Print
J.R. Verduin, Jr. & T. A. Clark
Context:
In their book on distance education Verduin and Clark describe a variety of systems and modes for delivering distance education to learners. This selection focuses on the use of text, or print, for that purpose.
Source:
Verduin, J. R., Jr., and T. A. Clark. 1991. Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 81-83.
Copyright:
Reprinted with permission from J. R. Verduin, Jr., and T. A. Clark, Distance Education: The Foundations of Effective Practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991.
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Print
Print has always been the dominant medium in distance education and will continue to be the most-used form of delivery in the foreseeable future. Worldwide surveys of distance education show that print is by far the most used medium and is considered the most important medium in the presentation of learning materials by distance educators (Lewis, 1985; Holmberg, 1989).
Considerable confusion surrounds the term correspondence study, which originally referred to written instruction through the mails. Later the term was used inclusively to denote not just print study at a distance but also the use of telephone tutoring as well as audiocassettes, phonograph records, and other mailable instructional materials delivered along with textbooks and study guides. To call everything delivered or exchanged by mail a correspondence study aspect of distance education appears correct, but the components of this correspondence study package need to be clarified. Telephone tutoring or other electronic interaction not achieved via the postal service are alternative modes of distance delivery used in combination with, not as part of, correspondence study.
Bates (1982) notes that print is the most convenient and flexible medium for the presentation of new information and ideas and can be used by students selectively and at their own pace. All twelve distance teaching universities established in recent years use print (Bates, 1982) as do the large majority of distance education programs at all levels surveyed worldwide (Perry, 1984). Most schools that do not use print use radio to reach audiences with low literacy rates.
Advantages and Disadvantages: Print has many advantages as an instructional medium. It is familiar, inexpensive, and portable. Its format allows readers access to any section, in any order, for any length of time. A highly developed postal service makes distribution easy in most countries. It is the only medium that can be utilized without additional equipment, anytime and anywhere that a source of light is available.
One disadvantage of print is that it can give only a vicarious experience of reality, and some parts of reality are not easily conveyed in writing, such as taste and smell. But these are also limitations of audiovisual media. Most audio and visual experiences can be described in print by reducing a large number of stimuli to a few essential observations. But this can be a double-edged sword if the author lacks good writing skills or cannot discriminate between important and unimportant information. If the readers do not have the necessary experiences to comprehend concrete illustrations or reality-based arguments offered by the author, they may have difficulty learning. If their proficiency in written language is low, they may find learning by print difficult if not impossible. In fact, print-only correspondence study appears to have considerably higher dropout rates than telecourse study using both television and print. In telecourses, as in most distance education, print delivers most of the instructional content (Weisner, 1983). The television might be considered a pacing device, a motivator, or a medium appealing to learning styles different from those reached best by print (Zigerell, 1984).
The speed of interaction is another difficulty with print instruction at a distance. Adults want to know how they are doing in their studies, but by the time they receive feedback in a print-only format, they may already have lost interest in the answer, as they move on to another topic or drop the course entirely. The use of the telephone as a feedback and tutorial device allows near instantaneous interaction between teacher and learners and substantially lessens the argument against print-based instruction.
All of the other media used in distance study may be employed in combination with print to overcome the problems of using print alone. Those aspects of reality not easily conveyed by print or audiovisual media, especially practical aspects of a course of study, require live seminars or other face-to-face teaching methods for effective communication. In some subjects, such live instruction is a necessary part of distance education.
Many of the high-technology media and combinations of media recently developed are presented as solutions to the boredom of print-based instruction, and yet many are electronically print based themselves and others often leave most of the teaching to the print with which they are combined. The computer is a good example. Computers in many ways simulate the text or the physical operations one performs while using a text. The programmer writes a program which is read by the student electronically by punching keys instead of by flipping pages. Through combination with and incorporation into other media, print will probably remain the dominant medium of distance instruction for a long time to come.
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