MODFL/Understanding ODFL/Distance

Classical and emerging theories

Distance education is a field of study that has always been grounded in some theory. Classical theories of distance education, however, help you distinguish the concept of “distance education” from the theory and practice of correspondence studies, which emerged in the nineteenth century (Fritsch, 2001).

Classical theorists who have influenced both understanding and practice of distance education are Otto Peters, Börje Holmberg, and Michael Moore, ( Evans& Jakupec,2023)²¹ . It is important to note that classical theorising by these early distance education scholars had profound influence in shaping (open and) distance education policy, practice, and scholarship in contemporary times. Thus, understanding classical theories of distance education in their chronological order helps us understand this mode of provision, and how it has evolved over time. We have summarised the readings in the form of Table 6, to show the main characteristics of distance education as perceived from each of the three classical theories from Peters, Holmberg and Moore, and how understanding of each theory was operationalised.

Table 6: Characteristics of classic distance education theories

	Otto Peters, (1973)	Börje Holmberg (1983)	Michael Moore (1993)
Theory	Distance education as an industrialised form of education.	Guided Didactic Conversation Theory.	Transactional Distance Theory.
Main characteristics	Division of work among cooperating individuals, mechanisation of material production and dissemination, and planning and mass production.	Communication leading to guided Didactic Conversation. Empasis on one-to-one relationship between tutor and learner in ODL. In ODL, responsibility for teaching lies with course designers	Learning experience is determined by a learning activity. Distinct relationship between learner and facilitator in a learning process Learner autonomy in shaping their aims, objectives and assessment and evaluation parameters.
Operationalisation of theoretical understanding.	Distance education as a standardised educational mass system. Akin to industrialised production processes.	Course design to incorporate a Socratic dialogue into the content of the course. Dialogue created between learner and teacher, through learning materials.	Applying appropriate instructional design features to bridge communication gap between facilitator and learner caused by distance. Programme structure, dialogue (i.e., interactions between learning facilitator and learners), and autonomy (i.e., learner’s participation in decision making).
Peters, Holmberg, and Moore progressed from observing practice to theorising broad generalisations. They used an inductive epistemological approach. These generalisations formed the basis for the advent of distance education theories and subsequent operationalizations of distance education.

In your own time, you can read the short chapter by Evans & Jakupec, (2022) entitled: Classic Theories of Distance Education. The chapter can be accessed on the following link: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_7-1

You can download the resource or you can read it online, depending on what you prefer. It is quite a useful resource which gives you deeper understanding of the three classical theories discussed above.

Emerging theories of distance education

Over time, other theorists have interpreted the works of Peters, Holmberg, and Moore discussed above, and in the process have extended it further. New theories of distance education have emerged, which build on classical theories. These modern distance education theories are based on established communication and educational theories (Pyari, 2011)²². Other aspects of distance education suggested in classical theories, such as independence and autonomy, and interaction and communication are still present in modern theories.

Some of the modern distance education theories emerging from classical thinking include (i) Keegan’s (1993) theory of teaching-learning integration, (ii) Garrison’s (1993) communication and learner control theory, and (iii) Verduin & Clark’s (1991) theory of dialogue and support.

You can read more about these theories in the following section of Classical Distance Education Theories: Interpretations of Classical Distance Education Theories. Amongst the new theories influencing learning through distance education are four which we consider to be of particular value. These are Cognitivism, Constructivism, Collectivism and Community of Inquiry theory.

In the next activity you will consider each of these theories briefly and explore the principles behind them which align with Open Distance and Flexible Learning.

Activity 6

This activity should take you about 1 – 1.5 hours to complete.

1. Read the sections on Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism in the article at the following link: https://tell.colvee.org/mod/book/view.php?id=647&chapterid=1097
2. Highlight key words and phrases that indicate an alignment with open learning principles, ODFL and Open Schooling.
3. Read about Community of Inquiry theory at this link: https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/
   1. What are the key features of this theory that can inform the design of quality open distance learning in your context?

Feedback and comment on Activity 6

Cognitivism

Ausubel (1960) and Bruner (1966) were two of the main proponents of cognitivism. Cognitivism builds on Behaviourism and emphasises the role of mental processes in organising information to come up with internal and conscious representations of the world. According to the Cognitivist theory, cognitive thinking forms the core of learning. As you will see from the resource referred to at the beginning of Activity 5, Cognitive approaches to learning privilege comprehension, abstraction, analysis, synthesis, generalisation, evaluation, decision-making, problem-solving and creative thinking. Cognitivism enhances our understanding of how humans process and make sense of new information, how we access, interpret, integrate, process, organise and manage knowledge. It is an important theory which informs how we should structure learning in a virtual environment.

Constructivism

Constructivism is concerned with how knowledge is constructed. The main proponents of constructivism were Piaget (1957) and Vygotsky (1986). This theory emphasises the importance of consciousness, free will and social influences on learning. According to the Constructivist theory, understanding is achieved through assimilating new information, relating it to our existing knowledge, and cognitively processing it. This process of constructing one’s own understanding of reality is enhanced through interaction with others – social constructivism. By interacting with others, we refine our own understanding and learn new understandings, we also test and challenge our own understandings with those of others. You can see why it is important for distance learners to interact with other learners, to form physical or virtual social groups, and to engage in group tasks.

Connectivism

Key exponents of Connectivist theory are George Siemens (2004) and Steven Downs (2005). This theory takes into account the availability of a plethora of information on the web, which can be shared around the world almost instantaneously. Connectivism begins when an individual turns to digital technology to solve a problem. This can include actions such as googling a question, texting a friend, or searching for topical social media content. In this theory, the focus is on new learning opportunities that are offered by internet technology and the assumption is that learning happens within networks of people with different socio-cultural backgrounds. It draws on networking principles, and theories of complexity and self-organisation, and is built on a notion that ‘the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of ‘knowing’ (Siemens, 2005).

Since Connectivism is a theory of the Digital Age, we hope you can see its relevance to ODL.

Community of Inquiry theory

Proponents of this theory are Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, (2000)²³. The focus of this theory is two-way interaction between learner and facilitator, a key aspect of distance education. It prioritises social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence in a learning process.

Stop and think

To end off the unit, watch this video by Tony Bates. While you are watching pay attention to what he says about the importance of theory informing our practice, and guiding the decisions we make about implementing quality ODFL in our different contexts.