Michael G. Moore is a pioneer in the field of Distance Education. In 1972 he presented his Theory of Transactional Distance: “Transactional distance is the gap of understanding and communication between teachers and learners caused by geographic distance that must be bridged through distinctive procedures in instructional design and the facilitation of interaction.” (TD handout, p. 1).
The assumptions of the theory are that there is interaction between Dialogue, Structure and Learner Autonomy. The equation looks like this:
greater structure + less dialogue = more learner autonomy needed.
When instructional designers consider these three “clusters”, and design according to the amount of learner autonomy that can be tolerated, the theory of transactional distance is promoting successful distant learning.
Moore believes that distance is a “pedagogical phenomenon”, making the point that a face-to-face and distance learning are different species. “Distance learning has distinctive differences in the way the course is taught and learned designed, delivered, managed and organized. (TD handout, p. 1).
TD has changed the way educators look at developing online courses. Rather than taking a traditional face-to-face and adapting it to an online course delivery system, consideration is given to the balance and variety of components to plan for success. Proponents of TD believe that an online course will be successful if the instructor and institution follow these principles:
Appropriate structure in design of learning materials.
Appropriate quantity and quality of dialogue between teacher and learners.
Taking into account the extent of the learners’ autonomy.
(TD handout, p. 3).
An online course that has integrated Transactional Distance theory into it’s design, will have meaningful Discussion Board topics, with active participation from the instructor. The instructor will get to know the students, and understand the level of learner autonomy that can be expected for the assignments given. The course will be organized well and kept up-to-date. I would expect the instructor to utilize the Announcement function for news items and summaries each week.
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Moore, M. G. “Theory of transactional distance.” Keegan, D., ed. “Theoretical principles of distance education (1997), Routledge, pp. 22-38.
“Theory of transactional distance”, COM 622 Module 2 Handout.
Moore, M. G. (1991). “Distance education theory”. The Distance Education Online Symposium, Vol. 1, No. 25. Retrieved 9-25-09 from http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deos/deosnews/deosnews1_25.asp.
