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Challenges
of Distance Education
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Educators
face numerous challenges when implementing distance education programs.
Copyright, intellectual property rights, technology issues, digital divide,
student services, assessment, retention rates, resistance, faculty workload
and compensation, and legitimacy issues are just a few of the challenges
associated with developing distance education courses and programs.
This lesson summarizes the following key challenges associated with distance education:
- Copyright
challenge
- Student
services challenge
- Retention
challenge
- Legitimacy
challenge
Copyright
challenge
A major challenge of instructors and others involved in developing and
offering courses at a distance is deciphering current US copyright laws.
Online educators must be informed about what external material they may
legally include in a distance education course and be cognizant of current
copyright laws.
In a traditional course, many faculty create course packs, a collection of journal articles and book chapters the students purchase at the bookstore. Someone at the university is responsible for obtaining permissions from publishers for using this material for educational purposes. In an online course, instructors may want to make these materials available to the students in a digital format. Do the same copyright and fair use guidelines apply to materials posted digitally?
Instructors also want to add other types of instructional media to an online course such as video, audio and images. Recognizing what materials may be used on the Internet without permission, and what requires copyright approval, is a challenge for distance educators.
© Copyright 2003 by Kathy Keairns