Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.

            As an instructional designer working for this company, I will propose two different types of distance learning technologies to address the challenges of implementing this workshop. Since location and time constraint is the primary concern, it seems that the users will need to have accessibility to access these technology tools at their convenience. The first technology tool that I am proposing to implement with the training is the use of the wiki. A wiki is a website that does not require any type of downloadable software. A benefit of using the wiki is that it is user friendly and easy to manage a web page (Konieczny, 2007). In addition, a wiki supports the use of collaboration which allows users to edit any part of the site. The cost of using a wiki depends on the available wiki packages, some universities and colleges use wiki sites for faculty and students purposes (Konieczny, 2007).  

In relationship to the training workshop, the wiki will benefit the collaboration amongst the members by exchanging information, documents, videos and participating in discussion. Since the corporation contains six different locations, each location can be assigned their own wiki site. This will make it manageable to ensure that each participant is held accountable for collaboration. With the use of usernames and passwords, members from the corporation can visit other wikis. However this decision would reflect the overall short and long term goals of this training.

A naturalistic observation method was conducted with sixteen graduate students over a period of ten weeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the wiki environment amongst learners and the level of interaction (Huang, 2010).A survey of open ended questions was used to evaluate this study. Results concluded that interaction among students steadily progressed with the weeks. Less interaction with instructor and more interaction with the learners were present. It was evident that learners were comfortable with managing their time and interaction level with their peers over the ten week program (Huang, 2010).

The second technology tool that I am proposing for the training is the use of Course Management System. A CMS (Course Management System) is a virtual learning environment that uses software to design education courses for learners (Simonson, 2012). This tool provides many benefits that allow educators to track learner progress as well as promotes the use of learner interaction. One benefit that CMSs provide is quizzes and tests. This would be beneficial for the participants in the training process because corporate management can monitor the effectiveness of the training. Resources and activities can also be incorporated for users to support collaboration with the learners (Simonson, 2012).

A case study demonstrates the success of using a CMS.  A group of undergraduate students participated in a group project for a biology course. Eighty-three students used a CMS to create their own project site (Lonn, 2009). An online data survey was used to measure the effectives of using CMSs in distance education. Event logs and communication via email were tools to conclude results (Lonn, 2009). Data supports that 74% of students visit the site few times daily or weekly (Lonn, 2009). Based on activities involved in the CMS, the highest rating of using this technology tool was the use of sharing resources and messages among group members (Lonn, 2009). Also the use of managing files and announcements indicated an effective use of clear communication. This suggests the use of a CMS would be a great tool to manage content and the level of learner participation.  

Resources

Huang, D. (2010). A Case Study of Wikis’ Effects on Online Transactional Interactions. Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching , 6 (1), 1-13.

Konieczny, P. (2007). Wikis and Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool. International Journal of Instructional Design & Distance Learning , 4 (1), 15-34.

Lonn, S. (2009, April 14). Using Learning Management Systems for Course Projects:A Case Study of Student Collaboration. Retrieved September 22, 2012, from CTools: https://ctools.umich.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

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