What is Distance Learning

Delta tests examine the importance of change in the product. While the alpha and beta tests are the traditional stages of product development, development does not stop with release of the product. If it does, the product soon becomes outmoded, and some of the investment is lost, as new designers re-invent the wheel. It's crucial to have learners and instructors continue to question and document the utility of the product as input to new or continuing developers. Capacity for passive collection and processing of ongoing feedback from learners and other stakeholders is therefore crucial. This essentially is the delta test-ongoing product implementation during which users indicate, through a variety of mechanisms, the importance of change in particular features (content, resources or functionality) or the value that would be added to the product by development of new features.

Rich, Systematic and Timely Data on Strategically Significant Questions

Formative evaluation often is interactive. This is an important strength and helps make the research cost-effective. The evaluation activities should be integrated with the results from one set of data collection activities influencing other phases. The specific questions asked by a specific developer about his or her products at any phase will vary depending on the goals and objectives of the product itself, the audience for which it is targeted, what has been tested previously and the findings related to this product, and the work on similar products or issues on which the evaluation is building. This does not mean that formative evaluation can be ad hoc. To the contrary, in order to be successful any formative evaluation is consciously planned and structured to provide cost-effective systematic information about:

• Product use - How the product is actually used
• Product function - How the product works in the contexts it is used
• Product content and learner outcomes-How use affects learners' skills development
• Product support - What support is necessary to use materials appropriately in different contexts
• Product concept - What findings from the above imply for future related products

Specifically, formative evaluation is concerned about how learners and other users needs are taken into account in product concept, navigation, look and feel, accessibility of instructional approach, product content and incorporated exercises/activities.

Any research plan has to specify the key research questions related to product development priorities, the data required to answer the questions, who should provide the information, how the information should be collected, how the data collected will be used to answer the questions, and both the sufficiency of the anticipated information for answering the question and strategy for making use of the information collected.

Whatever the specific questions, a good research design is concerned with whether the information is collected in such a way that:

• the respondent group is composed of the people best equipped to give information on the issue,
• the range of potential users provide the needed input on the range of issues identified,
• the information can be provided most readily and ethically,
• the data are objective and rich enough to answer the questions posed, and
• data analysis strategies are clear and can produce results in a timely fashion.

As a result of involving a representative group of users in addressing the research questions, formative evaluations should provide the data necessary to significantly, reliably and validly inform product development decisions, the understanding of the factors which affect materials functioning and success, the marketing the product to potential users, and decisions about future or further materials development.

Learners - Who should be represented and what does representative mean?

Potential learners can be diverse in many characteristics that profoundly affect learning objectives and abilities. The high stakes issue is how to identify the factors that affect differential success with the product so that the fewest number of respondents can provide the most useful information. The main strategy recommended for optimizing cost-effectiveness will be based on matrix-sampling techniques, utilizing techniques from television and radio marketing-audience segmentation.

The audience segment concept profiles learners in terms of factors that affect their experience of the product. These profiles (or series of factors) are termed 'target audience or user segments', and are subgroups of learners whose characteristics, background, experiences, and priority pressing concerns lead them to interact with instruction and instructional materials differently.

Another way of describing user segments, then, is as frameworks built from learner characteristics that have been identified by developers and evaluators to affect their interaction with the materials. These characteristics vary in terms of those which are more noticeable (and therefore more easily screened-i.e. determined directly from interaction with the learner or based on the learner's own knowledge) and those that are less noticeable (or less easily screened). Some learner characteristics, for example, may not come into play in other instructional settings, or the learner or instructor may not be systematically conscious that the characteristic exists. Keyboarding skills is an example of such a characteristic. A key feature of the audience segmentation strategy is to identify all the important characteristics and sample on the characteristics that are the most easily determined.

Conclusion

Product quality and effectiveness hinge on serving targeted stakeholders, especially the prospective learners appropriately. Formative evaluation is the method to involve them in the product development and testing. This aspect of product development should not be overlooked or given lip service attention.

Copyright and Fair Use

With the advent of the Internet and the digital age, teachers and administrators are forced to reexamine how copyright protections apply in a time where creative works are widely available in cyberspace and the technology to access such material improves nearly daily.  
Copyright applies only to creative works, meaning books, plays, movies, music — in short, any work where someone had to exercise their powers of creativity and imagination. The courts generally will extend copyright protections to any work where even a slender element of creativity was involved. 
 
