Moore mentioned “transactional distance” as a time and space distance between instructors and learners. Technology will be bridge for this distance, facilitating communication between them. At the same time, it can be helpful to create a learner-centered learning environment.
Internet, virtual environment, or multimedia learning materials help individuals to learn independently with their own time and space. In addition, discussion or collaboration tools support for group works in online learning environment.
For my experiences, I would like to emphasize instructors’ presence as e-moderators facilitating self- directed or self-regulated learning.
I would like to refer this from our course discussion.
The instructor’s ability of teacher presence through individual amounts of structure in online dialogue, design and organization “support purposeful interaction” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Beaudoin, 1990; Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; McCabe, 1997; French, Hale, Johnson * Farr, 1999).
From this perspective, the role of instructors becomes more important for online learning. To support this role, connecting with learners’ needs is the most important for Instructional design.
