TABLE OF CONTENTS

A.  Introduction:  3

B.  Historical Description of Distance Education:  3

1.)  The Long Journey to E learning:  3

1.a)  The First Generation of Distance Education:  4

1.b)  The Second Generation of Distance Education:  4

1.c)  The Third Generation of Distance Education:  4

2.)  Partial Conclusion:  5

C.  General Analysis:  5

D.  Actualization:  6

E.  General Recommendation:  8

F.  General Conclusion:  9

References.   10

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A. Introduction:

Viewed as an important component of Education Globalization, Distance Education is nowadays used by several millions people around the world. The ease offered by Distance Education makes the numbers of participants getting higher and higher. However, its particularly individualized nature hardly enables those who are not closely involved to have a clear idea of how fast and how far Distance Education is being developed. If for the moment it is difficult to state accurately the exact number of those who are engaged in distance Education around the globe, we can at least have an idea through Kingston whose estimation of the higher Education market is USD 300 billion (Kingston, 1999).

This astronomic figure of the capital value of Distance Education means that the topic under study, that is to say, “From the Founding of Distance Education to the Principles for Effective Online Teaching: An Evaluation of AIU’s Online Instruction System” deserves to be dealt with, regarding the number of people interested in Distance Education. This piece of work will present first, the historical description of Distance Education that lead to e-learning as well as the “back up” technology. After this we will initiate a brief analysis of the principles that contribute in acquiring the craft of a good online instructor. Afterwards, a brief attempt of actualization will lead to some recommendations for elearning improvement. A general conclusion will put an end to this paper.

B. Historical Description of Distance Education:

The history of Distance Education is closely related to the evolution of the different communication means as well as that of information technology. Indeed, (Jennifer Sumner, 2000) states this constant link between technology and Distance Education. For this researcher technology plays a mediation role between the learner and the instructor in the process of learning through Distance Education.

(Bates, 1993) was already supporting this point by presenting the growing accessibility of communication and information technology, to “a greater ease of use”, such an ease, is certainly what explains the increasing needs and use of Distance Education. This interconnection between Distance Education and technology being briefly made, our next target is to focus our interest on the historical background of technology that permitted the first stage of Distance Education. 1.) The Long Journey to E-learning:

The early days of Distance Education were related to the development of the postal services as a worldwide system. This was simply possible because with the industrial revolution, there was an increasing need to fight adult illiteracy and the best way to help adult learners engage in new learning and at the same time keep their job was through Distance Education. For Jennifer Sumner,( 2000) there were three generations of Distance Education.

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1.a) The First Generation of Distance Education:

This need was first felt in the industrialized world. That is the reason why the first official Distance Learning institution was created in Great Britain by Isaac Pitman in 1840 according to Jean-Claude Marot and Anne Darnige ( Dec. 1996).

Later, in 1856, Berlin experienced the birth of its institute specialized in teaching languages through Distance Learning. The year 1881was that of the creation of “l’école pour soi” by Leon Eyrolles. Then, in 1907 witnessed the creation of ‘’l’école universelle”, followed in 1919 by the first institution of technical education through Distance Education(Jean-Claude Marot et Anne Darnige, 1996).

The above Distance Education type was what (Jennifer Sumner, 2000) presented as the first generation of Distance Education. Its main characteristic feature is that Education is distributed through the postal services, or by correspondence. The usual term for this first generation Distance Education was “correspondence Education”. How about the second generation of Distance Education?

1.b) The Second Generation of Distance Education:

Nipper (1989) and Holmberg (1989) rightly associated the birth of the second generation of Distance Education with the discovery and the development of new technologies such as the broadcast media, the tape recorder and cassettes players.

As for Jean-Claude Marot and Anne Darnige (Dec.1996), they pointed at the 78T discs as the key invention that permitted the use of Multi-media for Distance Education. This was possible from 1920 and this system was massively used in 1940 in France, during the Second World War to relieve the burden on the few schools in the free zone by training 1413 Learners.

