The Role of Advanced
Networks in the Education of the Future
by Carole A. Barone and Mark A. Luker
Many
have predicted that a global network of affordable multimedia computers,
on-line libraries, student-centered "learningware," and enhanced human
communications in general will improve access to high-quality education
on a scale that simply cannot be accomplished today. Although this may
be a compelling vision of the future, many details, methods, capabilities,
and even principles necessary to achieve it are not yet clear. Recent
rapid progress on several fronts, however, suggests that much of this
vision can be realized -- and sooner rather than later. There is an
exciting ferment in the entire field, both within and outside traditional
institutions of higher education.
This chapter first
looks at how the emergence of an advanced Internet will break the access,
performance, and cost barriers that in the past have presented an insurmountable
obstacle to the new vision of education. It then discusses the more
fundamental opportunities and challenges concerning missions, goals,
roles, methods, organization, and evaluation that will face our institutions
of higher education once the technical barriers have been removed.
Role of an Advanced
Internet in High-Quality Education
Most discussions
about new models for distributed learning assume that there will be
an underlying network -- which we will call the advanced Internet --
that can support the rich variety of communications and interaction
required at any location, at an affordable cost. Why should we believe
this now, when no past efforts have satisfied all of these requirements?
And just what are the requirements, anyway? The following discussion
explores the underlying technologies required to support distributed
learning and looks at basic performance requirements, past and future
methods of delivery, and important cost factors. It shows how the advanced
Internet will be the first affordable system that can meet all of the
basic access requirements of the new learning model, both on campus
and off, and how some of these developments will be driven and partially
funded by a massive convergence of three global communications technologies
into one.
Network Requirements
for Distributed Learning
A glance at the
Web today shows that we do not really have to wait for the advanced
Internet to begin to participate in networked distance learning. This
is because traditional lectures, presentations, demonstrations, and
examples, which are mostly one-way communications to the student, represent
a large fraction of a typical course. A standard classroom lecture can
be delivered effectively as a video clip, in just the way we can watch
a news report over the Internet or on television today. (Indeed, one-way
television has been the primary mode of distance education.) Simply
dividing a lecture into small segments that can be repeated, skipped,
called up as needed, and used anytime (as on videotape) adds valuable
flexibility. Links to high-quality multimedia examples further improve
the presentation, as can the preparation and delivery of really outstanding
content. In short, many of today's classroom experiences can be replicated
using a network that supports sending video segments to any location
one way, including today's Internet. Although the Internet will become
the most cost-effective way to deliver this type of content for learning,
the real power of the new technology ties well beyond mimicking television.
What about the
human interaction that takes place in courses, when students ask questions,
get help, work together, and discuss common problems? All of these activities
take place on today's Internet as well, but with a distinct bow to the
limitations of the network. All have been implemented successfully using
e-mail, with special software called groupware that keeps track of who
is in what group, organizes their threads of discussion, and shares
relevant information with group members.This type of communication is
called asynchronous communication, because it does not require
that members of a group be on the network at the same time. Although
the idea of saving messages to be read later may at first sound awkward,
it is a real advantage for distributed learning, since learners' schedules
often conflict. (Of course, asynchronous access is also one of the main
benefits of voice mail and e-mail.) Alternate versions of groupware
support synchronous communication, which allows the members of
a group to "chat" over the network, instantly receiving and responding
to messages from one another. Often called chat rooms, these
arrangements are a low-speed and inexpensive electronic version of a
small-group discussion. Both synchronous and asynchronous communications
over networks have been used very successfully for instructors' office
hours, group projects, study sessions, and other types of interactions
essential to many courses.
What can the advanced
Internet add to this picture? Well, it can add an actual picture, as
well as voices. With an advanced network both synchronous and asynchronous
communications can include natural voice and video so that all participants
can see and hear one another. This format makes for communication that
is not only easier than typing and reading but also richer, conveying
the subtleties of expression and tone that are lost in textual communication.
