Defining Distance Learning

                When I first enrolled as a community college of the Air Force (CCAF) student, the only distance learning programs were correspondence courses, though the academic advisors never mentioned this as an option to military students.  When I enrolled, I was on active duty with the Air Force in the early 80s and was encouraged to take CLEP and DANTES tests for college credit; however, because I was in a mobile unit that was subject to short notice temporary assignments worldwide, I was discouraged by my unit from taking college courses.  During my second duty assignment (which was in Italy), I was only able to  attend a few college courses (on base) as I worked rotating shifts.  Moller, Foshay, & Huett (2008) stated that the primary driving forces of distance education are economics and access.   While I may or may not have been able to attend distance education classes while assigned to a mobile unit, I definitely would have been able to attend more classes during my second assignment in Italy, had the technology been available.  Because I often worked shift work during my early years in the military, I often found it challenging to find the courses I needed, much less find the time to complete the course.     

                As part of our military training, we were also expected to complete additional job training that was either occupational or leadership and management training.  Some of these courses were in the form of correspondence type training.  Later, this training moved to computer based training on CDs and later moved to web based training with some interactivity.   While some of the training that is available on the web is poorly developed (because it was reactionary training that was quickly released to try and resolve a problem), I did research and find that the Air Force has very specific guidelines for following instructional system design, such as is outlined in the Air Force manual for Instructional System Development (AFMAN 36-2234, 1993); however, like their university counterparts, the Air Force may be following the craft approach where “…an individual teacher fully designs and develops the course and the related materials based on what has worked for him or her in the traditional classroom and puts it on the web (Moore & Kearsley, 1996)” (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 67) so the military’s distance learning programs may suffer until they revise their training models.

                When I finally obtained my CCAF degree (about 14 years after I first enrolled), I decided didn't want to wait another 14 years to obtain my bachelor’s and enrolled with the University of Phoenix (since I had about 3 and a half years until retirement from the military).  I enrolled with the local campus in Hawaii, and I really liked the fact that the courses were only 5 weeks.  What I didn’t realize was that in order for UoP to keep up the fast pace, they required the students to complete a great deal of group work, which meant a lot of face-to-face meetings.  After 5 weeks, I hated the program and was ready to quit so my counselor suggested online.  She said she thought the level of students would be more professional so my introduction to distance learning or eLearning officially began in 2001.  Since that time, I have used eLearning in other aspects of my career such as annual security training and webinars (used in corporate training) and professional and technical courses used to further my career.

                Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, (2012) note that adult learners are primarily interested in getting only what they need from the learning situation.  I would agree with this statement as it took me awhile to decide to go back to school to obtain a master’s degree and I only did so when I found a degree that I really wanted to pursue.   Once again, I chose an online degree program because of the convenience of being online, my expectations for the professionalism of the students and the ability of the course to meet my needs as a student.  So far, I would say that this program (the MSID&T at Walden) has met those needs.

AFMAN 36-2234 (1993, November 1). Instructional system development.  Washington D.C.: The Air Force Departmental Publishing Office.  Retrieved from: http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/AFMAN36-2234.pdf

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson