Designing a Distributed Learning Experience

Abstract

With the availability of Internet and digital technologies, many universities are integrating new interactive media into course curricula, both to enhance conventional classroom-based learning and to enable remote students to overcome barriers of time and distance. Although the focus of computer-mediated communication in teaching and learning has traditionally been on distance education—delivering courses to students in remote locations—colleges are increasingly using interactive media to enhance on-campus courses, with positive outcomes. “Distributed learning” describes educational experiences that combine face-to-face teaching with synchronous and asynchronous mediated interaction (Dede, Brown-L’Bahy, Ketelhut, & Whitehouse, 2004). This instructional strategy distributes learning across a variety of geographic settings, across time, and across various interactive media. This study extends prior research findings on the design and educational outcomes of a Harvard Graduate School of Education course, Learning Media that Bridge Distance and Time, as a prototypical distributed learning experience.