Program
Recap
Distance
Education: Challenges and Perspectives
Wednesday, September 22, 1999; 7-9pm; KSU and Ohiolink
This month's
joint NORASIS COASIS Program, Distance Education: Challenges
and Perspectives, gave program participants in Kent and Columbus
a true sense of the promise and pitfalls involved with distance
education and distributed learning technology.
The program
panel at the Kent site included Acting Director of the KSU School
of Library and Information Science, Rick Rubin, and Margarete Epstein,
Technology Assistant at the Ohio Literacy Resource Center. Panel
members at the Ohiolink site were Steve Acker, Acting Director,
Technology Enhanced Learning & Research at OSU, Anne Abate of Nova
Southeastern University, and eduport.com.inc president, Kevin May.
The topics
of the discussion were: the characteristics of successful distance
education, common mistakes and how to avoid them, valuable resources,
and the future of distance education.
Kevin May initiated
the discussion by describing Columbus State's successful distance
ed. program and stressing the importance of institutional support,
consistency, and designing the program around the school's identity
and students' needs. Rick Rubin's presentation was interrupted by
an unexpected technical difficulty which severed transmission between
the Kent and Columbus sites, giving attendees a hands-on appreciation
for distance education's challenges. Dr. Rubin made the most of
the situation by explaining the importance of technical support
and a backup plan, and stressed the need to address teacher-student
and student-student interaction in a distributed learning program.
Margarete Epstein
described the current state of distributed learning in adult education,
and program participants shared their thoughts and experiences.
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