Terry Beachy
OMDE 601 Section 9040
February 20, 2008
Assignment 2 – Traits Which Have Characterized Distance Education since Its Inception

Distance education can be thought of as an evolutionary process. It has been noted that it began as far back to Testament times and continues to unfold in present day, mainstreamed with technology (Holmberg, 2005). Throughout history there have been traits which have characterized distance education since its inception. These traits include: separation of teacher and learner all through the learning process, thus the absence of a learning group, influence of an education organization for planning, preparation and support, use of technical media to connect teacher and learner and present the subject matter of the course, and a provision for two-way communication to allow for dialogue between teacher and learner (Holmberg).
	To expand, distance education, more than not, has a separation of teacher and learner. An illustration of this dates back to when Apostle Paul wrote his epistles to the numbers to spread Christian teaching. Paul, along with others right through time, used correspondence in lieu of face-to-face education (Holmberg, 2005). A present day example of this type of separation is registering at a college for an online course and many times the teacher and student never meet, but instead are in contact by various sorts of media.
	Equally important, there is an influence of an educational organization that works to plan and prepare learning materials and provide student support. An early instance of this can be noted in the 1800’s when the founding president of the University of Chicago, William Harper, introduced “a system of structured correspondence study at the university level” (Holmberg, 2005, 13).  He outlined a plan of study which included an instruction sheet, an examination paper, and a recitation paper. Each worked in combination to provide a highly structured course while allowing for student support via feedback by the instructor in the form of “correction, criticism, and suggestion” (Holmberg, 18).  In present day, organizations have been further developed. To exemplify, colleges utilize experts in the field to facilitate learning using well thought-out content and learning objectives. They, too, provide similar student support by means of response of the instructor.
To unite teacher and learner and carry out the content of the course, distance education uses various media. Forms of media may include print, CD-ROMs, radio and television, and the computer with its browser interface to the Internet to mention a few of many examples (Moore & Kearsley, 2005). Each has the propensity to work in a fashion to enhance passive learners to become active participants.
	Despite the centrality of using technical media to unite teacher and learner and present the subject matter of the course, it is not enough for distance education; it is also important that there is interaction between distance education participants.  This is accomplished via two-way communication which allows for reciprocal action. To elaborate, mentioned prior was William Harper using a primitive method of two-communication, correspondence. Nowadays, to widen the scholarly study of distance education, to a great extent interaction takes place using modern technology such as electronic mail. Whatever the medium, the instructor provides structure, guidance and feedback while students act potentially in a collaborative fashion of they work to build knowledge and negotiate meaning for a successful learning experience.
In the final analysis, the traits that have characterized distance education since its inception include separation of teacher and learner, influence of an education organization for planning, preparation and support, use of technical media to connect teacher and learner and present the subject matter of the course, and a provision for two-way communication to allow for dialogue between teacher and learner (Holmberg, 2005). Each has played its part not only in the past, but also now to enable students to receive academic instruction despite geographic and time disparities. 

References
Holmberg, B. (2005). The evolution, principles and practices of distance education. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks-und Informationsststems der Universitat Oldenburg. 
Moore, M.G., & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: A systems view (2nd ed.) Belmont, CA: Waldsworth.