Educ 5324-Research Paper

RESEARCH PAPER TEMPLATE
North American University

Education Department
M.Ed
EDUC 5324: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO EDUCATION
Name: Mustafa Karabulut Date: 10/12/2017

Topic Selected: Topic 3
What do researchers say about advantages and disadvantages of distance education?
1. LITERATURE REVIEW:
What does the literature/research say about this issue/topic? By using NAU
Library or Online Search engines, conduct a literature review.
● You need to include 5 different sources (book, journal article, web article
etc.) in your review. Try to use current sources as much as possible.
● You need to summarize and synthesize your sources by discussing a
common theme or issue.
● You don't need to critique your sources
● You don't need to evaluate your sources (if the sources are trustworthy,
weather the author has a bias or not)
● You need to provide background information such as history and
definitions
Brief Literature Review:

Distance education is described when learners and teachers are not at the same
physical place education or transforming information takes place with an instructional
delivery (Motamedi, V., 1999). Distance learning has been an inevitable part of the
education system since people have started using technology in every part of life. Due
to people’s tight daily schedules people are not able to maintain their educational
progress after starting working at a job. Not only for the working people, but also for the
students, distance education has taken a crucial part to remove disadvantages of face-
to-face education. When considering the disadvantages of face-to-face education like
not having enough sources, high educational costs, and the other uncountable
disadvantages, it is not hard to understand why distance education is getting
widespread so quickly. Resources show that distance education is used for a long time
with names of correspondence courses and after introduction of technology, the
method of distance learning has changed (Motamedi, V., 1999). Early implementation of
distance education focused on higher education, specifically in the fields of business,
engineering, and technology. Professional associations were able to offer regional and
national educational services to their members through the use of university faculty
from the different academic areas. Eventually though, distance learning technologies
spread to elementary and secondary schools, mostly in the rural areas of the country.
This was due to the fact that specialized coursework in languages, mathematics, and
sciences were not always available in the rural areas, due to a lack of funding and/or
teachers. Despite the advantages of distance education some researchers focus on
disadvantages of distance education like lack of social interaction, requiring adaptability
to new technologies, and not to accept distance education degrees by all employers.
The widespread use of computers and the internet have made distance learning
easier and faster, and today virtual schools and virtual universities deliver full curricula
online. The capacity of the Internet to support voice, video, text and immersion teaching
methods made earlier distinct forms of telephone, videoconferencing, radio, television,
and text based education somewhat redundant. However, many of the techniques
developed and lessons learned with earlier media are used in Internet delivery .
What is Distance Education
There are different definitions that have been preferred for distance education, the
most comprehensive one is presented by Perry and Rumble (1987) and then by Keegan
(1990). They described it with five main criteria (a) the quasi-permanent separation of
teacher and learner; (b) the 5 3 central involvement of an educational organization in
the planning, development and delivery of instruction and instructional materials; (c)
the use of various technical media, including print based materials, videotapes,
audiotapes, videoconferencing, audio conferencing, computer software, the World
Wide Web, radio, and television; (d) the provision for regular two-way communication;
and (e) the opportunity for occasional face-to-face sessions (Motamedi, V., 1999). In
addition, there have been many different terms for distance education over time like
distance learning, distance teaching, open learning, and remote learning.
Advantages of Distance Education
Internet-based distance learning offers a lot of advantages to students like flexibility,
convenient access, equal student participation, and active learning activities
(D.W.Hofmann, 2002). With the access to the internet, people can remove geographical
and time barriers which allow collaboration, accelerate the pace of delivery and
appropriate communication of ideas and results (Gaitanaru, A., 2013).
Improved access to education is the most important advantage of distance
education. With giving flexibility and less time constraints, distance education is more
preferable for a lot of students. Distance education gives opportunity to students to
apply the knowledge and skills directly to their workplaces. Also, Course quality checking
is better in a distance course and instructor knowledge about the course is very obvious
in distance learning than in a traditional classroom (Fender, 1999).
E-learning provides adaptation and solutions by for-profit organizations which need
more effective training for their employees (Gaitanaru, 2013).
When students are not able to reach face-to-face classes due to geographically
remote locations and regular and traditional hours; it is an effective way to reach the
nontraditional students and most importantly, the opportunity for students to work and
learn at a style and pace most consistent with their own mental and physical
constitutions (Maddux, Ewing-Taylor & Johnson, 2002).
There are many different types of research and experimentation about distance
education and its advantages and disadvantages. Here are results of one of these
experimentation on training in e-learning to see advantages; pleasant ergonomics( for
Uni-Rct only), permanent technical support of the tutor, access to Moodle, adequate
