Lesson 13
Best Practices and Future Directions
Charleen Worsham

This link is one of the best I've found for information regarding best practices in distance education. It is titled "Tips for Teaching at a Distance" It addresses the attributes of a quality course, discusses instructional skills for a variety of DE modes - ITV, web, and telecourses, and gives good practical advice for lesson construction and course development and evaluation. http://www.zianet.com/edacyrs/tipsindex.htm

From an administrative standpoint, one can't ignore the "Principles of Good Practice…" found at the Co-board site. http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/divisions/univ/principl.htm If you are responsible for a distance education program, these are your "however many it is" commandments. The Co-board is requiring an Institutional Plan for Distance Education and Off-Campus Instruction. Details can be found at: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/DistanceEd/instplan.htm

Lucky me, my school was one of the first two on the list. Guess what I'll be doing this summer? Tweaking my plan that was submitted - there are a couple of weak spots (no surprise to me). Here we get back into the value of accreditation, which I suppose this is a form of (particularly since SACS is interested in the feedback I got from the co-board report). It's a pain - but it does force one to clean up their act instead of procrastinating.

Future directions for distance education? It is becoming more of a roller coaster ride each day. The one thing that I think everyone agrees on is that survival will depend on who you form alliances with. The idea of competition with the private sector is a scary one, but I truly believe that we will survive - however, our institutions won't look like they do now. I know that the "paradigm shift" phrase is becoming worn out, but I think things have begun to move towards a redefinition of teaching and learning along with changes in the policies and procedures of institutions operating in this changing environment.