Still according to the above source, from 1944 to 1971 the tape recorder and television were used for Distance Education purposes. In 1969 UNESCO decided to launch a vast program that consists in using television for Education Purposes in developing countries. That was a way to harmonize teaching contents from a unique broadcasting source. One year later in Spain, the National university for Distance Education was created followed another year later, in 1972 by the creation of the Open University in Great Britain, considered as the archetype of the second generation of Distance Education and which used to combine television, radio, video, audio tapes, and the dispatching of printed papers. That was the Era of the multi-media revolution. Our next concern is to show what technology will be used during the third generation of Distance Education?

1.c) The Third Generation of Distance Education:

Noble (1995), stated the third generation of Distance Education in the period that he calls the Era of the second industrial revolution. When was that? Noble replied that it was the beginning of the twenty first century, characterized as the information age.

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Talking about the second industrial revolution and the information age refers to talk, according to Spencer (1998) of what he calls ‘’the harbinger of information technology”: the computer. It is indeed, the use of the computer as a medium of Distance Learning that characterizes the third generation of Distance Education, known as E-learning.

2.) Partial Conclusion:

At this level of our piece of work we tried to present the different steps in the evolution of Distance Education, from correspondence learning to multi-media learning and from multimedia learning to e-learning. It was a long journey through time! Each step had a particular link with a given phase in a given technology development. After this historical description of Distance Education, our next concern will be to present the basic principles that make the good online instructor and which will be used to evaluation the only online course that we know: that of AIU. What are these principles?

C. General Analysis:

The principles that we are going to use to evaluate AIU’s online courses were borrowed from The Seven Principles for Effective Teaching: A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Course (2001). We preferred these principles to many others because they were the

improved version of the seven principles written by Chickering, A., & Gamson, Z. (1987). Besides, they seemed more practical than the latter.

Principle one: “good practice encourages student-faculty contact”. This means that the way

communication will take place should be clearly defined at the beginning and should remain constant to the end of the learning process. The lesson for the instructor is “provide clear guidelines for interaction with students”.

Principle two: “good practice encourages cooperation among students”. By cooperation

among students the authors mean for example class discussions with clear instructions. The lesson for the online instructor is to bear in mind that “well-designed assignments facilitate meaningful cooperation among students “.

Principle three: ”good practice encourages active learning”. The authors are talking about

project presentation to the online class via the class web site for discussion and improvements by others students. This principle enables students to learn from one another and from the instructor too. For these double advantages the instructor must ask students to present course projects.

Principle four: “good practice gives prompt feedback’’. Generally, online instructors use two kinds of feedback: "information feedback" and "acknowledgement feedback." Information feedback is for example an answer to a question, an information on the learner’s assignments grades, information about an event etc... As for the acknowledgment feedback,

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it is concerned with the confirmation that an assignment has been received as well as a promise to take an action. For example, an acknowledgment that an assignment has been received doubled with a promise to grade it within some time. The Lesson for the online instructor is that he needs to provide the above two types of feedback: information feedback and acknowledgment feedback and be constant from the beginning to the end.

Principle five: “good practice emphasizes time on task”. Indeed, when very busy students

are not given a deadline they tend to take their time and this results in delays. The lesson to the online instructor is that online courses need deadlines.

Principle six:”good practice communicates high expectations’’. An example is that asking

students to apply new concepts and theories to real life situations prepares them to find authentic real life solutions. The lesson to be learnt by the instructor is that “Challenging tasks, sample cases, and praise for quality work communicate high expectations”.

Principle seven: “good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning”. For example,

instead of imposing an assignment topic to a student, it will be better to give him the freedom to select the topic that he finds relevant to the course. The lesson to the instructor is that “allowing students to choose project topics incorporates diverse views into online courses” Charles Graham, Kursat Cagiltay, Byung-Ro Lim, Joni Craner, and Thomas M. Duffy(2001) .