computer equipment to CNISC, timeliness of training according to the SS, no drop during
training, good attendance of learners and tutor, record of the tutor feedback in a very
short time after the submission of assignments, adequacy of training content with its
objectives, tutor’s permanent availability, PS topical subjects, usefulness of resources to
treat PS, tutor’s pedagogic, behavioral and didactic competence (Tahi, Bouarab-
Dahmani & Bouazid, 2014).
Disadvantages of Distance Education
The biggest disadvantages of distance education are the cost of video instruction and
the control of two-way audio systems. Likewise, if networks break down, it can result in
lost lessons for all sites and the cancellation of many classes (Roblyer, Edwards, &
Havriluk, 1997).
Security is another disadvantage of distance learning which complicates security and
sometimes professors are burdened more than in traditional classes. Also, Interactive
distance education learning consists of highly complex electronic equipment in a control
room, origin site, etc. (Kazanjian, 2002).
Lack of attention is another drawback of distance learning which can be seen at both
students and instructors. It is ironic that this and many of the other serious problems
involving distance education are not technological in nature, but can be traced to a
critical lack of principled leadership on campuses across the country (Maddux, Ewing-
Taylor & Johnson, 2002).
Socialization is another lack of distance education which needs improvement in
distance education by providing some additional events and tools (Motamedi, 1999).
There are many different types of research and experimentation about distance
education and its results of a experimentation on training in e-learning to see
advantages; too frequent internet logging off, power failure, problems accessing Univ-
Rct, under-utilization of tools UniRct/ Moodle, Difficulties in orientation in space
platforms, very bad-face-to-face, lack of cooperation from UMBB staff, the UMBB
learners and those of the AHSB have never met, monitoring dashboard not respected,
lack of exchange on the platform between learners, too short duration of the course,
resulting in a very intense pace of work, and not enough collaboration (Tahi, Bouarab-
Dahmani, & Bouazid, 2014).
2. REFLECTION:
What is your personal opinion on this issue? Do you agree with the research? If you
agree or disagree, please explain why?
Provide examples/experiences regarding this issue from a school perspective or If you
are not working in a school, from your profession. Be specific with your examples. You
can mention software/hardware names, specific methods that you plan to use, etc.
How would you implement this research in your career? (At least 1 paragraph)
Reflection:
I am convinced that distance education takes an important role in the education field
and its importance has been increasing day to day. When we consider the cutting edge
technologies and their daily usage in our lives we can easily say that it will transplant
into education as well. Today’s tough work conditions don't give a chance to people to
pursue their education level forward but with the help of the distance education people
fulfill their educational goals.
Convenience of distance education gives chance for not only higher education
students but also K-12 students. There are some online school systems which give
chance to K-12 students to complete their education by using distance education. For
some disadvantages of traditional learning systems which are like remote distance to
attend a school, expenses of the private schools, and being bullied by other students the
distance learning has an important role in the education system. It narrows the
disadvantages of the traditional system by using its own advantages into education. I
myself pursue my master degree online and the only reason I can do it is that I do it by
participating in distance education.
Technology can help us to move forward in our educational field and to reach other
people who don’t have a chance to attend a traditional school. The fundamental of the
technology is to help people to move forward and it is obvious that it will be used in
education more than today like we use it more than in the past as the researches show I
reviewed above. The most important part of it will be about distance education.
In conclusion, I have learned that even though there are some disadvantages of
distance education it has been used very widely and it will go on. As educators, We need
to solve problems and decrease the disadvantages of it as much as we can and integrate
it into traditional education as an alternative.
3. REFERENCES:
● Cite at least 5 References in APA.
● You may use http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-journal for citing your sources in
APA style.
References:
Fender, D. L. (1999). Distance education. Professional Safety, 44(10), 26.
Hofmann, D. W. (2002). Internet-Based Distance Learning in Higher Education.
Kazanjian, M. M. (2002). Chapter two: dehumanizing distance learning. in Learning
Values Lifelong (pp. 25-31).
Maddux, C. 1., Ewing-Taylor, J., & Johnson, D. L. (2002). The light and dark Sides of
distance education. Computers in The Schools, 19(3/4), 1-7.
Gaitanaru, A. a. (2013). Changes and evolution in distance education –from mailing
letters to web-based learning. Elearning & Software for Education, (1), 416-421.
doi:10.12753/2066-026X-13-067
Motamedi, V. (1999). An Overall View of Distance Education in the United States.
Point Clear, Alabama.
Roblyer, M.D., Edwards, J., & Havriluk, M.A. (1997). Integrating educational
technology into teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merill.
Tahi, R. r., Bouarab-Dahmani, F. f., & Bouazid, T. t. (2014). E-learning advantages
and disadvantages through an experimentation. Proceedings of The European
Conference On E-Learning, 520-526.

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RESEARCH PAPER TEMPLATE

North American University

Name: Mustafa Karabulut Date: 10/12/2017

Brief Literature Review:

Disadvantages of Distance Education

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