Table Of ContentONLINE DISTANCE
EDUCATION
Issues in Distance Education
Series editors: Terry Anderson and David Wiley
Distance education is the fastest-growing mode of both formal and informal teaching,
training, and learning. It is multi-faceted in nature, encompassing e-learning and
mobile learning, as well as immersive learning environments. Issues in Distance
Education presents recent research results and offers informative and accessible
overviews, analyses, and explorations of current topics and concerns and the
technologies employed in distance education. Each volume focuses on critical
questions and emerging trends, while also situating these developments within
the historical evolution of distance education as a specialized mode of instruction.
The series is aimed at a wide group of readers, including teachers, trainers,
administrators, researchers, and students.
Series Titles
The Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Second Edition
Edited by Terry Anderson
Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training
Edited by Mohamed Ally
A Designer’s Log: Case Studies in Instructional Design
Michael Power
Accessible Elements: Teaching Science Online and at a Distance
Edited by Dietmar Kennepohl and Lawton Shaw
Emerging Technologies in Distance Education
Edited by George Veletsianos
Flexible Pedagogy, Flexible Practice: Notes from the Trenches of Distance Education
Edited by Elizabeth Burge, Chère Campbell Gibson, and Terry Gibson
Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda
Edited by Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry Anderson
ONLINE DISTANCE
EDUCATION
Towards a Research Agenda
Edited by
OLAF ZAWACKI-RICHTER
AND TERRY ANDERSON
Copyright © 2014 Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry Anderson
Published by AU Press, Athabasca University
1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8
ISBN (print) 978-1-927356-62-3 (PDF) 978-1-927356-63-0 (epub) 978-1-927356-64-7
doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781927356623.01
Cover design by Marvin Harder
Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov
Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printers
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Online distance education : towards a research agenda / Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry
Anderson, eds.
(Issues in distance education series, 1919-4382 ; 8)
Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-927356-62-3 (pbk.). – ISBN 978-1-927356-63-0 (pdf). –
ISBN 978-1-927356-64-7 (epub)
1. Distance education–Computer-assisted instruction–Research. I. Anderson, Terry, 1950-,
editor of compilation II. Zawacki-Richter, Olaf, 1972-, editor of compilation III. Series: Issues
in distance education series ; 8
LC5803.C65O55 2013 371.35'8072 C2013-905413-8
C2013-905414-6
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through
the Canada Book Fund (CFB) for our publishing activities.
Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Multimedia
Development Fund.
This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Noncommercial–
No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada: see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be reproduced
for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author.
To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please
contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at [email protected].
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Foreword ix
Otto Peters
Introduction Research Areas in Online Distance Education 1
Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry Anderson
part I Macro-level Research: Distance Education Systems and
Theories
1 Internationalization and Concepts of Social Justice: What Is to Be
Done? 39
Alan Tait and Jennifer O'Rourke
2 Globalization, Culture, and Online Distance Learning 75
Charlotte N. Gunawardena
3 Distance Education Systems and Institutions in the Online Era: An
Identity Crisis 109
Sarah Guri-Rosenblit
4 Online Distance Education Models and Research Implications 131
Terry D. Evans and Margaret Haughey
5 Methods of Study in Distance Education: A Critical Review of Selected
Recent Literature 151
Farhad Saba
part II Meso-level research: Management, Organization, and
Technology
6 Organization and Management of Online and Distance Learning 175
Ross Paul
7 The Costs and Economics of Online Distance Education 197
Greville Rumble
8 The Use of Technology in Distance Education 217
Gráinne Conole
9 Innovation and Change: Changing How we Change 237
Jon Dron
10 Professional Development and Faculty Support 267
Margaret Hicks
11 Learner Support in Online Distance Education: Essential and
Evolving 287
Jane E. Brindley
12 Quality Assurance in Online Distance Education 311
Colin Latchem
part III Micro-level Research: Learning and Teaching in Distance
Education
13 Major Movements in Instructional Design 345
Katy Campbell and Richard. A. Schwier
14 Interaction and Communication in Online Learning Communities:
Toward an Engaged and Flexible Future 381
Dianne Conrad
15 Quantitative Analysis of Interaction Patterns in Online Distance
Education 403
Allan Jeong
16 From the Back Door into the Mainstream: The Characteristics of Lifelong
Learners 421
Joachim Stöter, Mark Bullen, Olaf Zawacki-Richter, and
Christine von Prümmer
17 Student Dropout: The Elephant in the Room 459
Alan Woodley and Ormond Simpson
Conclusion Towards a Research Agenda 485
Terry Anderson and Olaf Zawacki-Richter
Contributors 493
Index 503
Figures and Tables
Figure i.1 Core-periphery structure of the distance education journal network. 8
Figure 5.1 System variables involved in various levels of distance education
programs. 162
Figure 8.1 A framework for policy intervention. 229
Figure 15.1 Change in group interaction patterns in a collaborative group project
(de Laat, Lally, & Lipponen, 2007). 410