Two-way video conferencing has proved to be very effective for business
meetings and remote classrooms, but it has been too expensive for widespread
use. Advanced networks will make this tool affordable for both classroom
and "anytime, anywhere" education. Network-based curricula will support
a full range of interaction, with students working alone with lectures,
in study groups, and with tutors.
Related Critical
Technologies
Campus-based courses
depend heavily on readings, presentations, exhibits, examples, and other
supporting information. These types of information are every bit as
important in a distributed model, but using them in that setting depends
to a much greater extent on affordable access to a high-quality collection
that can be searched and retrieved through a network. Since almost all
of the information in traditional libraries can be presented in digital
form, these needs can be met, in principle, by digital libraries that
augment the Web and improve on its structure and capability. Although
successful on-line collections exist today for certain fields, there
are substantial economic, intellectual property, licensing, authorization,
preservation, and management barriers that must be overcome to achieve
this goal in general. Organizations such as the Coalition for Networked
Information and the Digital Library Federation are working actively
on practical solutions to these problems. Meanwhile, there is a rapidly
growing but less well organized collection of digital information for
education on the Web, CD-ROMs, and other media, which can often satisfy
specific objectives.
Perhaps the most
important components of a distributed learning system will be modules
of learningware -- that is, special computer programs designed to help
a student access and work with presentations, questions, experiments,
and related information on specific topics. Learningware might support
flexible access to text, photographs and charts, sound and video clips,
and on-line data, all focused on some particular learning activity.
Such digital content can be organized in many ways, however, to adapt
to the particular background, learning styles, and scheduling needs
of the learner. More importantly, the content can be active, requiring
the learner to search, organize, reason, and experiment with the subject
mat-ter, perhaps using special tools, much as in a laboratory or seminar.
This type of active learning is usually more effective than a passive
lecture, whether or not one uses technology.
The Future
Internet
The commercial
promise of the Internet has led to intense pressures to improve performance
and reduce costs. Thousands of signalscan now be squeezed into the space
that used to carry one. New and existing communications companies are
crisscrossing the globe with comprehensive networks of fiber-optic cables
costing billions of dol-lars. Satellite and radio companies are finding
ways to provide Internet access to locations where there are no cables.
Engineers are devising ways to send greater amounts of information using
fewer bits of data. Electronic and optical devices continue to decrease
in cost. The geographical distribution of information around the world
is being shifted in response to demand for access. Network-aware applications
especially tailored for educational requirements are under development
in projects such as Internet2. All of these devel-opments point to vast
improvements in capacity and performance.
And what about
cost? The cost to the consumer translates to price, which is as much
a factor of supply, demand, and competi-tion as of technology. It is
most important to note that much of this new capacity introduces new
competition between new providers who control alternate routes to the
consumers. Prices for connections are beginning to drop in those markets
that now sup-port real competition. And the cost of network components
will plummet at the same time that newer technologies come into mass
production.
Why all this intense
investment in the Internet? Precisely because the basic communications
requirements for distributed learning overlap those for collaborative
research, electronic commerce, access to government, personal and business
communications, and even entertainment. Each of these activities could
be served by an advanced Internet. This means that a solution to the
high-quality, low-cost, "anytime, anyplace" Internet is worth billions
of dollars. Such technology is now the subject of intense research and
development in universities, government, and the private sector. It
is widely agreed that the resulting systems will support a convergence
of separate voice, video, and data communications technologies into
a single advanced Internet that can replace much of the redundant investment
we presently make in all three of these areas. Future homes, offices,
and classrooms equipped with telephone or cable television connections
will automatically enjoy the advanced network capabilities required
for distributed learning.
Taken together,
these technical and economic developments point to the possibility of
a dramatic increase in access to affordable, high-quality education.
Can our institutions of higher education, or their emerging competitors,
successfully adapt to the new opportunities in time to realize the vision?
