Faculty Attitudes Towards Distance Education: Enhancing the Support and Rewards System for Innovative Integration of Technology Within Coursework.

Overview & Synopsis

Distance education is an area of rapid growth at the university level, especially within the colleges, schools and departments of education (National Center for Education Statistics, 1999; United States Distance Learning Association, 2000). However, there are some faculty who are not jumping on the bandwagon and are taking a more conservative route towards considering the impact of distance education within their courses attitudes towards distance education: early innovators; hangers-on (late adopters); and, negative withholders (resistors) (Robinson, 1996). Each of these groups has concern not only for their students and the appropriate learning environment for their subject matter expertise, but also a concern towards the university rewards system. This paper discusses data from a research study on faculty attitudes toward distance education. Discussion includes: the rewards system; faculty motivation and distance education; ways distance education can be delivered; authentic participation; and future trends. (Contains 9 references.) (Author/AEF)