Figure 15.2 Response patterns produced from messages with versus without
conversational language. 413
Figure 16.1 Socio-economic status of distance education students compared with
students at conventional universities. 440
Figure 16.2 Student reported reasons for studying at a distance at
FernUniversität. 443
Figure 16.3 Scatterplot for the dimensions of student expectations. 445
Figure 17.1 Graduation rates at distance education and conventional
institutions. 460
Figure 17.2 Cumulative UKOU graduation rates (%) by year of enrolment. 461
Figure 17.3 UKOU degrees awarded annually. 462
Figure 17.4 Predicted probability of success rates for new UKOU students. 467
Figure 17.5 Predicted probability of success versus actual success rates. 467
Figure 17.6 Probability of suffering depression, unemployment and (for women)
partner violence, according to educational experience. 475
Figure 17.7 Variations in course module dropout rates as related to attending and
passing exams. 477
Table i.1 Ranking of research areas by number of published articles. 6
Table 5.1 Compilation of different research methods used in distance
education. 155
Table 16.1 Distance learner profile data from three open universities. 438
Table 16.2 Survey of undergraduate students at three conventional German
universities. 444
Table 16.3 Dimensions of student expectations. 446
Table 17.1 Results of the UKOU PaSS Project. 471
Table 17.2 Retention increases using proactive motivational support methods. 472
Foreword
Research in the emerging field of online distance education has, so far,
evolved in a somewhat haphazard fashion, consisting largely of an assem-
blage of contributions made by researchers working on different topics,
often in isolation from one another. Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Terry
Anderson’s proposal that research in the field should instead be guided
by a systematic agenda is therefore both timely and richly deserving
praise. This much-needed volume provides practitioners, theorists, and
researchers with a comprehensive survey of the state of online distance
education as an independent field of inquiry, while also offering a clear
orientation for future research. Like early explorers, Zawacki-Richter and
Anderson have succeeded in mapping territory that, while not unknown,
has remained uncharted. This is a remarkable achievement in a field so very
new. Educators are already aware that online distance education is the way
of tomorrow, and this book will help to ensure that research in this area
becomes a priority.
Readers may be surprised to see that, even in relatively short span of
time, research in online distance education has grown to be so multifaceted
that the editors have subdivided it into three levels: macro-, meso-, and
micro-. In this way, three frames of reference are established that call for dif-
ferent theoretical justifications and research methods. Each frame is char-
acterized by a number of significant typical research themes. These themes
were not developed in the abstract, with specific pedagogical goals in mind,
but were instead empirically derived from the existing literature by applying
the Delphi method.
The achievements of the volume can be understood from a number of
perspectives:
(1) Not only does the book present a detailed structure of the field of
online distance education and a respective research agenda, but its
chapters also demonstrate why the proposed structure is justified.
ix
(2) The volume mirrors the ongoing globalization of education. By
incorporating ideas and practical achievements drawn from
various institutional settings throughout the world, it facilitates the
international collaboration of online distance education researchers.
(3) A volume like this one could only become possible in an era of
advanced digitalization. Digitalization facilitated the Delphi study
immensely. Using social network analysis techniques, the editors
were quickly able to identify research experts in the field of distance
education all across the globe and invite them to participate
in this project. Digital communications media expedited the
exchange of relevant research ideas, issues, approaches, theoretical
interpretations, and findings. The research agenda that the editors
present in this volume is the result of a collaborative process that
occurred at a pace never before experienced.
(4) The essays in the volume stand as proof that distance education
can no longer be considered a one-dimensional phenomenon. In
the past, laypersons, practitioners, and even specialists in the field
often described distance education simply as an approach in which
proximity is replaced by distance and spoken dialogue by mediated
communication. This overly simple definition lingers in the memory
of many people. In contrast, this volume convincingly demonstrates
that online distance education is a comprehensive, many-sided
process and a multifunctional system. This is a major step forward.
(5) In the same way that, during the 1970s and 1980s, the founding of
open universities enhanced the image of distance education, in part
through the establishment of centres for the study of educational
technology, this book will enhance status of distance education as
a legitimate topic of research. No longer will distance education be
defined principally in terms of practice; rather, it will be regarded as
a field of activity that can be empirically explored, critically analyzed,
and theoretically interpreted, as well as one that continues to be
fundamentally transformed by the powerful impact of digitalization.
(6) The volume will help to raise the level of professionalism in the field
of online distance education, as it will enable practitioners to become
familiar with specific research results and research methods. More
and more, those working in the field will come to consider their
x Foreword