New Opportunities
and Challenges for Higher Education
Teaching and learning
models of the future assume universal access to the network. Advanced
networks appear to offer an educationally and economically viable solution
to the pressing need for access to higher education for both the traditional
eighteen-to-twenty-two-year-old cohort and for the exploding number
of "knowledge workers" who will require access to lifelong learning.
It is envisioned that improvements in access to instruction, as well
as to its quality and affordability, will occur both on traditional
residential campuses and in virtual learning settings. What contextual
elements will change as advanced networks enable distributed learning?
Social and
Cultural Issues
With the realization
that the twenty-first century will bring with it a set of social issues
related to education, the mission of higher education is expanding to
provide access irrespective of life circumstances -- for example, age,
employment status, geography, culture, ethnicity, and family responsibilities.
Access means a number of things, from physical access to course materials
(provided via the Internet or a learning device) to intellectual access
to the subject matter (provided by a neutral, nonjudgmental context,
enabled by network-based learningware).
The classroom lecture
and its concomitant social relationships have been dominant forms in
universities for centuries.Advanced networks and information technology
will enable the development of a new pedagogy that nurtures learning
among those for whom the traditional classroom model is not a viable
form of access or road to academic success. Tensions on campus run high
as institutions of higher education face social and economic pressures
that their cultural and value systems, embedded in traditional modes
of instruction, do not accommodate.
Distributed
Learning Environments
Virginia Polytechnic
and State University's Math Emporium project is an elegant example of
a felicitous match of advanced networking capability with an institutional
need (and desire) to provide access. Faced with burgeoning enrollments
and inadequate funding to accommodate students in the traditional classroom
model, the university's mathematics department embarked on a courageous
effort to transform its approach to entry-level mathematics courses.
The Math Emporium, a five-hundred-workstation learning center located
in a former department store building, provides an active learning environment
for more than ten thousand students (Moore and Rossi, 1999).
Using network-based
learning modules and diagnostic quizzes, students work at their own
pace to master the material. Faculty fulfill their class contact obligations
by spending time in the Math Emporium, mentoring students when they
encounter difficulty with the material. Ongoing assessment of the learning
that is taking place alerts faculty to subject matter areas where students
are experiencing general difficulty, which then prompts them to schedule
short tutorial sessions on those topics.
Blacksburg, Virginia,
is one of a growing number of communities that offer high-end network
access to their residents. Consequently, students are also able to access
and work with learningware from their homes. Emerging capabilities in
authentication and streaming video theoretically will let the Math Emporium
make quizzes, "mini lectures," and tutorial help available over the
network. It is interesting to speculate whether, over the long term,
students will continue to visit the Math Emporium for social reasons
or if they will build their learning communities solely on the network.
Anecdotal evidence from other campuses indicates that students are moving
toward the formation of electronic communities and have less psychological
need for in-person contact.
Enterprise-wide
transformational change, such as that taking place at Virginia Tech,
requires more than advanced networking; this type of reconceptualization
of the learning environment also calls for radical changes in institutional
policy and funding allocations. The Virginia Tech initiative is as much
a study of a courageous group of faculty members and administrators
motivated to change the culture of student-faculty relationships as
it is a study of the enabling power of advanced networks. This is an
example of decisive, strategic action by an institution that understands
its priorities.
Advanced networking
also enables true distance learning to occur, by making students' geographical
location irrelevant to access. The Western Governors University (www.wgu.edu)
speaks to the economic importance a number of state governors place
on providing lifelong access to education for the citizens of their
states. The University of Arizona's Southwest Project (dizzy.library.arizona.edu/swp/welcome.html)
is an example of the use of the Internet to make a large depository
of information available to the community, including community colleges
and K-12 schools. Both of these examples point to the importance and
power of collaboration in realizing successful distance learning.
A milestone was
passed in March 1999 when Jones International University, a for-profit
distance education venture, was accredited by the North Central Association
Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. Jones offers bachelor's
and master's degrees in addition to its certificate programs (Mendels,
1999). There are countless other examples of noncredit, credit, vocational,
and degree-granting programs that are being offered to students in a
distance learning format.
