Simonne Dickie
Instructional designer and facilitator
Lake Country, B. C.

For my thesis, I used a methodology new to distance education research. The hermeneutic phenomenological method heightens the qualitative nature of research and is valued for its qualities of discovering data characterized by richness of relevant detail. "The lived experience of being a distance learner" provides the opportunity to share privileged access into the lifeworlds of distance learners.

The study focusses on learners, and does not fragment the learners’ experiences, but rather gives a wholistic and real investigation in learners’ everyday lives. The people, their education and training, and their environments are all studied in relationship with the technological aspects that are a part of their lived experiences. The data gives candid and actual documentation of learners’ active participation with technology. Among other aspects, learners describe motivations, interests, needs, personal development, skills, difficulties, special situations, learning styles and pace. In addition, they share factual information regarding interaction with peers and instructors/facilitators, evaluation, and collective knowledge networks. I will present an overview of these findings, thereby enhancing a view that recognizes the interdependent relationship between distance learners and their experiences within the whole distance learning system.

Through a process of critical reflection of "The lived experience of being a distance learner", people who sustain and maintain the distance learning system can make judgements that impact the theory and practice of distance learning. Ultimately, it is the participatory aspect of a phenomenological hermeneutic study that warrants our attention. The organizers of CADE 2000 believe that "acquiring knowledge involves more than just processing information; it also requires an active participation from learners". This research accentuates this belief and brings learners’ lived experiences to the conference. As we aspire to serve distance learners we are better able to understand their needs through in-depth and rich data, shared through a methodology that encompasses all aspects of the distance learning lifeworld. A wholistic contextual perspective on distance learning tries to further an understanding of the lifeworld in question through the interconnectiveness of reality. By listening to distance learners’ narratives, we can learn what people in the distance learning world are attempting to do, to accomplish, to gain and to discover. By explicating the narratives we come to further understand the essence of the phenomenon, the meaning and significance of being a distance learner. We want to understand the lifeworlds of distance learners for the purpose of discovering what affects a distance learner’s well-being, and what essential qualities within the distance learning world have an effect on the effectiveness and quality of distance learning for learners.

The theme of my presentation questions: What have we learned through this study that could affect the well-being of distance learners, and what essential qualities within the distance learning world have we discovered that could have an influence on the effectiveness of distance learning for learners?

I will share the recommendations as they pertain to the implications or uses that this phenomenological hermeneutic study suggests for providers and supporters of distance learners. I will answer the questions: What have I learned from the explication of distance learners’ lifeworlds that gives insights to the existing distance learning qualities that are effective and should therefore be maintained? What have I learned from the explication of the distance learners’ lived experiences that gives insights to areas missing within the distance learning experience that, if added to the experience, would benefit and improve the lifeworld of distance learners?

The purpose of presenting this thesis is not only to invite and encourage discussion about the recommendations and the lived experiences of the learners documented in the thesis, but it is also to be a catalyst that serves to build upon the data presented, by welcoming lived experiences from CADE participants.

The intent of this presentation is to explore purposefully the "being and becoming" a distance learner. The aim is to inquire into the meaning and significance of distance learning by asking "what?" is distance learning as experienced by learners. The purpose of explicating the distance learning experience is to discover meanings and communications that could affect the learners’ well-being. By exploring the phenomenon of being a distance learner, we can gain insights into how the distance learning environment is inhabited or known.

The presentation highlights such questions as:

How is distance learning experienced?

What is the meaning of distance learning for learners?

When learning at a distance, what is it we are attempting to do, to accomplish, to gain, and to discover?

What factors exist in the symbiotic relationship between distance education, lifelong learning and personal development? Is it only access? Are there other essential qualities that affect this relationship?

What can distance education providers learn from learners regarding performance indicators, evaluation, motivations, learners’ needs, difficulties and skills, learning styles and pace?

What are the advantages, disadvantages, effectiveness and possible handicaps of technologically-based instruction? What issues are important regarding interaction?

What more can we learn about the distance learners’ struggles with isolation and connection/relatedness?

We can learn from other people’s lived experiences, and can relate to the similarities or differences between our lifeworlds. By sharing what learners discover and what they gain or lose through their participation in the distance learning world, we are able to explicate and to further our understanding of the unintended and essential outcomes of their distance learning experiences. We come to know some of the advantages and disadvantages of the distance learning format regarding such issues as quality control, accessibility, environment, self-directed learning and ownership of learning. Although the distance learning format requires learners to deal with content, they face the extra challenge of using technological learning tools. In the presentation we examine the risk factor this extra challenge entails. The presentation elucidates for us the qualities of limitless lived time and the boundaryless lived space of the distance learning world. The narratives within the thesis speak loudly of the essential issues that relate to the distance learner’s sense of well-being, opportunity for actualization, and even living and experiencing personal transformation.

It is the intent of my research to discover the ontological core, the nature of being a distance learner. It is the participatory nature of the study that leads to reflection and meaningful interpretations, and to the application of that meaning to what is relevant in our professional and/or personal lives. The conference is an ideal situation where we can share and follow-up on the reflections, interpretations and recommendations that resulted from the thesis work.

The phenomenological hermeneutic approach is a collaborative approach that allows participants to choose and describe the essential qualities within distance learning from lived experiences, not one that begins from a preconceived notion. At the same time, the shared information serves to direct us to possible hypotheses about distance learning and encourages research in areas that the learners themselves acknowledge as important areas to be examined and studied. The presentation covers such areas of study as:

The symbiotic relationship between distance education, lifelong learning and personal/professional development

Research techniques (Examples: protocol writing and conversations, face-to-face and research done via a distance format)

Performance indicators

Technologically-based instruction (advantages, disadvantages, effectiveness, handicaps)

Learners’ struggle with isolation and connection/relatedness

Intercommunicative processes

Self-directed learning; value-added learning

Managing change

Self-pacing

Distance education and its relationship within the overall learning system

Simonne D. M. Dickie, MDE

15850 Whiskey Cove Road
Lake Country, B. C.
Canada V4V 1C4

phone: (250) 766-1445
fax: (250) 766-4102
e-mail: simonne@cablelan.net
simonne@i-link.cc

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