Education Department
Topic Selected:
What are some of the innovative tools that research says is suitable and works great for
distance education? Choose one or highlight several tools that works in distance
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: Distance education is one of the popular choices among the
student's community (Ramachandran, 2018). A big number of students are enrolling into
there is normally a separation between teacher and learner and thus one in which other
teleconferencing, for example—are used to bridge the physical gap (Keles & Ozel, 2016).
Development of technology has created a new avenue in distance education. It has been
one of the primary modes of education for people who were looking for flexibility in time
and place of education. it has existed in many forms such via post, radio, tv, videos,
internet. Web technologies have become the mainstream choice of technology for
communication between lecturers and students. It was 18th century when first distance
education was began called correspondence courses. ‘Caleb Phillips’ was looking for
some technical devices in 1900’s technology based distance education started (Holmberg,
2005). Therefore we can say that technological distance education has a history of a
century.
Learning management systems are known in the literature by several different names.
These include course management systems, virtual learning environments and e-learning
courseware (Kats, 2010). There are a lot of distance education and communication tools.
I will share some of the most widely used, popular and well known tools. These tools
give chances educators and students to create courses and give access only to those who
are involved courses. They give chances to upload and share materials easily, to have
online discussions and chat forms, to crate quiz and survey, to collect assignment and
review them and grade the works, etc. Many instructors upload their syllabus,
lecture notes, reading assignments, and articles for students to access whenever
they want. Forums give your students more time to generate their responses and
can lead to more thoughtful discussions. Chats, on the other hand, give you a way to
quickly and easily communicate with remote students. They can be used for project
discussions between groups of students or for last-minute questions the day before an
exam. Online quizzes can be graded instantaneously. They are a great tool for giving
students rapid feedback on their performance and for gauging their comprehension of
materials. Online assignment submissions are an easy way to track and grade student
assignments. An online grade book can give your students up-to-date information about
their performances in your course. Online grades can also help you comply with new
privacy rules that prohibit posting grades with personal identifiers in public places. (Cole
These are the some of the tools which are used for distance learning:
University, Indianapolis in 1996 and incorporated in 2000, first as Cyber Learning Labs,
and later as Angel Learning. Angel’s focus has been on how to enhance teaching and
learning in academia, with over 90% of its client base in schools, colleges and
Desire2learn: Desire2Learn (D2L) holds a unique place in the short history of learning
management systems. While D2L’s rapid growth during its first half decade has been the
business model that differs from that of other LMS vendors. While most companies offer
the LMS software as a product, with the options for self hosting or vendor hosting and
support, Pearson views itself as the provider of a total institutional solution for distance
ATutor: ATutor is a free and opensource course management system that has a simple
under the GNU General Public License. It was prepared such that it can be easily used in
any type of computer system and all operating systems. ATutor has been used in many
universities, institutions, research centers, and educational institutions ( Keles & Ozel,
2016)
Windows and Linux server systems. Claroline provides the ability to manage public
education activities on the web and to create effective online courses. There is a large
Moodle: Moodle is a web-based tool you can access through a web browser. This means
that in order to use Moodle, you need a computer with a web browser installed and an
Internet connection. You also need to have the web address (called a Uniform Resource
system that is widely known and freely available. The word Moodle stands for “Modular
and individuals. The list of the former is long, including universities, high and primary
special educators are among the individual users (Keles & Ozel, 2016).
Moodle has a lot of features such as Creating and managing content, managing class;
forums, chats and classes; quizzes, assignments, lessons, wikis, grades and scales, and
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 am a big supporter of distance education although there are some
disadvantages. We cannot compare advantages with disadvantages because difference is
huge on positive side. I have shared some tools about distance education and each one of
them has different importance, features and usage area. There is no way of being agree or
disagree about these tools because they all beneficial for human being. Currently I am
having my Master’s Degree online. We are using Moodle platform for the courses as
course management system. Moodle has almost every opportunity for both educators and
learners. Currently I am working in a primary school I do not have chance to use this
platform for students but as administrator I am planning to create a way for teachers to be
active in Moodle. Beside Master program I am taking some other online courses from
continue taking other distance education course. I do not have time and chance to attend
regular classes physically so that distance education is very important way for self-
development.
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:
http://www.angellearning.com
Cole, J., & Foster, H. (2007). Using Moddle (2nd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
Kats, Y. (2010). Learning management system technologies and software solutions for
Keles, M. K., & Ozel, S. A. (2016). A review of distance learning and learning
https://www.opensourcecms.com/claroline/
Report, 14(10).