Few would dispute
that advanced networks can serve as catalysts for distributed learning
opportunities. Many would argue, however, that their capability has
outpaced the policy, culture, and infrastructure of U.S. higher education,
thus creating a new set of tensions and barriers. It is these tensions
and barriers that the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative strives
to address.
The National
Learning Infrastructure Initiative and the Instructional Management
System
The National Learning
Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), an EDUCAUSE program (www.educause.edu/nlii/),
emerged from the conviction that information technology has the power
to bring about systemic change in higher education by transforming teaching
and learning. It was formed to address lags in policy, culture, support,
and infrastructure that create barriers to transformational change through
technology. NLII projects focus on enhancing institutional readiness
for such change.
One such project,
the Instructional Management System (IMS) (www.imsproject.org),
was conceived to build a framework of specifications, standards, and
definitions around which interoperable products could be developed.
IMS-compliant products will soon enable faculty to execute efficient
searches on the Internet for relevant courseware and let them quickly
and easily create, obtain, and tailor course modules to suit their individual
curricula, tastes, and modes of expression. The IMS holds much promise
as the key element of a technical infrastructure required to move gracefully
to modalities for teaching and learning that address the issues of quality,
access, and affordability.
Table 1.1 shows
typical course management activities, linked here with the specifications
that will enable such activities to take place in an interoperable,
network-based environment.
| Table
1.1. IMS Specifications |
| Activity |
Specification
Type |
| Find it |
Metadata |
| Get it |
Packaging |
| Run it |
Runtime services |
| Track it |
Profiles |
| Discuss it |
Collaboration |
| Integrate it |
Enterprise |
Source: Developed
by the authors in collaboration with Steve Griffin, technical director
of the IMS project.
The roles of faculty
members and students will change in this new learning environment, as
will relationships between faculty, students, administrators, vendors,
and publishers. Students will take more responsibility for their own
learning programs and outcomes. Faculty "will become teaching and learning
process designers and managers as well as content specialists" (Massy,
1998, p. 15).
New Roles
and Relationships
Advanced networks
also hold the power to alter the social and business relationships surrounding
the educational enterprise. Students and faculty alike bring past experiences
and assumptions about teaching to the virtual classroom. Swept out of
their traditional roles, with the dynamic of their relationship changed,
both feel insecure. Students wonder if faculty are really teaching them
if most of their learning appears to take place independently, from
learningware accessed via the network. Faculty question their values
and, indeed, their value and identity as teachers when they move from
the position of control in the classroom to serving as a helper of individuals
and small groups of students, especially since their intervention in
the learning process often comes only at the invitation of the student.
The more fully
engaged student, owing to the active learning facilitated by information
technology, will bring new assumptions to the faculty-student relationship.
Faculty development will take on a new priority. Campus support services
will consist largely of teams of faculty members, professionals with
formal training in curriculum design and development, and information
technologists, collaborating in a partnership that respects and values
the critical scrutiny, special insights, and expertise that each contributes
to the effort. Our familiar business models will no longer apply as
the roles of producer and consumer shift and evolve.
New Educational
Products and Economic Models
Some institutions
of higher education are more ready than others to address the implications
of advanced networking for their future goals, priorities, and economic
viability. The hype associated with distance education has led some
higher education institutions to flounder in attempting to enter an
ill-defined market without clear institutional goals or a viable business
plan. The higher education community is just beginning to grapple with
the policy and cultural barriers to successful entry into the distance
learning economy. Some suggest that those barriers may not come down
quickly enough to forestall massive structural change.
Lee Alley, former
director of Global Market Development at KPMG Peat Marwick, provides
convincing data of the impending explosion of demand for lifelong education.
According to Alley (1999), the market population of demand for lifelong
learning is currently over 165 million persons in the eighteen to sixty-four
age group. This demand is coming both from individuals and from the
industries that employ them. Alley implies that traditional institutions
of higher education will be too slow to overcome the barriers to the
type of transformational change required to address this demand. Wall
Street cannot afford to ignore this huge market for lifelong education.
