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Editor's Note: This is the executive summary of a 54-page study published by the NEA in June 2000. It provides key data for planners and administrators in understanding the rapid shift to incorporate online learning into school and college programs. The complete version is available for viewing or printing at http://www.nea.org/he/abouthe/dlstudy.pdf

Abacus Associates

Commissioned by
The National Education Association

Executive Summary And Strategic Recommendations

Faculty teaching distance learning courses and faculty teaching traditional courses hold positive opinions about distance learning, primarily because distance learning courses offer educational opportunities to students who would not otherwise enroll in courses. While, faculty believe they will be hurt financially by distance learning, and financial considerations are very important to them, at the current time, their enthusiasm for offering an education to more students outweighs these concerns.

The picture of distance learning presented in this report is representative of distance learning as it is occurring at traditional public two-year and four-year colleges and universities with NEA members. These distance learning courses are taught by full-time faculty to relatively small classes of students using technologies that are highly interactive. The results presented here, including the positive ratings and high course completion rates, may not apply to distance learning courses at other types of institutions.

The Growth Of Distance Learning Courses

Currently, one in 10 higher education NEA members teaches a distance learning course. Furthermore, 90% of NEA members who teach traditional courses tell us that distance learning courses are offered or being considered at their institution. Because increasing numbers of colleges and universities — and more NEA members —are offering distance learning courses, NEA commissioned this study. The conclusions are intended to help NEA shape policies for distance learning courses so that students receive a good education and distance learning faculty receive fair treatment.

Distance Learning Faculty: What Do They Look Like?

Similarities between distance learning and traditional faculty

• Distance learning NEA members and NEA members who teach traditional courses have similar demographic profiles, largely because distance learning faculty spend most of their time teaching traditional courses.
• Distance learning NEA members resemble traditional faculty in that they are full time (89%), tenured (73 %), split evenly between full professors (35%) and lecturers and adjuncts (35%), hold masters' degrees (48%) rather than a Ph.D. (3 1 %).
  • These findings appear to dispel the notion that traditional faculty are being replaced by part-time distance learning faculty who offer one course, with the following caveat. Our survey only includes distance learning faculty who are NEA members. Part-time faculty who teach a single distance learning course would be less likely to be NEA members.
• Both distance learning and traditional faculty are most likely to teach at statewide institutions with multiple campuses (50%) rather than district (23%) or single campus institutions (25%).
• Distance learning courses are not concentrated in a few academic fields. Distance learning and traditional courses are similarly distributed across fields.

Differences between distance learning and traditional faculty

• Distance learning and traditional faculty differ somewhat in that distance learning faculty are more likely to teach at a community college (distance learning faculty = 68%, traditional faculty = 54%), and slightly less likely to be over the age of 55 (df = 25 %, tf=34%).

Distance Learning Technology: Communicating With Students

We see two basic types of distance learning courses: Web-based courses (44%) and those relying primarily on video technologies (54%)

DL is defined as courses with more than half of the instruction taking place when students and faculty are in different locations

• Forty percent (40%) of faculty teaching a Web-based course hold a very positive view, compared to only 25% of those whose distance learning course is not a Web-based course.
• Virtually all of the faculty teaching distance learning courses use an interactive technology to teach their courses.
  • Only 2% of faculty tell us that their distance learning course relies exclusively on one-way pre-recorded videos.
•   E-mail is the dominant means of communication employed by faculty and students outside of the normal instruction time.
  • Eighty-three percent (83%) of faculty teaching Web-based courses use e-mail to communicate with a typical student in their class once a week or more.
  • Almost half (42%) of faculty teaching courses that are not Web-based use e-mail to communicate with a typical student once a week or more.
• A significant proportion of distance learning faculty never see their students in a face-to-face setting.
  • Only 30% of Web-based faculty and 19% of faculty whose distance learningcourse is not Web-based see their students once a week or more.

DL courses with frequent faculty-student interaction are more successful

• Almost all distance learning faculty (96%) have some type of one-on-one interaction with their students — either through e-mail, telephone, chat rooms, threaded discussion groups, or a face-to-face meeting. Faculty teaching courses with more student interaction are also more likely than their counterparts with less student interaction to hold an overall more positive attitude toward their distance course. Faculty with frequent student interaction also give their distance learning course higher ratings on meeting the goals NEA has determined are essential to a quality education.

Developing The Course: Institutional Support, Faculty Rights, And Compensation

Faculty with technical support give their DL courses better ratings

• Three-fourths (76%) of distance learning faculty rate the technical support, library, and laboratory facilities for their course as excellent or good.
  • Technical support is significantly more important to overall feelings about distance learning than attributes related to the type of institution or the type of student in the course.
• The majority of distance learning faculty (70%) report that workshops and training sessions on teaching distance learning courses are available to them on a regular basis, and a similar majority of faculty have participated in a training session.
  • When policy regarding distance learning is included in the collective bargaining agreement, the institution is significantly more likely to offer distance learning training courses on a regular basis.
• In considering whether they are the content designer or the manager of information in their courses, 37% say the designer of content, 20% say the manager of information, and 41% say both.

