Abstract
This paper is based on a chapter in THE LEARNING REVOLUTION, the challenge of Information Technology in Academia (Diana G.Oblinger and Sean C. Rush, eds.), to be published this year by Anker Publishing Co., Boston, Mass.Over the years small numbers of motivated individuals have studied by themselves, away from university centers, to acquire knowledge in post-secondary subjects. Correspondence study began over a century ago and since then, other forms of "distance education" have become established. In spite of all this progress, off-campus learners have worked mainly in isolation, with only occasional contact with instructors and peers.Today’s low-cost communications and computer technologies, however, enable learning in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs), in the process simultaneously overcoming barriers of isolation, distance and those imposed by rigid time constraints. The paper describes some projects at institutions of higher education funded by the Sloan Foundation, identifies some early results and possible evolution of ALN’s to large scale implementations.
Highlights
Over the past century, we have seen accelerating interest in education for off-campus or “nontraditional” learners
Asynchronous Learning Networks are a relatively new kind of entry into the milieu of technical possibilities that make up the area broadly known as “distance education.”
The appeal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) lies in their ability to enable anytime, anyplace education with high human interactivity for geographically distributed cohorts--and these characteristics could make ALNs the largest contributor to distance education
Summary
We have seen accelerating interest in education for off-campus or “nontraditional” learners. Asynchronous interactivity can become the basis for a new and large-scale learning model among distance learners Such interactivity is already the basis for project work in business enterprises, where geographically dispersed teams can develop project goals, share analyses, carry on discussion and debate, and prepare presentations or reports without ever meeting in the same room or even connecting at the same time through a conference call. High quality computer networking is available to students and faculty at many, if not most, campuses and it is very widely used This capacity for asynchronous access and communication, which comes at a price, is overlaid onto traditional activities. Some of the Sloan-supported projects are exploring these and other possibilities by experimenting with new ways to integrate ALNs with traditional on-campus processes. The remainder of this chapter describes the issues of how well people learn in ALNs, potential outcomes from ALNs and possible evolution of this new approach
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