RESEARCH PAPER 2

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in EDLE & CUIN
EDUC 5324: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO EDUCATION

Name:___Ayse Z.__________ Date: 10/15/18

Topic Selected:
What does the research say about advantages and disadvantages of distance education?

1. LITERATURE REVIEW:
What does the literature/research say about this issue/topic? By using NAU Library or Online Search engines,
conduct a literature review.
 You need to include 5 different sources (book, journal article, web article etc.) in your review. Try to use
current sources as much as possible.
 You need to summarize and synthesize your sources by discussing a common theme or issue.
 You don't need to critique your sources
 You don't need to evaluate your sources (if the sources are trustworthy, weather the author has a bias
or not)
 You need to provide background information such as history and definitions

Brief Literature Review:

As Internet has been existed and widely used it has stimulated an Educational Renaissance without doubt (Jones,1997).
Moreover, increasing number of students requiring higher education institutions to build and more qualified educators
has graduate degree in any field. Not only in developed countries, but also in under developed countries that have
economic, social and political problems the young generation’s being aware of the importance of higher education
resulted in an increasing need of more college degrees available to satisfy this demand. Today, distance education offers
varieties of courses that cover nearly every area of study offered by on-campus programs (Walsh 1995).

In the same research the participants also indicated the disadvantages as weekends are spent to complete the works
assigned instead of for some other social activities and family times, limited time that course lecturer can provide on
Saturdays due to their fully packed schedule, failure of the institute to solve distance learners’ problems, inadequate
time for distance education participants in terms library usage on Saturdays.
According to another study that aims to measure the effectiveness of distance education in the fields that require lab
experiments to investigate the concept being taught such as engineering, any science discipline and medical related
programs, experiments that students conduct in real laboratories tend to stimulate curiosity and intensify all types of
learning skills. While virtual experiments’ simulations contribute significantly to distance education, they can never
replace the need that students are able to construct their own knowledge and set theory and practice to a real test. (1999,
Alhalabi, B.Hamza, M. Hsu, S.)
2. REFLECTION:
 What is your personal opinion on this issue? Do you agree with the research? If you agree or disagree,
please explain why?
 Provide examples/experiences regarding this issue from school perspective or If you are not working
in a school, from your profession. Be specific with your examples. You can mention software/hardware
names, specific methods that you plan to use, etc.
 How would you implement this research in your career? (At least 1 paragraph)

Reflection:

I agree that internet has led us to growing globalization in any field that includes education. The major benefit of

distance education is to provide almost anyone to be part of high ranking programs or distinguished instructors from

any country in the world. Participants are able study at their own pace as being able to take care of their other

commitments. However, the quality of the knowledge gained through distance education may not reach the same level

of the one via on site education which provides immediate interaction with the instructor and classmates through hands

on activities.

As a physics teacher, I clearly see the importance of giving immediate feedback to the students or observing their

reactions to the lecture and demonstrations.

Students are able to face many different scenarios and conditions in a real time class and are able to improve their

critical thinking skills.

I would still encourage people who would not be able to participate an onsite education due to lack of time, financial

support or family status to register distance learning. Because students are still in an actively learning process due to

number of assignments to take care. There is a constant reading an research opportunities in distance learning.

I would also be in search of improving virtual experiments and how well this would be adapted to the information and

technology era .

3. REFERENCES:
 Cite at least 5 References in APA.
  You may use http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-journal for citing your sources in APA style.

References: 1) Alhalabi, Bassem; Hamza, M. Khalid; Hsu, Sam; Anandapuram, Sudeep (1999) Virtual

Education: Reality or Virtuality? Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED432293.pdf

2) Magagula, C. M.; Ngwenya, A. P.(2004) A Comparative Analysis of the Academic

Performance of Distance and On-Campus Learners. TOJDE v5 n4 Oct. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED494548

3) Lennex, Lesia C.( 1999) .Distance Education for Newbies. Retrieved from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=202b119b-66e4-43e1-8dc3-

2d87584b2e96%40sessionmgr4010&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=ED427964&db=eric