students at CSUMB. Instructor and students meet once per week via videoconference. A course web site augments the class sessions by providing written and audio course materials, a "café" where students can interact in discussion forums, live chats, virtual office hours, and email to send and receive assignments. The web site blends students from both campuses, thereby increasing the opportunities for relevant interaction beyond the scope of the smaller Monterey group of learners.3
  
  
• An anthropology professor developed a web site to guide students through a research project conducted by the instructor and students of the Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences. Experiences of exchange between US and Mexican teachers, ethnographic materials, current standards and materials used in Mexican public schools, and a CD with video clips, photographs and taped interviews addressing values and dynamics of Mexican families and societies both in the US and Mexico provide learners with real world demonstration of the complexity of education in a multicultural society. Students participate in service learning activities within the same community examined in the research and have opportunities to communicate electronically with learners and teachers in Mexico.4
  
  
• A Social and Behavioral Sciences professor uses a web site for hands-on experience for learners to solve a variety of common business problems with innovative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Learners are able to create and analyze market areas, develop for target marketing, conduct drive time analysis, and put maps on the Internet. In addition to receiving credit toward degree requirements, learners who successfully complete the course also are awarded a nationally recognized GIS certificate.5

"Distributed learning does not need to mean complicated, technology-laden alternatives to classroom instruction."

The learning that occurs in these examples would be difficult, if not impossible, without the use of technology. In the first example, local students would not even have access to the course. Describing the research study or reading about the capabilities of GIS would not provide the breadth and scope that students are afforded with the illustration and demonstration of content enhanced by technology. Technology becomes the tool to produce distributed learning experiences to reach the course goals and learning objectives.

Distributed learning does not need to mean complicated, technology-laden alternatives to classroom instruction. Overhead transparencies aid learning by providing organizational structure; movies, videos and photographs provide visualizations; web links expand the information resources available to the learner; electronic communication such as discussion forums and email facilitate collaborative learning activities. These are all examples of learning enhanced by technology.

 

Challenges and Opportunities:
You may be asking at this point, if distributed learning is such a powerful tool, why isn't it being widely used on this and every campus? The list of barriers is long and varied. Reluctance to forsake the human interaction of a traditional classroom format and lack of institutional reward and incentives may be among the primary reasons. Lack of technology training, support to install and maintain user-friendly, reliable systems are others. Frustration with the speed at which technology changes, and poor organization of existing resources are a few more. The Day of Dialog (January, 1999) revealed several legitimate faculty concerns and issues related to distributed and distance education at CSUMB. The barriers and concerns are legitimate and worthy of our attention. As we enter the 21st century we are aware that education cannot rely solely on traditional methods and approaches. The use of distributed resources is expanding daily and enhanced by human creativity. In the midst of this momentum, systematic structures to support access, delivery, incentives and rewards, development, and maintenance must to be evaluated, re-evaluated, and continuously improved. This effort requires the input and involvement from all levels of the institution to achieve success.

Now that we have a basis for discussion with a definition and some examples of distributed learning, what steps can be taken and what help is available to assist faculty? At CSUMB we are fortunate to have well developed, outcome-based curriculum easily transportable to the distributed learning model, and the institutional commitment necessary to support learning environments enriched through distributed resources. Teaching, Learning and Assessment; New Media Services; Distributed Learning and Extended Education; and Information Technology are coming together to identify resources and to provide a centralized support infrastructure. Faculty and staff on campus are being asked to contribute to the identification and development of support systems. For faculty, getting started may be as easy as selecting a learning outcome in a present course, thinking about the learners, and suggesting a learning activity that would be an excellent way to attain the outcome. Does it involve an illustration, case study, experiment?

"...if distributed learning is such a powerful tool, why isn't it being widely used on this and every campus?"

Could learners arrive at the outcome by visiting another country, experiencing an actual event, collaborating with others? If so, technology may be the key to enabling the outcome selected. Although this may seem like a simplistic view of the process, it nevertheless conveys the development steps. A more formal (and forbidding) description of the steps include:

• Planning - assessing the learners and the technology (access, delivery)
• Designing - developing learning objectives that advance content to desired learning outcomes
• Development - matching learning objectives to media using multiple strategies to engage creativity (lecture, text, audio, video, case study, team projects, practical exercises and individual assignments, interactive problem-solving, student-to-student interaction)
• Implementation and evaluation - iterative design so activities can be improved and updated easily.

All of the steps listed above may not be necessary for every project, and help is available for faculty wishing to incorporate technology into the learning environment. Through New Media Services and Distributed Course Development, instructional and media development professionals are available to team with faculty to complete any or all of these steps.

Where do we go from here?
The purpose of this article is to provide a friendly and supportive de?nition, description and identity for distributed learning at CSUMB. It has long been recognized that the majority of a target population must recognize "compelling value" before it will consider adopting an
innovation.6 As an example, some of the potential value to faculty and students of adding a web site to supplement a course might include:

• One-stop location for up-to-the minute course announcements, materials, assignments, etc. Digitized information is also easily modified and maintained.
• A place to post frequently asked questions (FAQ) so the same information
  doesn't have to be repeated over and over again, and so all learners have the same resource and access capabilities.
• A way to display and receive resources which may otherwise be dif?cult to assemble or locate, such as samples of assignments (good and bad with reasons why), or hot links to web sites used for course assignments (for example, analyses of corporate annual reports).
• Online archive of course slides, graphics, digitized video, for student retrieval and study on their own time.
• Digitized multimedia that illustrate course concepts, especially those that are interactive.

This discussion also invites members of the CSUMB community to continue the dialog about the development of distributed learning environments. Questions and suggestions, or requests for assistance can be forwarded to the Distributed Course Development Group,
Maureen Bowman, Instructional Technology Consultant, 582-3619, maureen_bowman@monterey.edu

Endnotes

1. Steven Saltzberg and Susan Polyson (1995). Distributed learning on the World Wide Web. Syllabus, Sept. 95.
   http://www.syllabus.com/archive/Syll95/07_sept95/DistrLrngWWWeb.txt
2. Barr, R.B. and J. Tagg (1995). From teaching to learning - A newparadigm for undergraduate education. Change, 27(6), 13-25.
3. Welsh, Tom (1999). CST 442, Advanced Instructional Design. http://www.csuchico.edu/~twelsh/syllabi/sp99/
4. Guiterrez, Juan (1999). SBSC 384 Enhancing the Teaching Practice: An Overview of Values, Contents and Experiences on Education in Mexico and the US.
5. Lao, Yong (1998). CST/SBSC 227, Introduction to GIS.
   http://cgi.monterey.edu:8900/SCRIPT/SBSC227/scripts/serve_home (login=guest; password=guest)
6. Geoghegan, W.J. (1994). What ever happened to instructional technology? Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Business Schools Computing Association, Baltimore, MD. July 17-20, 1994.
   (http://www.hied.ibm.com/news/whitep/whg/wpi.htm)
   

More information: Distributed Learning and Extended Education