Thammasat University students interested in education, sociology, media and communication studies, artificial intelligence, technology, and related subjects may find a new book useful.
Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education is an Open Access book available for free download at this link.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes several books about different aspects of online learning and distance education.
The editors of Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education note that many different terms are used for remote or distance learning: open learning, e-learning, flexible learning, hybrid learning, blended learning, web-based learning, online learning, mobile learning, and technology-enhanced learning.
They chose to title their research Open, Distance, and Digital Education to combine open and distance education to clearly mark the historical origin of recent online education, and digital education to capture newer manifestations of teaching and learning with digital media in the process of digital transformation of educational institutions. We conceptualize ODDE as an overarching term to refer to all kinds of learning and teaching processes in which knowledge and skill base of educational technology, digital media, and tools are used to present and deliver content, as well as facilitate and support communication, interaction, collaboration, assessment, and evaluation. Thus, ODDE is not monolithic in form. It includes various practices, from technology-enhanced education, to flipped learning and blended learning to fully online education.
The publisher’s description of the book follows:
This open access handbook offers a one-stop-shop for both new and established researchers, educators, policy makers and administrators in the field of open, distance and digital education (ODDE) to gain a comprehensive overview of the history, theory and practice at all levels of ODDE, and at the same time stimulates in-depth discussions on various themes and issues of ODDE for today and future. Researchers, scholars and students in the field of ODDE can use this handbook as a major reference to conduct their own research and learning agendas.
The introduction by the editors explains:
Planning for the publication of this Handbook of Open, Distance, and Digital Education (ODDE) began in the early months of 2020. Who would have predicted what has happened in the meantime due to the global Covid-19 pandemic? Suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly, online learning and teaching has now entered the mainstream of education at the same time as many educational institutions from K-12, higher education, professional and vocational training, and continuing education were forced into the digital world of online teaching and learning without being well prepared for it. In such “emergency remote teaching” situations, teachers had often transferred what they knew from face-to-face teaching directly to the online environment as if there were no differences between them even though ERT had little in common with carefully designed ODDE. However, ODDE is by no means a new phenomenon. It has evolved through several historical stages, from correspondence or distance education traced back to the nineteenth century with the introduction of the postal system to the use of print, radio, and TV, to the use of teleconferencing, computers, and multimedia, and up to the most recent development in online learning, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Over the past decades, ODDE, especially online learning, has been seen as a main or alternative mode of delivery to widen access to education, provide flexibility and openness in school education, satisfy continuing educational needs of adults, expand the trained workforce, train teachers to improve the quality of schooling, and/or increase cross-border traffic in education. It has also been considered as an innovation to bring about pedagogical changes in various levels and sectors of education. In a similar vein, digital education, an approach to the use of digital tools and technologies in the process of teaching and learning, has been introduced at all levels of education. Educational institutions now offer digital learning opportunities of some kind that are flexible in terms of time and space to reach new target groups (e. g., international students or working adults) or to better serve the needs of their conventional student body in a blended or technology-enhanced format. With the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s, online teaching and learning, as a form of open and distance education, became more widely accepted in education as Alan Tait, the former Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the Open University UK, wrote around 23 years ago: “The secret garden of open and distance learning has become public, and many institutions are moving from single conventional mode activity to dual-mode activity, that is to say offering a range of modes of study from the full-/part-time and conventional/distance spectrum” .
Moreover, since the beginning of the new Millennium, the range of international online degree programs has expanded greatly. An impressive example is Australia, where international online programs generate the highest export income in the service sector on the international, particularly Asian, market. Despite concerns of education being treated as a commodity, open and distance education combined with digital education has contributed to the growth of borderless, transnational education.
As Jung stated, ODDE is complex in nature and scope as it involves a wide range of nontraditional ways of teaching and learning that are mediated by various media and technologies. As ODDE developed, various theories and models have emerged to understand and explain its different aspects and practices, and many empirical studies have been conducted in a wide range of contexts. Against this historical background, it is critical that we learn from the theory, research, and practice in open and distance learning to avoid reinventing the wheel for digital and online education. We, therefore, hope that this Handbook of ODDE arrives at the right time. Considering changes of educational trajectories, it aims to provide a comprehensive and solid overview of the field for educators, researchers, policymakers, and administrators in such sectors as k-12 education, higher education, adult education, and workplace training. We hope that the handbook will offer a one-stop-shop for both early-career and established researchers, educators, policymakers, and administrators in the field of ODDE to gain a comprehensive overview of the history, theory, and practice at all levels of ODDE, and at the same time stimulate in-depth discussions on various themes and issues of ODDE for today and the future. We hope that, over time, the handbook will lead ODDE researchers to develop meaningful questions and undertake investigations to answer them, while at the same time informing practitioners and policymakers of best practices and future directions of ODDE. Researchers, scholars, and students in the field of ODDE can use this handbook as a major reference and source of inspiration in their research and course of study. Our ambition is to describe and define the structure of ODDE that will shape the gestalt of ODDE as an academic discipline and field of educational practice.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)