U.S. copyright law defines the extent to which such works are the exclusive domain of the creator and whomever the creator shares the ownership with, for instance, a publisher. Copyright law says that the creators of certain literary and artistic works have the right to ensure that unauthorized people do not use their work for unauthorized purposes. The creators hold the copyright. They can give up their exclusive right to publishers or other authorized entities for a limited time or permanently.  
Intellectual property law evolves in response to technological change. Copyright law, in particular, responds to technological challenges for authors and copyright owners, from the printing press to digital audio recorders, and everything in between - photocopiers, radio, television, videocassette recorders, cable television and satellites. The use of computer technology - such as digitization - and communications technology - such as fiber optic cable - has had an enormous impact on the creation, reproduction and dissemination of copyrighted works.

Legislation and court rulings have held that people have a significant right to make use of exceptions within the copyright law to avoid lawsuits. Copyright law is a federal law, and so the law does not vary from state to state (although the interpretation of the law may be different in different courts.

Electronic instructional materials (clip art, video, audio, software, or graphics) should be examined carefully for copyright considerations. This applies to materials purchased for use and locally developed materials. Likewise, the copyright implications for use of printed material that draws from other written work should be carefully considered. Copyright owners have the full right to use their materials exclusively, subject to written agreements. In preparing instructional materials for electronic or distance learning use:

• Be aware of licensing arrangements when using secondary multimedia materials - materials taken from a second source like clip art or sound files.
• Be certain that model releases are obtained for any video or photos you take.
• Take precaution with text and supplemental materials.
• Obtain written permission to adapt the material, if text books or other source material is used.

Maintain a file with the releases, license arrangements, and copyright documentation. Likewise be certain to copyright any original intellectual property and courseware produced by your organization. Establish policies about the derivative use of the components. Place a copyright notice and symbol by the name of the copyright holder or the name of your work, state the year of the copyright, and include the phrase "All Rights Reserved."

Register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. To register a work, send the following three elements in the same envelope or package to the Register of Copyrights, Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559:

• A properly completed application form
• A non refundable filing fee for each application
• A non-returnable deposit of the work being registered. The deposit requirements vary in particular situations

This information changes and should be double checked. Likewise, pending federal telecommunications legislation will impact federal copyright law, especially regarding electronic media.

Copyrights

Copyright considerations require careful thought in the design and development of instructional materials. It is easy to add clip art, articles, diagrams, video clips, and photos in multi-media, videotaped, and on-line learning materials without considering the copyright implications. Purchasing a copyrighted product does not allow ownership of the material. For example when a videotape is purchased, it is still owned by the original creator. Widely distributed materials can face substantial scrutiny and potential litigation.

Copyright is a shorthand term describing a set of enforceable rights to prevent unauthorized persons from making a copy of a "work" for a period of time. The person entitled to exercise these rights may choose not to do so and donate the work to the public domain, thereby allowing all comers to freely copy. If a work is not donated to the public domain, during the period in which copyright is enforceable there are a number of circumstances in which persons may freely copy the work, the copyright notwithstanding.

The "fair use" privilege defines a set of circumstances in which copies may be freely made, as does the First Amendment. After a time, copyright expires and a work enters the public domain. Given the limited nature of the grant of rights that define copyright, is the classification of copyright as intellectual property simply a rhetorical exercise to assist publishers in their efforts to strengthen their monopoly rights?

The courts have derived three basic requirements for copyright protection originality, creativity and fixation.

The requirements of originality and creativity are derived from the statutory qualification that copyright protection extends only to "original works of authorship." To be original, a work merely must be one of independent creation - i.e., not copied from another. There is no requirement that the work be novel (as in patent law), unique or ingenious. While there must also be a modicum of creativity in the work, the level of creativity required is exceedingly low; "even a slight amount will suffice."

The final requirement for copyright protection is fixation in a tangible medium of expression. Protection attaches automatically to an eligible work of authorship the moment the work is sufficiently fixed. Congress provided considerable room for technological advances in the area of fixation by noting that the medium may be "now known or later developed."

Works Not Protected

Certain works of authorship are expressly excluded from protection under the Copyright Act, regardless of their originality, creativity and fixation. Copyright protection, for example, does not extend to any "idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied" in such work. Thus, although a magazine article on how to tune a car engine is protected by copyright, that protection extends only to the expression of the ideas, facts and procedures in the article, not the ideas, facts and procedures themselves, no matter how creative or original they may be. Anyone may "use" the ideas, facts and procedures in the article to tune an engine - or to write another article on the same subject. What may not be taken is the expression used by the original author to describe or explain those ideas, facts and procedures.

Copyright protection is not extended under the Copyright Act to works of the U.S. Government. A work of the U.S. Government may, therefore, be reproduced and distributed.

