ABSTRACT

The development of distance education (DE) over the last 40 years is compared with the evolving content of the Distance Education journal during the same period. DE in general has been described as encountering a series of crossroad decision points, and as identifying numerous optimistic horizons beyond them. The decisions made and horizons sought have not always been prudent, however, and the journal’s critical approach and logical sequence of priorities have encouraged DE to avoid ill-considered options. Currently, the journal is challenged with helping the field to overcome mainstream educators’ lack of awareness of the traditional DE literature, media, and methods, and negative reactions to the effects of the massive open online course (MOOC). The approach taken by the journal during its first 40 years will help to overcome such problems and to keep the field on track.

摘要

比较了远程教育在过去40年的发展与远程教育不断发展的内容同一时期的日记。总体而言，DE被描述为遇到了一系列十字路口决策点，并确定了超越它们的众多乐观视野。但是，做出的决定和寻求的视野并不总是审慎的，而且该期刊的批判性方法和优先顺序的逻辑顺序促使DE避免了考虑不周的方案。当前，该杂志面临的挑战是如何帮助该领域克服主流教育工作者对传统DE文学，媒体和方法的认识不足以及对大规模开放在线课程（MOOC）的负面反应。该期刊在最初的40年中采用的方法将有助于克服此类问题并保持该领域的发展。