Dissertation writing help - Use of distance education technology
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This research examines institutional initiatives developed to overcome challenges to using distance education at a research university. Although some researchers believe that distance education can improve instructional development and learning environments within higher education (e.g., Lee & Johnson, 1998; Lynch & Corry, 1998), critics argue that distance education presents more challenges than rewards (Culp, Kishi, & Wilbur, 1999; Cummings, 1996).
The central research question for this study is: How can higher education instructional faculty and academic staff overcome organizational challenges to the use of distance education technology? For the purposes of this study, instructional faculty is defined as any university staff (e.g., tenure track faculty, non-tenure track faculty, adjunct instructor) providing instruction to for-credit courses taught via distance education technology. Academic staff is defined as staff (e.g., dean, department chair, office or program manager) involved in the coordination and management of academic schools, departments, or programs.
The following research questions guide this study:
1. What barriers do instructional faculty and academic staff identify as affecting the use of distance education?
2. What do academic staff do to help instructional faculty overcome barriers to using distance education technology?
3. How do instructional faculty and academic staff work cooperatively to advance both distance education and their instructional mission?
The use of a multi-subject case study design will permit exploration of distance education use throughout an institution because it focuses on an in-depth examination of multiple settings and contexts in which distance education technology is used (Stake, 1994). The three academic schools included in this research were chosen due to their implementation of distance education technology, and because they are professional schools generally located on most Midwestern research universities. Semi-structured interviews with multiple instructional faculty members, and academic staff will be conducted within all three schools to determine their beliefs about, and experiences with distance education. Ultimately, a grounded and testable theory will be produced that predicts how to remove challenges to instructional faculty members' use of distance education technology.