Term of Protection

Generally, a copyrighted work is protected for the length of the authors life plus another 50 years. In the case of joint works, copyright protection is granted for the length of the life of the last surviving joint author plus another 50 years. Works made for hire, as well as anonymous and pseudonymous works, are protected for a term of either 75 years from the year of first publication or 100 years from the year of creation, whichever is shorter. When the term of protection for a copyrighted work expires, the work is said to "fall into the public domain."

Exclusive Rights

The Copyright Act grants to the copyright owner of a work a bundle of exclusive rights:

• to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phono records
• to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work
• to distribute copies or phono records of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending
• in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly; and
• in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly

These rights, in most instances, have been well elaborated by Congress and the courts. For the most part, the provisions of the current copyright law can serve the needs of creators, owners, distributors and users of copyrighted works in the national information infrastructure environment.

Limitations of the Exclusive Rights

The exclusive rights of copyright owners are not without exception. The Copyright Act specifies certain violations of a copyright owner's exclusive rights that the copyright owner cannot prevent.

Fair Use

The most significant and, perhaps, murky of the limitations on a copyright owners exclusive rights is the doctrine of fair use.

Fair use is an affirmative defense to any action for copyright infringement. It is potentially available with respect to all unauthorized uses of works in all media. If it is proven, then the use may continue without any obligation on the user's part to seek the permission of the copyright owner, pay royalties, or the like. The doctrine of fair use is rooted in some 200 years of judicial decisions and is, in general, most likely to be found when a user incorporates some of a pre–existing work into a new work of authorship. It is thus widely accepted, for example, that quotation from a book or play by a reviewer, or the capturing of copyrighted music in a television news broadcast is fair use. As one moves away from such favored uses into the area of uses that are - for practical purposes - competitive with the copyright owners exploitation of the work, the ease of analysis shrinks (as the number of litigated cases grows).

Before examining the doctrine developed by the courts, it is useful to examine the statutory language concerning fair use. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phono records or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
• the nature of the copyrighted work
• the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

If your multimedia work serves traditional "fair use" purposes - criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research - the teacher has a better chance of falling within the bounds of fair use than if the work is a sold to the public for entertainment purposes and for commercial gain.

Online Resources

Library of Congress provides good information on copyright forms and up to date information on copyright law

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) intellectual property web page

Standards and Frameworks

Learning materials and systems cannot be separated from the courses and venues in which they will be used. Consequently, this discussion includes the materials development process into the instructional planning process. Although all materials to be developed are not designed for specific courses, materials designers are asked to engage in an overall curriculum planning process to help ensure focus and product compatibility. By following the preceding guidelines, it is more likely that the products will fit within a wide variety of learning frameworks.

Integration with Other Standards Frameworks

Several different adult basic education taxonomic frameworks provide useful guidance for describing the knowledge, skills and strategies to be acquired. These include those developed by CASAS, SCANS, EFF, and others, including state standards for basic education and English as a Second Language. No single framework covers all of the needs and skill sets of adult learners. However, most frameworks address similar dimensions of language, literacy, and learning. In our scheme, knowledge, skills and strategies are bundled into the following clusters:

1. Spoken and Written Information
2. Interpersonal Communication
3. Self-Expression and Reflection
4. How English Works
5. Team Work and Collaboration
6. Problem Solving and Decision Making
7. Accessing Resources and Navigating Systems
8. Numeracy
9. Dispositions
10. Technology

While there is significant overlap among existing frameworks, they nevertheless represent differing conceptions of language, literacy and learning.

Equipped for the Future focuses on what learners need to know and be able to do in their roles as family members, workers, and community members.

CASAS outlines basic competencies related to life skills areas such as communication, consumer economics, community resources, health, employment, government and law, computation, learning how to learn and independent living skills.

SCANS focuses many of its competencies on areas related to problem solving and decision-making, including the management of resources, information handling, interpersonal communication and technology. But SCANS also mentions basic skills, related to reading, writing and math, and includes thinking skills and personal qualities.

Concentration on Learner Strategies

A design framework is recommended that focuses on the learner strategies needed to (1) attain the skills outlined in the other frameworks, (2) negotiate the challenges of daily life, and (3) enjoy language, literacy and learning to the fullest. Teachers working within existing frameworks and course outlines should be able to use newly created multimedia materials to create courses, materials, and tasks that fit into their scheme.

There is no one right way to design or define a course. For more information on adult education standards and frameworks go to Cyberstep for a detailed discussion of creating adult learning materials within existing or emerging frameworks. Click on "Papers" and then on "The Cyberstep Course Development Framework."

Instructional Design References

A very good reference is The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology edited by Bob Hoffman, San Diego State University.

The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research's Project IDEAL is a consortium of states working to develop effective distance education programs for adult learners.