Distance Education is About Change

This report documents through survey, interview, literature review, and analysis, the use or non-use of pedagogical / andragogical principles, theory, and distance education best practices in courseware developed by instructional designers, content developers, and other educational technologists primarily at the corporate education level. Interviews yielded a consistent qualitative narrative describing education initiatives such as e-Learning courseware development and virtual training largely inhibited by corporate policy and financial decisions. Further, quantitative data reveals an educated training staff with the majority having less than three years’ experience in the field with some missing key skills to develop online courseware. This report concludes by suggesting technology has far outpaced education practice and theory and offers two simple suggestions addressed to e-Learning industry stakeholders to fill the instructional design void seen in e-Learning courseware: (1) Secure the technical skills needed to develop state-of-the-art courseware, and (2) recognize the next generation of education technologists are moving through institutions of higher education across the U.S