Presented by: Kathleen A. Pecora NUR 649-E-0500 Nursing Education Seminar II Grand Canyon University January 14, 2015

Distance Education Learning

Presented by: Kathleen A. Pecora NUR 649-E-0500 Nursing Education Seminar II Grand Canyon University January 14, 2015

Student Communication Issues In Distance Education (Introduction)

Distance education allows the student to learn at their own pace with the absence of a classroom with separation between the teacher and student (Dzakiria, Mohamed, & Christopher, 2013). The student and faculty will interact asynchronously with the responsibility of the student to identify their own learning needs and become self-directed in how they choose to meet their learning outcome. The purpose of this blog is to discuss communication issues in distance education learning through student-instructor, student-student, and student-content identified by inability to follow a schedule and study regularly, difficulty contacting classmates to complete assignments, teaming up and working collaboratively, constant engagement in the class, keeping self-motivated and being self-directed measured by student learning outcome. Online learning can be confusing, discouraging, and often the learner may feel isolated. Distance learners are faced with a new learning environment that requires self-direction and self-management that requires the ability to communicate effectively in independent learning to engage in these activities (Naidu, 2014).

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Student-Instructor, Student-Student, and Student-Content In Distance Education Learning

Teaching in distance learning programs requires the instructor to re-engineer how they deliver their course. Leadership interaction from student-instructor, student-student, and student-content is a major impact on the quality of the connection and communication within the interactivity dyads (Dzakiria et al., 2013). Each learner, each institution, and every curriculum exhibits different strengths and weaknesses and providing curriculums that are teacher-centered provide resources to the student for successful outcomes. The instructor leadership will meet challenges immediately by adjusting learning needs utilizing resources for technology-supported. American Nursing Association (ANA) is an organization that supports nursing education with resources available in distance learning. ANA supports the future of health care by creating a culture of ownership where nurses will learn new language in technologies to approach education. This includes knowledge economy by networking information with specific approaches in technology to set the stage in implementing distance education (ANA, 2015). ANA is an organization with resources that provides direction in pedagogical activities like group learning, posing questions, journals, articles, and other ways of scaffolding learning in response to learner’s cues. The learning process requires foresight of what the teacher and learner will do (Naidu, 2012).

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Significant Issues In Communication in Distance Education Learning

With the developing educational technology, learners must accept the new ways of learning. With infrequent face-to-face meetings between tutors and learning causes frustration in communication and impede the learning process. Some learners are not able to cope with distance learning and expect the instructor to play an important role in their academic success. Learners have the power to act when they are motivated, engaged in the class, socialize, and are self-directed. Studies have shown that student’s that lack identity and self-efficacy have a difficult time successfully completing distance online programs. Data from a recent study reveals a positive change when the student has strength in language and writing skills (Rowe, 2014).

An issue in communication can be the design and delivery of how instructions are presented to the learner (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012). It is important to set expectations for the learner to encourage student participation and involvement during the learning process. The online instructor will focus on time management, promote active learning and foster student faculty interaction and evaluate learner outcome throughout their academic journey. Faculty need to address the development needs of student’s engaging in online learning by developing leadership skills through communication to help with time management, self-disciple, and utilizing resources to facilitate student learning (Rashid & Rashid, 2012). The educator retains responsibility for identifying the expected outcome of the course by designing learning activities that promote active student involvement in the learning process. Communication interference can be related to the student’s difference in age, diverse educational backgrounds, variety of work experience, or lack the learning skills needed for successful outcome.

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Effects of Communication Issues In Distance Education Learning

Students using web conferencing equipment in their homes need to be prepared by testing and practice the equipment before using such technology prior to starting distance learning programs. Communication effectively content development by learning how to participate in group activities and developing formats prior to participation in distance learning (Du, Liu, Liu, Yin, Zhang, & Wang, 2013). Students can make changes in preparation for distance learning by becoming familiar with resources available that have various formats of content development. Students can be creative and use your own professional ideas to contribute to distance learning participation. Using web-tools to process and synchronous discussion-based course model can change strategies in teaching. Use web-tools to utilize hands-on exercises and include synchronous discussions. Faculty can adopt different format for students work and develop specific assessment criteria to guide students better (Pardasani, Goldkind, Heyman, & Cross-Denny, 2012).

There are three stages of e-learning design that develops communication in learning. They are transmissive, interactive, and collaborative. Transmissive design provides resources to the student using learning platforms as a means of communicating and repository of material. Interactive design is teacher-centered rather than learner-center approaches and has a strong focus on content. The student communicates by posting in discussion forums their experiences with the course material. In collaborative design, multiple interaction and collaboration among learners and tutors is necessary for successful student to communicate information that is processed and learned (Poyraz, 2013).

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Strategies To Monitor Communication Issues In Distance Education Learning

Promoting quality online education courses can be support by nursing through following guidelines that are established for the delivery of distance education through government bodies that regulate quality indicators. Examples would be the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the Sloan Consortium Education Policy. Accrediting agencies expect online courses and program to provide learners with access to learning experiences that achieve the same learning outcome as traditional courses. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) has established standards for distance education programs with expectation that the learner outcome be evaluated equally with traditional face-to-face courses (Billings, 2012). The responsibility of leaders is to guide needed change to both organization culture and technology by paying attention to individual and collective needs. Guiding nurse leaders to facilitate changes will enable organizational members to collaborate in new ways. Nurse will have insite to changing the organization language and culture to shape the implementation of new technologies including collaborative efforts in distance education to facilitate patient safety, nurse satisfaction, positive impact on patient outcome, lowering training costs, and higher commitment/buy-in that leads to greater productivity (ANA, 2015).

The online instructor can offer encouragement and make intentional efforts to communicate to the student by positive messages to the individual and to the group as a whole. Providing constructive feedback can promote positive messages and maintain an overall positive moral in the class. The instructor will strive to listen and understand the learner’s frustration by providing productive feedback. Often time the instructor takes on a role as a coach and will help the learner to develop confidence and high levels of competence. Requiring students to have a minimum level of high speed Internet connection is anther strategy to deploy the latest technology for student to successfully complete a significant portion of course material through distance instruction (Poyraz, 2013).

Specific instructions with clear examples help support distance learning. The learner understands the expectations required by the design delivery of course material prior to the start of the program with specific timeframe in place to meet the academic requirements. The learner anticipates group projects with active involvement in collaborative groups to maintain positive group participation. A student is clearly given specific instruction through direct communication that helps facilitate productive group participation with positive outcomes (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012).

Strategies proven to manage effectively online communication are providing a set of instructions for faculty to respond to inquiries in a given time frame. Faculty will establish student electronic file folders to retain course communication, use separate e-mail for personal correspondence, and establish office hours. Faculty must block out a certain schedule amount of time each week that is devoted to the online course (Rashid & Rashid, 2012).

Moore suggests that the “five Cs” are necessary to accomplish smooth delivery of distance learning programs. They are as follows:

• Communicate effectively with a willingness and ability to succeed

• Competence in handling technical needs and instructional assistance

• Control of events that help build student confidence

• Caring demonstrated by the student for success and achievement

• Continuity of student role from one semester to the next (Billing, 2012)

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