How do the above principles relate to the online instructions in use at Atlantic International University? Are they applicable to AIU or should we say that the particularity of the system in use at AIU does not require the above principles?

D. Actualization:

In order to answer the above questions, we are going to review the current system in use at AIU in the light of each principle. For example, as soon as a student is enrolled at AIU he receives a welcome letter in which the admission counselor gives all the details of the program the new student is engaged in. Besides, an introductory videoconference provides the new student with all the details concerning his program. Within 24 hours AIU student services provides the new student with all useful information aiming at having access to the student section (student’s ID Number, password, and user name) The student is also informed that his academic plan is fully independent from his payment plan.( My source for this information is my welcome letter from Richard Kohn, AIU.) Besides, the AIU student receives some recommendations from the Academic Department. The second point of those recommendations says this; “You will have the right to determine the pace of your academic program. However, AIU recommends that you maintain a minimum average of one completed assignment per month.”

The admission department explains clearly what is expected from the phase two student in the following words: “It consists of the elaboration of your Bibliography, 4 - 5 essays based on the multidisciplinary books on current tendencies recommended by AIU. On the other hand you will have the opportunity to develop your curriculum design, in which you will   6  

define the courses that you will like to develop at this stage of your studies. Once such a curriculum design is submitted and approved by the assigned academic advisor, the AIU student has to complete his proposed courses and submit an assignment per course. “It is important to precise that the objective at AIU is to apply every course to real life working situations. The proof of the above assertion can be read in the Doctorate Program objectives; “Studies leading to the Ph.D. degree are designed to give the candidate thorough and comprehensive knowledge of his or her professional field, as well as training in research methods”.

Another proof that clear guidelines are given to the AIU student is the following quotation concerning “Document Management, Phase 1 Documents”: “Included are formats and examples of the academic assignments needed to complete this phase. This area also includes a variety of useful instructions, such as how to submit an assignment via the Student Section” (Source: my first letter from the academic department).

As we can see, nothing is really imposed to the student. Very clear instructions are provided and these make AIU eligible to grade A for principle one, grade A for principle five, grade A for principle six and grade A for principle seven.

As for principle four, it is the AIU’s principle per excellence! Indeed, as soon as a student submits an assignment, the following e-mail is received from the Academic department; “Dear Ettien We received from you the following assignment: Globalization and Education Please expect to receive the evaluation in 1-2 days. It is great to see that you are Active in your program; this means a lot to us. Let us know if you need any type of assistance. Thanks, Academic Department. ‘’

As promised, the evaluation will be received within the stated period, from the enrollment date to the end of the studies, constantly. Besides, every question to the Advisor, the Student Services, etc… receives a quick reply. As we can see, AIU deserves another grade A for principle four.

Principles two and three relative to cooperation among students are not applicable to AIU. The basic principle for which each student at AIU takes an active part in his own curriculum proposal does not allow discussion among students. The reason is that at AIU “Each Student's Curricula is unique and developed as a result of the mutual efforts of the Student, the Academic Staff and the Academic Advisor”. Consequently where is the need to discuss with others who are surely not interested in my curriculum? Where is the need to discuss with other students who are busy completing their own program which is different from mine?

Another important remark is that a school where there is a teacher for twenty students is universally viewed as a good school, because it is admitted that the smaller the class size is the better trained are students. Consequently, If a twenty students per teacher class is considered as ideal class, what to say about AIU where each student has his assigned teacher, though called Advisor?

For us, AIU deserves all the credit for being at the head of Education innovation. AIU meets the learning needs of both normal learners and self regulated learners whose learning is “guided by metacognition (thinking about one's thinking), strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn” (Butler & Winne, 1995).

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To have an idea of the way self-regulated learners do learn, Wine and Perry also noted that they “have a repertoire of strategies they appropriately apply to tackle the day-to-day challenges of academic tasks “(Winne & Perry, 2000).

