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(This is a text summary of the He Said She Said podcast from October 10, 2005. This is a bi-weekly podcast that deals with a wide range of topic on Education and Educational Technology. The show’s host is Rob Reynolds and he is joined by Susan Smith Nash. The He Said She Said podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday on Xplana Radio.)

Briefly…

This podcast addresses the concept of the the inherent technological weaknesses in distributed education.Our programs and courses depend on the reliability of technology that is beyond our reach and out of our control. How reliable is the Internet as an institutional platform? How can new models of distributed education portend better curricula and more flexible courses?

She Said:

How Quickly We Forget: The Importance of Backups

Please note that this is not a transcript, but an overview of the ideas Rob and I talk about. Be sure to listen to the podcast!

Katrina, Rita, and other catastrophic recent events have made universities aware of the vulnerabilities of all their digital and online programs. It’s not just a matter of having a back-up for catastrophic losses, such as flooding and destruction of student information, it’s also a matter of making sure that there is sufficient capacity along all phases of the information storage and transmission process:

1. Bandwidth backups. Be sure to have a plan for when bandwidth surges occur, do to traffic or heavy download activity (even file-sharing, which still goes on).

2. Data housed on servers in different locations. Some universities do this through “edge” computing and by subscribing to a service such as Akamai, which load-shares among server farms throughout the world in order to minimize the number of jumps.

3. Router or hub meltdown: Have alternative pathways, or ways to get to the data. The service provider should furnish a plan for worst-case scenarios.

4. Content back-ups and redundancy: Be sure to provide course content in multiple forms / formats, which can accommodate student lack of access. If this means CD-ROMs, mp3 files, and other distance / flexible delivery modes, be sure to have them in the inventory. Include backup plans for assessment and instructional activities.

5. Professor flexibility. Train the professors / facilitators to be able to deal with any combination of access problems, and to communicate quickly with students via a number of methods. Even though your official policy may be to communicate only via the learning management system’s self-contained e-mail, be sure to have information — phone, personal e-mail, mailing address — for emergency contact.

He Said

What gets me is that we talk about distributed education as if “distributed” equated to the same stability and predictability we associate with walking down to our corner classroom. The reality is that distributed means just that — pushed out beyond the convenience of our personal control. This essential characteristic of distance or e-learning means that there are potentially weak links in the system that have to be considered when we are planning online curricula. How will we execute our plan if the network goes down? How can we deliver an excellent product over limited bandwidth?

The greater and more varied the distribution the more potential links exist. On the other hand, what appears to be a weakness is also a strength. The “distributed” part of online education adds a perspective and a reality to the process that isn’t found int he traditional classroom. It also motivates us as designers and instructors to build better programs and courses that are much more flexible.

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