RESEARCH PAPER TEMPLATE

North American University

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

Name: Ersin Coskun Date: 15/06/2022

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

1. LITERATURE REVIEW: (250 Words)

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, whether the
author has a bias or not)
• You need to provide background information such as history and definitions

Literature Review:

Distance education is referred to as the form of instruction in which the learners and tutors

do not come together in a physical classroom. (Keegan, 1980). With the advancements in the

fields of technology and internet access institutions started to offer more distance education

programs. Finally, the current Covid-19 pandemic pushed many K-12 educational institutions to

start offering educational services remotely since schools are closed by governments of the

countries. Trends show that the demand for distance education programs will increase due to

advantages of the distance education programs.

One of the advantages of distance education is that it does not require learners to live in a

certain place. (Fedynich, 2013). Because learners can follow and complete the necessary tasks of

a program from their homes it is convenient for them to join a program offered as a distance
education program. This also provides a cost-effective study to the learners since they will

eliminate the cost of living at a different place rather than their family environment. Distance

learning is also a cost-effective way of delivering programs for the institutions since it does not

require the existence of physical facilities. (Sagheb-Tehrani, 2011)

The other advantage of distance learning is that it is independent of time boundaries.

(Sivrikaya, 2019). Because students do not need to attend during the day time or within

designated periods they can set their timetables to study and can handle other personal duties or

even they can work in a job while they are studying. They can also set their pace of learning and

revise the materials number of times as they need. (Bagriacik Yilmaz, 2019). While this is

assuring better learning experience for some learners who find a face to face learning is fast er

than their need, it also helps the other to complete the program in a shorter time compared to a

fixed duration of regular face to face learning.

Besides having advantages the are some drawbacks of distance learning. One of the biggest

disadvantages of distance education is the lack of face to face interaction with the tutor. (Sagheb-

Tehrani, 2011). This is a negative side of distance learning especially for the subjects or programs

that require practical applications or laboratory experiments. Although it is possible to

compensate for the lack of these physical facilities via online simulations, some applications still

need physical applications.

Researchers also emphasized the negative concerns about quality learning in distance

education programs. (Afolabi, 2019). Because the tutor and institutions are far from the learners

and they are not able to guarantee the authenticity of the works done by the learners, some people

find the quality of distance learning lower compared to face to face learning.

2. REFLECTION: (250 Words)

• 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:
The developments in the technology field enabled institutions to offer more distance

education programs. I agree with the advantages of the distance education listed in the previous

researches. The challenges that we faced during the current pandemic have shown that it is is a

necessity to have distance learning programs also at the K-12 level. The advantages like being

independent of time and venue enabled schools to offer educational services during the closure of

schools. Students were not able to go to schools and we as teachers used different platforms to

reach our students. It also provides opportunities to students from different parts of the globe to

join programs at the universities located far from them. This also provides cost-effective studies to

the students, especially from financially struggling backgrounds. Being able set the pace of the

program according to student’s needs and revise the materials again and gain is also another

advantage of distance learning.

Researchers identified the lack of face to face interaction as the main negative side of

distance learning which I also agree with. Especially at the lower classes of the K-12 education,

the physical interaction between students and teacher as well as among a students is an important

factor which contributes the students output positively. This is a major drawback of distance

education especially at the K-12 level and it needs to be addressed to minimize the negative

effects. The other disadvantage of distance learning is listed as the negative concerns on the

quality of the learning. This can be easily overcome by planning the courses and assignments in a

way that focuses mainly on the personal reflections and connection rather than the presenting of

pure knowledge. This way of planning will push students to understand the course materials to

reflect on them.
 The current situation shows that we will continue to teach some more time remotely before

we can continue teaching in school buildings. It has also shown that having a kind of distance

learning arrangement parallel to physical learning is a necessity to utilize time and teachers'

efforts in a better way. This research will help me with the factors that I need to focus on while I

am setting my distance learning courses and the whole program as the school.

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:

Afolabi, F. (2019). Quality assurance in distance learning teacher preparation institute in Nigeria.

Asian Journal of Distance Education, 14(2), 114–123.

Bagriacik Yilmaz, A. (2019). Distance and face-to-face students’ perceptions towards distance

education: A comparative metaphorical study. Turkish Online Journal of Distance

Education, 20(1), 191–207.

Fedynich, L. V. (2013). Teaching beyond the classroom walls: The pros and cons of

cyberlearning. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 13.

Keegan, D. J. (1980). On defining distance education. Distance Education, 1(1), 13-36, doi:

10.1080/0158791800010102