A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Competence Without Credentials: The Promise and Potential Problems of Computer-Based Distance Education

Stephen R. Barley
Center for Work, Technology, and Organization
Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
Stanford University

Over the last decade, institutions of higher education, state and federal agencies, corporations, and the public at large have become increasingly interested in "distance" or "distributed" learning. Although there is considerable debate about what these terms mean, especially among proponents of different educational philosophies and technologies, almost everyone who is party to the debate agrees on the motivating premise. Whereas education has traditionally meant bringing students to sources of knowledge, the time has come to bring sources of knowledge to students.¹

Historians of education will quickly note that attempts to deliver education outside the walls of a classroom are not new. The extension divisions established by American agricultural colleges after the Agricultural Extension Act of 1914 were nothing less than a massive attempt to bring the fruits of modern agricultural science to farmers in their fields and communities. Numerous trade and technical schools have long offered credentials through correspondence courses. Educators viewed television, almost from its inception, as a means of educating students who need not set foot in the classroom. Since the 1960s, numerous colleges and universities have experimented with televised education, and some have had considerable success with television as a delivery medium. Stanford's Instructional Television Network (SITN), which has broadcast courses to people employed by firms inside and outside the Silicon Valley for almost two decades, and Britain's Open University, which was founded specifically to provide degrees at a distance, are notable examples. But even though the idea of distance education may not be new, the perception is widespread that it is only now entering an era of its own. The renewed promise of distance education rests on a confluence of economic and technological developments that are setting the context for the 21st century.

Why Is Distance Education Attractive?

Of central importance is the changing nature of work in the Western nations and Japan. Blue collar and clerical work in all industrial societies have declined significantly since the 1950s, while managerial, service, professional and technical work have steadily grown. At the beginning of the 20th century, 83 percent of all Americans held jobs that involved working with things (e.g., farmers, operators, laborers, or craftspeople). By the year 2000, this percentage will have been halved (41percent). Conversely, the percentage of Americans whose jobs involve working with people or information (e.g., salespeople, managers, administrators, professionals, and technical workers) has expanded from 17 percent in 1900 to 59 percent today. The professional and technical workforce became the largest occupational sector in the United States in 1991 (Barley 1996a). In short, intellectual capital and knowledge work are rapidly replacing physical capital and production work as the source of economic prosperity (Stewart 1997). We seem to be witnessing the coming to pass of Bell's (1973) post-industrial economy.

The shift to knowledge and technical work has important implications for the role of education in society. To the degree that intellectual capital becomes pivotal to the economy, people will increasingly require higher levels of education if they are to be meaningfully, if not gainfully, employed. Because technical knowledge changes so rapidly, as work becomes more technical the need for continual training and retraining will escalate. In such a world, traditional models of education that require an extended "time-out" from productive activity will prove increasingly unreasonable and expensive, especially for adult learners with families. In this new world of work, the economies that flourish will likely be those in which easily accessible education and lifelong learning also flourish.

Fundamental changes in the nature of work are not, however, the only developments driving experimentation with distance learning. The globalization of markets, coupled with the trend toward less hierarchical, more geographically distributed organizations, make it less feasible for firms to rely on the kind of centralized classroom training that has long been the stock and trade of corporate training and development. Furthermore, because technical practices change so quickly and because so much technical knowledge is contextual in nature, most schools and universities are poorly equipped to provide the kind of training and experience that a technical workforce needs to remain up to date. Indeed, technical workers routinely acknowledge that on the job they use very little of what they learned in school (Barley 1996b). A growing number of firms have therefore come to view distance education as a way of meeting the workforce's need for up-to-date information and continuing education. Distance education promises firms the option of providing training on an "as needed" basis to individuals on a wide range of topics, many of which could not be justified as part of a school's curriculum.

Ultimately, however, technological change may be the strongest reason for renewed interest in distance learning, for even though economic changes may have exacerbated the need for continual education, new technologies have created the opportunity and the means for addressing the need. Earlier approaches to distributed education constrained delivery in significant ways. Extension operations required the co-presence of teacher and student as well as a classroom in a remote location where students could assemble. Televised instruction eliminated the need for co-presence, but introduced problems of asynchrony. Students in televised courses were often unable to ask questions of teachers during the course of a lesson, if at all. Except in expensive, specially equipped facilities that enabled live, two-way broadcasts, distance learning via television was largely a passive activity.

The dramatic emergence of the Internet and, more recently, the World Wide Web, have suddenly created, at least in principle, a way of transcending many of the problems associated with earlier forms of distance education. Web technologies are capable of delivering text, data, images, audio, and video in an integrated and coordinated manner. Moreover, "chat" rooms that allow nearly synchronous e-mail exchanges, electronic whiteboards that allow people to co-produce drawings at a distance, and fledgling imaging technologies that bring two-way, live video to a computer screen (such as CUseeme and Placeware's Auditorium) open the possibility of real-time exchanges, not only between students and teachers who are separated in space but among students who are themselves distributed. Finally, because computers are prevalent in the workplace, computer-based training (CBT) and Web-based training (WBT) can provide multiple users with access to training materials and to each other without anyone leaving their desks.

