What are the technology challenges we'll face in the future with distance education?
Responses - Update 5-28-08
 
  1. One challenge that I believe will still be paramount in the future is cost to the institution, as well as to the student to make on-line courses truly amenable for all populations (e.g.learning disabled, physically challenged, etc.). A second challenge that exists today and will still be challenge is the future is integrity. This covers issues of academic honesty (plagiarism), student verification issues, and intellectual property.
  2. Making students connect with their education, via distance, rather than just with "lifestyle" or limited career goals. A college education should challenge students to think in new ways and explore difficult fields. Sometimes with distance ed a student who feels challenged will simply drop out.
  3. Engaging students who want/need face-to-face instruction to be motivated and successful.
  4. Providing student with good customer service when they need help. By good customer service I mean that when need support staff that are well trained in customer service skills. Currently we are making it up as we go.
  5. I think that currently the classes available online are limited. I think once true interaction among students and with instructor the amount of classes will greatly increase. If the student could video conference with the professor or if the professor video linked lectures then more science and math courses could be possible.
  6. The rapdily changing Web 2.0 technologies - keeping up with it all.
  7. advances in multimedia and communication technology
  8. Outsorcing of technological jobs and the ability for those at the bottom of the economic ladder to have access to computers are some of the problems that our country will face in the future.
  9. Don't Know
  10. don't know
  11. personal internet failure due to router problems overuse of the system leading to jammed lines...
  12. I think there will be more and more students wanting to learn this way which might make it more difficult to get the students into the classrooms.
  13. Not sure.. this is my first online class.
  14. online teaching.
  15. I don't know
  16. collaboration, and time constraint
  17. Computer/software failure.
  18. Making it accessible to students with different types of disabilities. It can be a complex process and I don't see faculty taking on the challenge of ensuring that their content is accessible to students who are blind, deaf, have learning disabilities, etc.
  19. 1. Platform must be user friendly and appealing to the audience. 2. Instructors must be trained and more than comfortable to teach an online course. 3. Support must be present and STRONG for students and instructors. 4. Pre-requisite for students.
  20. How to provide branding while allowing a more flexible organizational structure.
  21. Students will rely on mobile devices more than what we consider traditional computing methods for connectivity. Sharing information will become easier to do and therefore it will be more difficult to assess who is actually doing the work.
  22. maintaining quality and consistency
  23. Bandwidth. Uneven distribution of technology resources among students. Uneven ability of students to use technology.
  24. streaming live video to all students declining retention rates Testing issues
  25. 3D Technologies. Sorting through too much information being dispensed. Issues of security and fraud, copyright issues
  26. 3D technologies We are already seeing too much Information being dispensed in consumer web sites...I believe people want the fact
  27. We currently use SofTV's Presenter software to record 60 hours of graduate engineering and computer science course lectures per week. This software digitizes both the program out video of each lecture as well as a
  28. New student computers are installed with Windows Vista; this currently presents a challenge for recipients of student submissions whose work/home computers are not compatible (yet).
  29. Ability to monitor quality-this is a sensitive issue and as distance learning continues to grow, will institutions take a stand on who and how courses will be monitored. This will be increasingly important as we start to incorporate more mobile technology. We need to be careful be able to distinguished between the new capabilities that new technology will give us-as compared to effective pedagogy
  30. Intelligent uses of the medium by well trained faculty
  31. -Access to and delivery of effective information and visual literacy instruction -Information/technology overload -Privacy and copyright issues
  32. 1) Speed of technological change 2) Digital divide 3) Hacking/phishing/criminals interfering with learning
  33. "Digital divide" issues w. respect to broadband access, especially in rural areas, and across socioeconomic lines. Despite claims to the contrary, the distance between the "haves" and the "have nots" is widening, not shrinking. Cost issues w. regard to CMS licensing (all this merger stuff scares me... we should fear monopolies!)
  34. The big issue will be the same one that exist now... TOOO many choices, ie: some students/faculty with dial up and others with high speedwireless... Some with open source, others with Office abc the rest with Office xyz
  35. Infrastructure will still be an issue; even in 7 years I'm not sure broadband will be 100% available. And there will always be those that cannot afford whatever is the newest technology.
  36. Two major issues: Keeping up with the skills of millenials and the way that information is now being cut up, disassociated, and reaggregated. It is a completely different way to approach data that us older folk (and I'm in my 30s) are having trouble coming to grips with. The second is equal access to broadband. As new technologies become available and are made mainstream, many users cannot access them due to bandwidth and access issues. This must stop. Also, the net must remain neutral to content.
  37. I believe that the resistance by the "Luddites" that has so hampered the SUNY schools (and others, I am sure) has created a situation where, rather than being leaders, higher ed is going to become the followers as K-12 is now leading the way. They are now inputting DL programs (NY is one of only 8 states that does not have either state sponsored/funded DL in K-12 or at least a pilot program). I think the challenges will be in keeping up with alignments in DL between higher ed and K-12
  38. The digital divide will continue - not between the have and have-nots in terms of internet access, but in terms of the next generation of speed and tools. In addition costs will be a problems for both students and institutions.