Faculty spend more time on their DL course, with no course reduction and no additional compensation

• Over half (53%) of distance learning faculty spend more hours per week preparing and delivering their distance learning course than they do for a comparable traditional course, compared to only 22% who spend fewer hours.
  • Even those faculty who have taught their distance learning course eight times or more spend more hours (48%) rather than fewer hours (21%) on their distance learning course.
• In spite of spending more hours on their distance learning course, most (84%) of faculty get no course reduction, and 63% of distance learning faculty are compensated for their distance learning course as if it were part of their normal course load.
  • Seventy-three percent (73%) of Web-based distance learning faculty are compensated as part of their normal course load.

Distance Learning Students: What Do They Look Like?

Distance learning students at traditional, public higher education institutions do not fit the stereotype

• In contrast to stereotypes of distance learning students as older, part-time students, NTEA faculty teach as many younger students as older students and as many full-time students as part-time students. The largest percentage of courses (38%) have an equal mix of students over and under 25 years of age. The remainder are evenly divided between mostly under 25 years of age (27%) and above 25 years of age (27%).
• Since the largest percentage of NEA members teach in undergraduate institutions (78% of distance faculty, 70% of traditional faculty), we also find that distance learning courses are primarily undergraduate courses (82%) rather than graduate courses (16%), and most of the courses fulfill a requirement (70%) rather than being offered as an elective (20%).
• Two-thirds of faculty report that their distance learning course has a limit on the maximum number of students who can enroll. Faculty teaching courses with enrollment limits — regardless of whether the limit is high or low — hold more positive feelings about distance learning.
• Also in contrast with stereotypes, we find that the distance learning classes that NEA members teach are not large, most of the classes are entirely composed of students taking the course for credit and students are nearby.
• Two-thirds of distance learning faculty teach a course with 40 or fewer students. Only 6 respondents teach a course with over 200 students. Class size is not related to ratings of distance learning courses among courses with under 100 students. We cannot comment on what happens in very large courses.
• A majority of the distance learning faculty (56%) report that most of their distance learning students live within one hour of campus, and another third (32%) report that their distance learning students live mostly in the state but more than an hour's drive away. Only 4% of the distance learning faculty report that most of their distance learning students are from out of state.
• The largest percentage of faculty (63%) report that most distance learning students are enrolled on another campus of the same institution offering the course. Relatively few (19%) report that most students are enrolled at another institution.

The Potential And The Concerns: What Faculty Think About Distance Learning

Faculty hold positive opinions toward distance learning courses

• Among distance learning faculty, 72% hold positive feelings, compared to only 14% who hold negative feelings.
• Traditional faculty are somewhat less positive — 5I% hold positive feelings toward distance learning courses, compared to 22% who hold negative feelings. A significant proportion (28%) of traditional faculty remain undecided and are waiting to see the implications of these courses for students, their institution and themselves.
• Faculty who teach Web-based courses have more positive opinions about distance learning courses. Correlations that exist between faculty opinions about distance learning and most other factors are greatly reduced when we control for whether the course is a Web-based course or a course that is not dependent upon computer technology.

Regressions indicate that DL shortcomings are outweighed by the possibility of educating more students

• Faculty evaluate distance learning primarily on quality of education considerations and secondarily on more traditional union considerations. In particular, faculty believe that distance learning courses reach students who would not otherwise take a course and allow smaller institutions to offer a richer curriculum.
• Considering the list of 10 possible negative outcomes of distance learning, faculty tell us that three outcomes would concern them the most, if they did in fact occur. Two of these most important outcomes relate to traditional union concerns and faculty think they are very likely to occur:
  • Faculty will do more work for the same amount of pay;
  • Faculty will not be fairly compensated for their intellectual property.
• Faculty think the other most important possible outcome is unlikely to occur:
  • The quality of education would decline.
• At the current time, faculty believe they will be hurt financially by distance learning, and financial considerations are very important to them. However, the prospect of being able to offer an education to students who could not otherwise enroll in a course outweighs these concerns.
• Traditional and distance learning faculty rank the following concerns as not likely to occur, and somewhat less important to them, even if they do occur:
  • Fewer jobs;
  • Decline in the quality of faculty;
  • Less candidness in the classroom.

Web-based courses fare better against traditional courses than courses not based on the Web

• When we separate Web-based courses from not-Web-based courses, we find that faculty teaching Web-based courses give their distance learning courses a better rating than their traditional courses on meeting these five goals:
  • Giving the students access to information;
  • Providing students with high quality course material;
  • Helping students master the subject matter;
  • Assessing the educational effectiveness of the course;
  • Addressing the variety of student learning styles.
• Faculty teaching Web-based courses give their distance learning course the same rating as their traditional course on meeting the first two of the following goals and a worse rating on the last three goals:
  • Improving quantitative skills;
  • Developing student interactivity;
  • Strengthening students' group problem-solving skills;
  • Improving verbal skills;
  • Helping students deliver better oral presentations.