Consequently, new corporate educational entities will rapidly emerge.
E-commerce, in this context, becomes both educational and electronic
commerce.
Alley paints a
future higher education landscape that looks dramatically different
from what we know today. In his scenario the role of some traditional
campuses will change to a focus on providing a venue for campus life
and socialization of the traditional eighteen-to-twenty-two-year-old
age cohort; others will find themselves among providers of core courses,
whether to students on other campuses or in remote home and business
locations. For-profit vendors will provide locally unique or specialty
courses. Alley predicts that pricing for commodity (core) courses will
contract to the lowest level available among a few branded institutions
with high volume and low overhead, resulting in the following provider
mix:
- 10 medallion
brand institutions
- 100 dominant
provider institutions
- 1,000 consortia
collaborators
- 2,000 consumer
institutions
- 10,000 for-profit
vendors
If these projections
are borne out, then we will see a rapid unbundling of campus-based student
services from per-credit-hour pricing, new credit repositories and services,
and the emergence of credit brokering and credentialing services. Advanced
networks are again the enabling force behind these changes, because
they allow students to be enrolled simultaneously with multiple educational
providers, irrespective of their location. In addition to its work on
an interoperable teaching and learning standards infrastructure, the
IMS is geared toward the development of the standards and specifications
to record and report the outcomes of the virtual classroom experience.
Summary
Advanced networks
are on the cusp of new breakthroughs in communication capabilities.
However, the tool is not going to be the solution unless we address
its social, economic, and policy implications in concert with the expansion
of advanced networks. Not all such technical capability will have a
positive effect in addressing pressing social issues. To some these
emerging capabilities (such as the ability to see and hear others communicating
over a network) appear attractive because they will enable teaching
and learning to occur in ways that are analogous to the traditional
classroom. Although such capability may enhance some interactions, it
may not be the technology of choice to neutralize certain types of biases
found in the traditional classroom setting (such as cultural, ethnic,
gender, or age biases).
Moreover, advanced
networks will contribute to the advancement of those institutions of
higher education that understand that their commitment to transformation
must be grounded in realistic self-knowledge. Those who seek to enjoy
the benefits of advanced networks need to match the capabilities of
the technology to the aims of the institution.
Conclusion
Taken together,
these developments in the technology and organization of teaching and
learning and the emergence of powerful and affordable networks present
a unique opportunity to dramatically improve access to affordable, high-quality
education. Such improve-ments will be needed to help meet the greatly
increased demand for all types of education, but they are certain to
involve widespread, systemic changes in the way we organize these activities
today. Since the issues we discuss involve and encompass the core mission
of our campuses, they will rise to the awareness and concern of all
the stakeholders in higher education. We are entering an era of fun-damental
change that will demand leadership as few eras have before.
References
Alley, L. "Cloning
the Ivy Tower on Wall Street." Paper presented at the National Learning
Infrastructure Initiative Conference, New Orleans, Feb. 1999. [http://www.educause.edu/nlii/meetings/orleans99/alley.html]
Massy, W. "Understanding
New Faculty Roles and Work Patterns." In Technology and Its Ramifications
for Data Systems: Report of the Policy Panel on Technology. NCES
98-279. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1998.
Mendels, P. "Online
Education Gets a Credibility Boost." New York Times, Technology Cybertimes,
Mar. 13, 1999.
Moore, A. H., and
Rossi, J. "Virginia Tech's Math Emporium: Curriculum Trans-formation
Assessment in an Advanced Learning Center." Paper presented at the National
Learning Infrastructure Initiative Conference, New Orleans, Feb. 1999.
[http://math.vt.edu/people/rossi/mathemporium.ppt]
Reprinted
with permission from Mark Luker, ed., Preparing Your Campus for a Networked
Future. Forthcoming from Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers.
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