TECH EDGE | Distance Learning: Education or Isolation?

By John M. Williams

The idea of sitting in my office and taking online or distance learning classes adapted to my schedule and location has long had a strong appeal. I like the idea of eliminating the commute to campus, the hunt for a parking space, the mad rush to class among a swarm of students through a labyrinth of buildings. I recall my college days of taking tests in a crowded room, distracted by the fidgeting of other test takers, and I envision the online advantages of taking tests by myself at my familiar desk in my own home.

Before taking the plunge into the online world of education, I decided to ask people who had actually taken online classes if they thought it was worth it. I was often surprised by their responses.

Distance Learning (DL), as the California Distance Learning Project defines it, is “an instructional delivery system which connects learners with educational resources. DL provides educational access to learners not enrolled in educational institutions and can augment the learning opportunities of current students. The implementation of DL is a process which uses available resources and will evolve to incorporate emerging technologies.”

I spoke with a woman named Julie (who didn’t want to use her last name) about her experiences. Six years ago, Julie earned a B.S. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Two years later, she was paralyzed in a car accident. Julie now takes online graduate classes from the University of Maryland and she has mixed feelings about it.

“I can work at my speed and on my time,” Julie says. “And being surrounded by the comforts of home is definitely a plus.”

On the con side, however, “I am isolated. I do not see my professors. There is no social interaction with other students. The intellectual stimulation of a university atmosphere is absent.”

Julie visits the University of Maryland’s main campus on the first and last day of her classes. Attending the first and last classes is a requirement. (In contacting universities offering online courses, I learned that I could take courses either online, on campus, or a combination of both.)

I visited my legally blind friend Charles Lee. For 16 hours per week, he sits in front of his computer taking courses in history, English, Journalism 101, and French. Lee enlarges the text on his screen and, using his screen reader, listens to it. A junior liberal arts major, he takes his courses through the University of Phoenix. As I arrived, Lee was taking a one-hour French test.

“I love learning this way,” Lee told me after his test. “I can save my notes. I can download my course books and I have easy access to online libraries.” He says he is not turned off by the lack of social contact with his teachers or fellow students. He believes he concentrates better by being alone when taking classes and tests. He plans to earn his B.A. through online education.

I was inclined to reconsider taking my classes online until I spoke to Virginia Randolph, Tomas Swenson, and Carey Colette. Randolph has cerebral palsy and attended University of Wisconsin. Swenson stutters and attended Carpella University in Chicago. A Master’s degree student at UCLA, Colette is deaf. All of them took online courses and decided there are more minuses than pluses.

“When job hunting during my senior year,” Swenson said, “I told the recruiters that I was taking courses online and I often heard remarks such as, ‘Did you really take them? And was it easy to cheat?’”

Randolph and Colette heard the same questions. The three of them feel that even though they studied hard to earn their degrees online, they are not considered real graduates. They said they missed the intellectual stimulation and the social camaraderie of campus life. And yet, they admitted it was their own unwillingness to go onto campus that prevented them from experiencing campus benefits.

“Some of my hearing friends believe that by taking the online courses, I found a way to avoid speaking situations,” Colette said with anger. And yet, she half believes they are correct. One advantage for Colette was online classes eliminated the need to have a sign-language interpreter in class.

Swenson admits that taking online classes eliminates embarrassing talking situations. He says the semester he stopped taking classes, the university announced that next semester it would experiment with cameras in classrooms for students who want to feel closer to class.

Another plus, Randolph says, is that online classes are “step” eliminators for her. As a result, she has more energy during the day and by not going to campus she has more time to study.

As for me, I have decided to take Web design classes later this year on campus. In researching this article I discovered that distance learning requires special techniques of course design, special instructional techniques, special methods of communication by electronic and other technologies, as well as special organizational and administrative arrangements. It will be an education in itself to experience it firsthand.

John M. Williams has been reporting on assistive technology for more than 25 years. He can be contacted at jmmaw@aol.com.