1 Literature

2 The theory of Moore

The concept of transaction is derived from Dewey and Bentley 1949.

Transactional distance replaces the older term 'distance education'.

In his theory of transactional distance, he describes "the universe of teacher-learner relationships that exist when learners and instructors are separated by space and/or by time" (p.22):
- the interaction between learners and teachers,
- the structure of instructional programmes,
- the self-directedness of the learner.

The separation leads to
- special patterns of learner and teacher behaviours,
- a psychological and communications space between the two,
- potential misunderstanding.

Even in face-to-face education is some transactional distance.

Transactional distance is relative and different for each person.
And in same time, it is a relative variable that is different from each distance education programme to the next.

The extent of transactional distance in a educational programme is a function of these three sets of variables (clusters):
- dialogue,
- structure,
- learner autonomy.

The two clusters dialogue and structure are both qualitative variables and are determined by
- the nature of the communications media being employed,
- the philosophy and emotional characteristics of teachers,
- the personalities of learners,
- the constraints imposed by educational institutions.

Extend and nature of dialogue is determined by . . .
- the educational philosophy behind the course,
- the design of the course,
- the personalities of teacher and learner (learning styles),
- selection and training of instructors,
- the subject-matter of the course, the content area, the academic level,
- the medium of communication,
- number of students each distant teacher is responsible for,
- the emotional environment of teachers and learners,
- the regard/disregard given to their activities,
- and other factors.

Highly structured medium means no or little dialogue and inputs from learners. Example: recorded television programme.
Less structured medium allows more dialogue and a wide range of alternative responses to students' questions. Example: teleconference courses.

But even using an interactive medium the programme can be overstructured. Therefore it cuts the dialogue and sets a high transactional distance.
Low transactional distance can be achieved by much dialogue and little predetermined structure.
The variation of dialogue and structure gives a programme more or less transactional distance than another.

The greater the transactional distance, the more autonomy the learner will exercise: making judgements, taking decisions about study strategies, to what extent using the instructions.

Successful distance teaching depends on:
- the appropriate opportunities for dialogue,
- appropriately structured learning materials.

In distance education teaching is a collaborative process of a course team of content experts, instructional designers, and media specialists.

Each distance education programme must structure these teaching processes:
1
Presentation of information, skills, models of attitudes and values.
The presentation will be delivred by the recorded media.
2
Support of motivation: stimulate and maintain the learner's interest including self-motivation.
Various techniques of stimulation, feedback and dialogue help to reach this goal.
3
Stimulate analysis and critic: learners are expected to develop these higher order cognitive skills, but must be assisted on their way. Example: organizing discussions.
4
Counsel the learning process: how to provide guidance on the use of learning materials, on study techniques. How to deal with study problems.
5
How to arrange practice and evaluation: how to give opportunity to apply new knowledge, to practice the skills.
Even highly self-directed learners are vulnerable in the process of application. They do not know enough about the subject to be sure they are applying it correctly.
For this reality testing the course must provide opportunity for dialogue.
6
Arrange for student creation of knowledge: how providing opportunity for learners to share in the process of creating knowledge.

Selection and integration of communications media
To deliver effective teaching programmes means to select the appropriate medium provide each teaching process - appropriate to the learner characteristics and to the content characteristics.

Moore suggests a sort of rating of the communications media (p.30).
He locates the strength of each medium for the following teaching processes:
- self-study guide: not very useful for any process (I disagree in that point!);
- audio recording/broadcast: not to bad for presentation (1) and motivation (2);
- video recording/broadcast: excellent for presentation (1) and motivation (2);
- correspondence: excellent for both analytic and critical development (3) and application and evaluation (5), fair for all other processes (1, 2, 4);
- video conference: fair for presentation (1), motivation (2), analytic and critical development (3), application and evaluation (5);
- audio conference: excellent for learner support (4);
- PC conference: excellent for analytic and critical development (3), application and evaluation (5), and learner support (4).

Learner autonomy means the extent to which in the teaching/learning relationship it is the learner rather than the teacher who determines the goals, the learning experiences, and the evaluation decisions of the learning programme.

The ideal of a fully autonomous learner: emotionally independent of an instructor, "can approach subject matter directly" (Boyd 1966), has a self-concept of being self-directed.
Not all adults are at a state of readiness for fully self-directed learning, because learner are trained to be dependent in the school system. Hence, "adults are typically not prepared for self directed learning" (Knowles 1970).

Teachers have to assist learners to acquire the skills of fully autononous learning.

Inter-learner dialogue
occurs between learners and other learners, alone or in groups, with or without the real-time presence of an instructor.
Today, this form of dialogue makes it possible for distance learner to share in the creation of knowledge.

Kowitz and Smith 1987 define three forms of instruction:
1 teaching basic knowledge,
2 teaching technical abilities,
3 teaching collective intelligence.

The personal computer made possible what was not available before in either distance education or conventional education: