ECI 646 - Distance Education: Transactional Distance

Two Factors in Transactional Distance

There are two factors Moore and Kearsley incorporate into transactional distance: dialog and structure. How do the authors define these two terms and how do they combine to create greater and lesser transactional distance?

The following table from Moore (1973) may help:

	Example	Program
1.	Programs with no dialogue and no structure	Independent readings
2.	Programs with no dialogue but with structure	Radio or telecourses
3.	Programs with structure and dialogue	Correspondence study
4.	Programs with dialogue and no structure	Rogerian tutorials

Which of these four examples exhibits the greatest transactional distance? Why? Post your thoughts in your CourseInfo groups.

Can you give other examples programs for each level of transactional distance?

Learner Autonomy

This concept of Moore and Kearley is based on a long held notion that students need to learn to identify and develop their own learning interests. Moore earlier said that students "need to develop an independent stance in educational transactions" in order to break the dependency upon traditional educational institutions. (Moore, 1980, p. 24). These ideas are largely in line with Knowles, Bruner, Rogers and Dewey (See Note).

How does learner autonomy interact with transactional distance? Are its effects independent of or dependent on the amount of TD in a course design?

Beyond Moore and Kearsley

Verduin and Clark (1991) suggest that the above model is a good starting point, but needs to be expanded to include what and how different teaching and learning styles worked in distance learning. They added the following concepts:

• Support. This expands on the notion of dialog, and includes an accounting for the kinds of dialog different students need. Some students need a lot of dialog for structural purposes, while more field-independent students need high dialog in order to negotiate their own learning needs with the instructor.
• Specialized competence and formality. Structure is a concept that is also too broad for V and C. They break in into two aspects. Specialized competence tries to capture the formality of the subject matter. The more complex and involved mastery of a subject is, the more need for specialized competence. Also, many fields are highly structured bodies of knowledge. Formality has to do with how the level of the learner's skills allow them to interact with the specialized needs of the subject. Literacy, writing ability, and independent study skills and the ability to conduct research are aspects of this quality.
• General competence and self-directedness. This combines Moore's view of learner autonomy (1973) with the dimension of self-directedness. These aspects try to account for the competence of a student in the level of subject matter presented, as well as the general ability of said student to learn.

Needless to say, this gives a much more complex theoretical model to create educational environments with.

What qualities would you add to the above theories?

Harasim

Finally, just a brief note about Linda Harasim's article regarding the added dimension that computer-mediated communication brings to distance learning. Her critique of distance education theory is based upon the above writings. While not the main thrust of her article, she does bring up a challenge.

What is the theoretical nature of Harasim's challenge to distance education theory? Does she have a valid point?

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Moore, M.G. (1973). "Toward a Theory of Independent Learning and Teaching." Journal of Higher Education, 44(9), 661-679.
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Moore, M.G. (1980). "Independence and Autonomy." In R. D. Boyd and J. W. Apps (eds.), Redefining the Discipline of Adult Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1980.
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Verduin, J.R. & Clark, T.A. (1991). Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass. Buy it from Amazon.
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Note 1: Dewey is very hard to summarize due to the complexity and breadth of his educational thought. This link takes you to chapter 25 of his monumental "Democracy and Education", which is available in full text from the ILT Web at Columbia University. This is a good summation he made of his democratic learning theory.
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