Thursday, June 15, 2000

N.E.A. Members Express Optimism About Distance Education By SARAH CARR A survey of college faculty members who belong to the nation's largest teachers' union has found that they are enthusiastic about the experience and benefits of teaching distance-education courses, although they see a few perils on the horizon. The survey, which was released Wednesday, found that faculty members worried about the amount of time it takes to prepare and teach a distance-education course. Respondents also predicted that faculty members would have to do more work for the same amount of pay as a result of the proliferation of distance education. "The zest for distance learning is tinged with some apprehension for the future," said Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, which conducted the study. "They are worried that the preparation takes more time, their workloads will increase, but salaries will remain the same." The association conducted the telephone survey of its members who work in higher education in February and March. The union -- which has 85,000 members in higher education -- said it tried to contact all of its higher-education members for whom it had telephone numbers. But the survey reached only a small fraction of that group: The survey included responses from 402 faculty members who had taught distance-learning courses and 130 who had not. Attitudes toward distance education were more favorable among those who had taught distance-learning courses than among those who had not. Of those who have taught at a distance, 72 percent said they were positive about the courses, compared with 51 percent of faculty members who had not taught distance classes. The report, titled "A Survey of Traditional and Distance Learning Higher Education Members," is the third in a series the N.E.A. has started in order to gauge national trends and attitudes related to distance learning. Faculty members at a range of U.S. institutions, including community colleges and universities, were interviewed. Mr. Chase said the results indicated that faculty members were less divided over the issue of distance learning than some onlookers believe. "For those who continue to divide higher education into two camps, modernizers and Luddites, the poll will probably be a surprise," he said. Mr. Chase added that the faculty tenor was upbeat overall -- and particularly so among those instructors who have taught Web-based courses. The faculty members were also asked how they communicate with students in distance courses and about the characteristics of the students they teach. Janet Grensky, the coordinator of the poll, said she was surprised that distance-education instructors had reported that just as many of the students were under the age of 25 as were over 25. "I think there is a myth out there that distance learning is just for older students or for part-time students," she said. The results also indicate that the overwhelming majority of students taking distance-education courses live in the same state as their instructor and college despite the conception that many instructors reach a national -- or even international -- audience of students. The report can be downloaded from the Web at http://www.nea.org/nr/nr000614.html Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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