Learning Outcomes across Instructional Delivery Modes

A discussion of distance learning usually entails a wide range of instructional and learning activities, instructional delivery modalities, and learner interactions characterized by some distance between the teacher and the learner, and mediated by a variety of technological tools (Schlosser & Simonson, 2002; Tiene & Ingram, 2001). The tools available for the delivery and access to learning materials contribute in large measure to the kind of experiences that learners have with distance learning. Distance-learning delivery and access tools have radically evolved in recent years with the advent of new and mostly Web-based technologies. Podcasting, virtual communities, and social networking tools, such as Facebook and MySpace, all have implications for how current and future learners access and even cocreate contents of instruction locally and at a distance (Appel, 2007).