Proliferating Experimentation

The combined force of economic pressure and technological opportunity has encouraged schools and firms to experiment with Web-based distance education. The rapidity of the response is staggering. Easy access to the Internet has been available for less than a decade, and the advent of the World Wide Web is even more recent. Yet, numerous institutions of higher education have already targeted the market for distance education. In 1995, the governors of Colorado, Utah, and several other Western states established the Western Governors' University (WGU) with the purpose of exploiting information technologies to deliver higher education to students distributed over time and space (Epper 1996; www.westgov.org). Green (1997) reports that the University of Phoenix, which relies heavily on distance education of all forms, has become the second largest private university in the United States enrolling more than 31,000 students. The New School for Social Research in New York City now offers bachelor's degrees through its Distance Instruction for Adult Learning program (DIAL). Students can register for and take DIAL courses over the Internet, through many of the courses still require students to purchase books and other materials (www.dialnsa.edu/d_dial/d.htm). The Mind-Extension University also offers degrees via the Internet.

Although most schools offering degrees on the Web are not household names, many better known universities are also experimenting with computer-and Web-based instruction, at least on campus. Stanford's Engineering School has been particularly active in distance education. Stanford recently hired a cadre of technically trained curriculum support staff and assigned them to departments to work with faculty in developing courses for the Web. Approximately a quarter of all institutions of higher education responding to the 1996 National Survey of Information Technology in Higher Education reported that similar goals were of significant priority (Campus Computing Report 1996).

Firms and government agencies are also moving into distance education. A number of corporations, faced with the increasing need for continual training, a distributed workforce, and the promise of significant cost saving, have established distance learning programs. Some, such as Motorola and Sun, believe that training offers such a crucial competitive advantage that they have established their own "universities" for their employees. Within the federal government, the Department of Energy has been active in developing Web-based training, especially around issues of safety and the handling of hazardous materials.

Corporations with technical expertise have also begun to contract with their customers to provide them with distance-based training. IBM's Global Campus and the Lotus Institute, for example, not only offer distance learning software but assist in skills assessment, curriculum design, and certification (http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/, http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/institute). In 1996, the Department of Defense awarded Sprint a $50 million contract to develop a Tele-Video Training Network for the Army Training and Doctrine Command (press release, www.sprint.com). Netware Users International, an association of Novell networking professionals, currently offers training in network technology via the internet through CyberState University (Business Wire 1997). Through online courses, technicians can become Certified Novell Engineers, Certified Novell Administrators, and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. Ziff-Davis, a publisher of well-known computer magazines such as PC Magazine and Windows Magazine, caters to individual distance learners. Ziff-Davis runs the Internet-based ZDNet University which specializes in Web-based instruction in programming languages and software applications (www.zdu.com). For $4.95 per month, students can take as many ZDNet courses as they want.

Finally, the advent of the Web and the increased need for training have spawned considerable entrepreneurial activity. The last several years have witnessed the founding of firms dedicated to developing software and hardware for supporting distance education, to building specific training modules, or to providing consulting assistance to firms that want to mount their own distance education programs.

Unanswered Questions

Although computer-based training and distance education hold considerable social and economic promise, it is important to recognize that the promise rests largely on high hopes for a fledgling set of technologies. As with most new technologies, the realities of implementing Web-based education are likely to be different than the proponents rhetoric implies. We know from studies of other technologies, such as word processing and computer-aided design, that anticipated benefits may be less easily achieved than originally thought (Sproul and Keisler 1991; Salzman 1992). Embedded practices and unanticipated side effects often slow technology diffusion, counteract intended consequences, and lead to undesirable secondary outcomes (Barley 1988). For instance, although firms claim that "intranets" will create efficiencies and change the way they do business, research currently being conducted by Francois Barr (Department of Communications) and Neil Kane (Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management) at Stanford suggests that most firms that have constructed intranets are actually doing very little of significance with the technology.

