Author: Terry Beachy
Last saved by: tbeachy

Terry Beachy
OMDE 601 Section 9040
March 29, 2008
Assignment 3 – Describe and analyze the three categories used by Michael Moore in his theory of transactional distance.

Transactional distance, in its simplest form, can be thought of as the cognitive space between teacher and learner in a distance education environment. Michael G. Moore has greatly expanded upon this by formulating his own concept of transactional distance and divided it into three categories. The categories include dialog, structure, and learner autonomy. The categories are continuous, relative variables that focus on pedagogical concepts rather than geographical separation. The model proposes, among other things, that the greater the structure, the lower the dialog needed and the more autonomy the learner can exercise. 
	To elaborate, dialog, as discussed by Moore (2005), “is a term that helps us focus on the interplay of words and actions and any other interactions between teacher and learner when one gives instruction and the other responds” (p. 224). The effectiveness of dialog in a course can be determined by a number of qualities. They include the educational philosophy behind the course, the design of the course, the personalities of teacher and learner, the subject matter of the course, and environmental factors such as the size of the learning group, language of the learners and medium of communication (Moore, 2005). In general, the more dialog the less transactional distance. A foremost consideration in the amount of dialog exchanged in a course is its structure.
Structure describes the elements that make up the design of the course. Similar to dialog, structure is qualitative. Furthermore, it is not only largely determined by the nature of communications media used, but also by the  philosophy and emotional characteristics of teachers, the academic level of the learners along with their personalities, the nature of the content and the constraints imposed by educational institutions (Moore, 2005). Chief components of structure may include, but are not limited to the following: the programs educational objectives, teaching strategies, content themes, information presentations, case studies, exercises, projects and evaluation methods (Moore, 2005). Broad-spectrum, the more structure that exists, the fewer dialogs usually occur. Structure, in combination with dialog, help determine how much flexibility a student has in the course. If structure is elevated, learners have guidance, but if there is neither dialog nor structure, the student is forced to make their own decisions about study strategies and decide, without guidance, methods of studying. Thus, the greater the transactional distance, the more responsibility the learner has to exercise. This leads to the final significant variable entitled learner autonomy. 
Learner autonomy is based on the concept “that learners have different capacities for making decisions regarding their own learning” (Moore, 2005, p. 228). Simply put, it is up to the learner to decide how to study, what to study, when, where, and even how often to study as he/she has the freedom and responsibility to exercise self-directed learning. Autonomy is vital to transactional distance because students with advanced competence as autonomous learners have the propensity to do better with less dialogue and structure, whereas more dependent learners may need more dialogue and more structure to be successful. 
To conclude, Michael G. Moore’s theory of transactional distance focuses on three relative variables: dialog, structure, and learner autonomy. Dialog and structure measure the amount of transactional distance with distance having a direct impact on student autonomy. Each variable works in combination to postulate that the theory is more concerned with pedagogy than geography. Moore’s concept of transactional distance is important since part of what potentially determines the success of a distance learning course is to the extent which the institution and the individual teacher are able to provide the suitable structure of learning materials and the appropriate quantity and quality of dialog between learner and teacher, taking into consideration the extent of the learner’s autonomy.

References

Moore, M.G., & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: A systems view (2^nd ed.) Belmont, CA: Waldsworth.