RESEARCH PAPER TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in EDLE & CUIN
EDUC 5324: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO EDUCATION
Name:_____Jack Lee______________

Date: ____11/1/2015______________

Topic Selected:
What does the research say about advantages and disadvantages of distance
education?
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 has always been a controversial issue that people discuss
about in the recent decades. Many parents favor distance education due to its
convenience and flexibility while many educators seriously pointed out its
deficiency of social interaction.
In 19 century, farmers could take agriculture course from the University of
Wisconsin through the mail (Silverman, 2001, p. 2). Distance education had
definitely gotten much more attention than before with the popularity of internet.
People who have the access to the internet will be able to receive the same level
of education as others, at their desired time and location, which is one of the
reasons many families decided to undertake the distance education for their
children. Also, students will be able to take the courses according to their needs
and current level is another variable of choosing distance education. In a
traditional classroom, teacher may sometimes have trouble with differentiating
teaching. This issue can be completely solved with distance education.
However, nothing is perfect. Distance education definitely has its own flaws.
According to many studies done by educators, students who enrolled in distance

education program do not have the direct interaction with other students, which
may later cause the problem of social communication disability. In a traditional
classroom setting, students will also be encouraged to participate in many
school-wide activities such as science fair, after-school club, competition, or even
homecoming dance. With distance education, students most likely will not have
any of the events listed above.
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:
In my opinion, distance education is not applicable to everyone. Depends on
students personality, family background, and intellectual level, the result could be
a great success or a complete failure. If the parents are highly educated and
involved with students learning, distance education would be a good idea. In a
traditional classroom, everybody is learning at the same pace and same level,
even if the students are way ahead or behind the rest of class. In distance
education, students will be able to create a personal learning environment
according to their own pace. If students feel struggled about a certain topic, they
can spend extra time on it. If students feel comfortable with a certain chapter,
they can quickly move on to the next one. On the other side, if the teachers do
not have enough support to the children, lack of motivation could be a killer to
students learning. Students at younger age generally are not self-motivated
enough to finish the assignment based on themselves. Since distance education
do not have any face-to-face lesson, students will definitely need the support
from parents to keep them on the track of learning.
On our campus, I would think distance education is a disadvantage to my
students. Although many distance education program/school offer same level of
course as our school do, students will be missing out of many precious
experience that only traditional school has. For example, every year we have a
week of senior trip for the graduating class which includes college visit, Houston
Food Bank volunteering, clean up the beach, and sports tournament. None of the
distance education program will offer such activities to students.
I firmly believed that academic learning is only part of the education. There are
many other valuable lessons that students need to learn besides course
curriculums; social interaction, communication skills, teamwork spirits, respect,
etc. Before making the decision of entering distance education school, parents
and students should discuss this question thoroughly, Is this going to be the right

choice for me?

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:
Hansen, R. (n.d.). Distance Learning Pros and Cons | QuintCareers. Retrieved
November 1, 2015, from http://www.quintcareers.com/distance-learning-pros-cons/
Hong-Cheng Liu1, h., & Jih-Rong, Y. (2014). Effects of Distance Learning on
Learning Effectiveness. Eurasia Journal Of Mathematics, Science & Technology
Education, 10(6), 575-580. doi:10.12973/eurasia.2014.1218a
Merisotis, J. P., & Phipps, R. A. (1999). What's the difference? Outcomes of distance
vs. traditional classroom-based learning. Change, 31(3), 12-17.
doi:10.1080/00091389909602685
Pukkaew, C. (2013). Assessment of the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Distance
Learning through the VClass e-Education Platform. International Review Of
Research In Open And Distance Learning, 14(4), 255-276.
Silverman, F. (2001). THE PROS & CONS OF DISTANCE LEARNING. District
Administration, 37(12), 29.