Even if Web-based technologies do occasion a fundamental restructuring of the way education is delivered, doing so will, by definition, alter embedded institutional arrangements and cultural practices. If the goal is to provide greater access to knowledge and opportunity and if one believes that distributed education is key to achieving this goal, then failing to take institutional, demographic, and cultural issues into account may thwart the larger objective. At present, important practical, social, and institutional questions remain unanswered, in part, because of the speed at which Web-based technologies have been so enthusiastically embraced. Because the technologies driving the development are so new, researchers have yet to study their use, and users have not had sufficient time to accumulate the wisdom of experience. Among the questions that need to be answered if we are to go beyond the rhetoric and realistically assess the future of distance education are the following:

• How prevalent are the new forms of distance education? We know that a number of highly visible schools and corporations are experimenting with computer and Web-based education, but we do not know how representative they may be. It would be useful to know the characteristics that distinguish corporations and schools that offer distance curricula from those that do not would be useful. We also do not know how many students or employees are actually taking advantage of opportunities for distance education and we know even less about the attributes of those students. Without such information we can not determine whether distance education is reaching those who might not otherwise have access to knowledge or simply reaching those who already take advantage of most other educational opportunities.

• Are there practical and cultural barriers to distance learning? Although many schools want to move into distance education, as Green (1997) has noted, most universities simply do not have the technological infrastructure, the financial wherewithal, or the technical talent to allow them do so in a concerted way. Similarly, even though a growing percentage of households have access to computers, access is highly stratified by socioeconomic class. Access may be similarly stratified among business organizations: larger, wealthier firms may be able to provide access to distributed education while smaller, less profitable firms may not. What are the implications of such stratification for the goals of distance education and how do we overcome these barriers?

• What are the firms and schools that are experimenting with distance education actually doing, and what are they learning about using Web-based technologies? Although firms and schools regularly report their general involvement with distance-education, there is little specific and systematic information about what any organization has actually done. More importantly, little is known about what firms have discovered about the limitations and opportunities of Web-based courses. Surfacing such data is critical for accurately assessing the potential of distance-based education and for fostering a community of practice around development.

• How can we characterize the content of courses currently taught via Web-based education? Due to the nature of the medium, we need to know which subjects are most amenable to Web-based education. Some limitations are likely to be technological. For instance, even though Web-based education can be a multimedia affair, technical and economic realities (such as bandwidth and cabling) are likely to pose constraints on implementation. Other limitations may be social. If early developers are technical people, then all else being equal, their courseware should highlight technical information. Finally, some limitations may be inherent in the medium itself. For example, technical skills are often difficult to learn except by doing, and some even require face-to-face interaction with more accomplished members of a community of practice (Orr 1997). It is difficult to comprehend how the Web could simulate such learning.

• How does the context of distance learning differ from the context of more traditional forms of learning? All teaching and learning takes place in a context. We know that the context of learning is crucial for educational outcomes. However, aside from pronouncements that learners need no longer travel to classrooms and that they can learn at their own pace, we know next to nothing about the context in which distance-based learning occurs. What sort of background knowledge do students need in order to locate appropriate courses and providers? When students take courses at their desk or at home, how does the immediate environment affect the learning process? How do the temporal structures of distance learning differ from the temporal structures of classroom learning, and do the differences matter? Unless we understand the context of distance learning, we are unlikely to understand how the technologies can be optimally used.

• How do employers assess competency with distance-based education? Historically, schools have provided credentials and certifications. Students who pass through a curriculum are exposed to specific content (sometimes in a specified sequence), and their performance is assessed via grades and attested to with diplomas. Schools and departments within schools are examined by external accrediting agencies that certify quality. Furthermore, schools vary in their reputation for faculty and students, thereby providing additional information that allows employers to assess the adequacy of a student's preparation. No such institutions currently exist to attest to the quality of instruction or learning via distance education programs. In the absence of schools, credentials, and accrediting bodies, how will employers and other organizations assess the value of their employees' education and determine whether they have mastered the skills and knowledge they purport to have learned? How will employers compare knowledge, skills and degrees acquired via the Web with the same training acquired in more traditional educational settings?

• How will students assess the relative utility of different training opportunities? Credentials, accreditation, and reputations also provide students with a means of distinguishing between different providers of education. In the absence of such signaling devices, students may have difficulty assessing the relative utility and quality of alternative educational experiences before spending their money. To the degree that firms rely on distance courses developed and supplied by vendors, they are likely to suffer similar confusion.

• What are the implications of the blurring of institutional boundaries? Although firms have always offered training, most has been "hands-on," or else focused on managerial skills such as leadership and team building. Schools have historically served as the provider of general education and structured forms of training. As firms move into the business of education and offer types of courses more traditionally found in schools, the boundaries between the two kinds of institutions may blur. What can we expect if firms and schools, in essence, begin to compete for students?

1. In general, distance learning refers to the delivery of a curriculum to students who are not present on campus, while distributed learning is most often used to connote ways of facilitating interaction among those distant students. For the sake of simplicity, I shall use only the term "distance learning" because it is the broader of the two terms: distributed learning can be understood as a type of distance learning.

References

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[Introduction]

[Are Employers' Recruitment Strategies Changing: Competence Over Credentials?]