Though important, group discussion is not the only way to learn. It is part of what scholars in Psychology call “traditional knowledge-based curricula”. The challenge today is to innovate by proposing “authentic instructional contexts and activities” that would prepare students for both “the challenge of work and life beyond school” according to the terms of (Scott G. Paris and Peter Winograd, 2003). AIU offers a chance to each student to “take full charge of his own learning”.

Still according to the same source, If it is true that “successful teachers must be reflective and analytical about their own beliefs and practices and acquire deep understanding of cognitive and motivational principles of learning and teaching”, this is as well true for universities offering degree programs online. We are proud to count AIU among the best few. Consequently two principles out of five (Principles two and three) which do not take the self regulated principles into account are not applicable to AIU.

E. General Recommendation:

Before initiating some recommendations, it seems important to us to comment the result of our evaluation of the AIU’s instruction system. Indeed, we found out above that, two of the seven principles used for the evaluation of AIU’s system are not applicable to the particular case of AIU. The fundamental reason seems to be the fact that AIU utilizes a system that we prefer to name “a highly advanced technology”.

This “highly advanced technology” is what characterizes AIU. It is indeed what makes of AIU, a non- traditional University. This “highly advanced technology” is the fundamental basis of the online instruction of AIU. To summarize, we must note that at AIU, the student is fully involved in his curriculum design. The AIU students enjoys a complete freedom to organize his research and courses in accordance with his Advisor. Such a freedom was beyond the expectations of Charles Graham and his friends, co-authors of the seven principles. Maybe were they completely ignorant of this particular instruction in use at AIU. If not why did they not integrate the case of self-integrated learners? We would recommend Charles Graham and his co-authors to re-examine their evaluation system and integrate the particular case of AIU as a non- traditional university. How can some principles invented for traditional universities be applicable to a new generation university like AIU?

The authors of The Seven Principles for Effective Teaching: A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Course are also requested to read more about self regulated learners and find out the best way to invent a more universal evaluation system for the different types of online degree program providers.

Our second recommendation is directed towards other universities that provide online instructions. We would recommend them to consider the great innovations in use at AIU, and adapt or even adopt them in the mutual interest of their students and their universities.   8  

The first ones, the students, will grow in knowledge whereas the second ones, the universities, will grow in statutes!

F. General Conclusion:

Through this piece of work, we tried to show the long journey of Distance Education, a journey that started from the creation and development of postal services in Europe, in the 1840s.That was the Era of correspondence learning which knew its full development after the First World War period.

The second generation of distance learning started with the introduction of multi-media and the 78 tour disc, around the 1920s. Coupled with correspondence learning, the archetype of the second generation distance Education was the Open University, created in 1972, in Great Britain.

The New Generation of E- Learning will appear with the wide spreads of the computer and the internet at the beginning of the twenty first century. The ease offered by the computer, and the internet, justifies why millions of people are now engaged in e-learning. In order to better serve the clientele of e-learning, some scholars among whom Charles Graham, invented what they called the seven principles for the effective online teaching and the evaluation of online courses.

We confronted those principles with the instruction method in use at AIU, a non traditional university and we discovered that two of the seven principles that work with traditional online universities are not applicable to AIU, a non traditional university. We recommended the authors of the seven principles to re-examine their study, taking into account the specific learning needs of self-regulated learners, as well as the innovations in use at AIU. We ended with some suggestions to other online universities to better serve their clientele by adapting, if not adopting the system in use at AIU, for, the predicted glorious victory of e-learning over traditional campus learning, is dependent on the constant improvement of e-learning.

To definitely close this piece of work we propose to meditate the following quotation from Leah McLaren:”we are living in an Era of perpetual advice-and almost none of it, is any good…the truth is, if you had a monkey throwing darts, you’d have a better chance of predicting the future”. What future for Distance Education?

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