  39. The unequal preparedness of the faculty in course design for distance learning. In my school there are few faculty who know what elements need to be in an online course inorder for it to be successful; others think that by posting a syllabus or by having one assignment completed on BlackBoard when they can't teach a particular class is distance learning. This inequity of professional preparation causes adminstrators to devalue what a good distance learnign program can offer that may not be guaranteed in a traditional setting.
  40. finances - not enough money to implement new technology and upgrade current technology time - so many changes in technology, along with heavy workloads leaves little time to learn new programs
  41. Access for all levels of income across the board--accessibility for learning disorders, physical impairments, etc.
  42. \keeping up with changing technology.
  43. Why just technology? Technology issues will resolve themselves. Retaining students, course quality, faculty training, language.
  44. training faculty to teach distance courses in innovative ways
  45. The most common problems I see as a support person are related to the users' computer compatibility with the onine course hosting system. Either their browser is missing a plug in or their firewall is preventing some features to work properly. There isn't a good way to identify all the factors that could be causing the technological "glitches". Another issue is internet connections - we are in the foothills of the Sierra's and some have broadband connections, where as more rural areas can only obtain dial-up, which can cause issues with how the online course system works on their computer.
  46. Connectivity will continue to be a problem - first for the University, but also for the students. Many of our students are rural and have limited internet access.
  47. 1. Possible loss of public purpose (privitazation) 2. Threats to organizational identity (that is, decline of community functionality) 3. Threats to quality (plagiarism a persistent issue; but also via consolidation, increased an increased training mission and decreased intellectual mission -- all of these relate to 1 and 2)
  48. Keeping up with the advancement of technology in the schools and campuses so that the average students cell phone isn't more advanced than the DL technology.
  49. Assuring that the students have the skills and equipment to make effective use of techonology. Many students come in with little or no experience with computers--this we can teach them; however,they have no equipmnet at home to access the programs available to them.
  50. - sustainability - cost control - constraints within 20th century course management systems
  51. Staying current with changes.
  52. The challenge is and will be for content specialists and educators to become facile with multimedia production.
  53. Financial Aid reconcillation; Attendance requirement; Assessment assurance
  54. I think the problem we might have is having technical problems. I also think that we might turn into pure distance learning for college but it might take a while, in my opinion is bad because I think we need the interacton with other student and it also helps us to develope social skills that we might need in the future.
  55. Staying current with technology and the cos tto do so.
  56. There won't be any technological challenges - except to say there is a resistance to older teachers towards online ed.
  57. Integrity issues, specifically verification that students in DL are doing the work required on their own.
  58. Assessment, laboratory courses, quality of education. We need technology and methods to validate all assessment measures such as test, practicums, etc. Find a way to provide distance learners with lab experience where applicable. Keeping the technology from lowering the quality of education
  59. old vs. newer operating systems old vs. newer application programs (Office 2003 vs. Office 2007 and the various mix of levels one can purchase)
  60. Probably keeping up with the most current technology and making sure the support personnel have some way to support distance classes via interactive white board, e-mail, etc. Also, maintenance of equipment.
  61. Identify who is at the other end.
  62. The greatest technology challenge will be getting teachers, adminstrators and high-level management to try, understand and then adopt the new techonlogy tools avaiable. To get them to FUND new technology tools and applications, and to keep up with the pace of change. To often SUNY colleges are years behind the privates when it comes to technology.
  63. a) Student verification issues - who is taking the course? b) Cost of technology for students and institutions. c) Intellectual property. d) Network reliability. e) Academic freedom for instructors. f) Educational Assessment.
  64. Keeping current, and keep the structure up-to-date and secure
  65. Sharing resources and inability to hire qualified people.
  66. Current challenges, such as monitoring student actiity and assuring that students have equal access to required technology, will continue to be faced in the future with distance learning.
  67. Lots of them. Probably to do with infastructure, or telecommunication.
  68. Disruptive Innovation. There's always something new in technology coming along for our faculty to face that interrupts their total focus and full creative energies on teaching in the classroom. This causes anxiety and frustration at times.
  69. Open source LMS/CMS High demand from students with high computer skills but perhaps with a gap in content knowledge and skill
  70. Connectivity, accessibility
  71. The primary problems in the future will arise from changes in technologies. As software and hardware becomes more diverse, more problems will arise due to incompatibility between systems.
  72. Issues with scalability. I see distance/online offerings moving from the realm of "specialty" product to standard offering. i.e. every course will have a method that allows you to access it virtually as well as the traditional face to face component.
  73. Effectively managing, mining, and integrating the wealth of data for relevance to users' needs.
  74. software and hardware
  75. Constantly Evolving Technology with unknown variables
  76. moving instruction to mobile devices; designing more pedagogically sound 3D virtual world teaching and learning "courses"; use of more graphics and less text-only courses; more use of personal learning environments (PLE)
  77. Keeping  Information Fluency afloat in a tidal wave of Web 2.0 technolgies.