Abstracts of Related Research

Growing Old in a New Age

Abstracts of Related Research

Braun, K. L., Dubanoski, J. P., Smith, J., & Kiyak, A. (2000). Distance education in the 21st century: Creating person-environment fit. Gerontology and Geriatrics Education, 21, 15-38.

Advances in technology have expanded options for distance education (DE), yet raise a number of issues for college faculty: What exactly is DE? Can it work on any campus? Is it as effective as classroom instruction? Which direction will DE take in the 21st century? These questions are addressed from the perspectives of faculty at the Universities of Hawai'i and Washington who have collaborated on the development, teaching, and evaluation of an integrated DE package, Growing Old in a new Age. This pedagogical tool consists of 13 hours of video, a social gerontology text, faculty and study guides, an index of all video segments, and a telecourse Web site. The concept of person-environment fit is suggested as a framework within which to understand, provide, and improve DE and to guide its movement into the 21st century.

Dubanoski, J. P., Goodman, R. J., Braun, K. L., Roberts, E., Lenzer, A. M. (1999). Growing old in a new age: National and international evaluation of a gerontology telecourse. Educational Gerontology, 25, 723-740.

Distance education is expanding rapidly and has special relevance for gerontology with its adaptability to different settings, its learner-centered convenience, its cost-effectiveness, and its appeal to nontraditional students. We evaluated the national and international use of Growing Old in A New Age, the first telecourse and public broadcasting series on gerontology. Overall results indicate that the telecourse is an effective instructional tool across higher education, community agency, non-profit organization, and international broadcasting settings. We discuss the incorporation of suggestions for change from the study into the ongoing development of the telecourse and suggest ways that interactivity and emerging online technology can be integrated in distance learning to produce a more effective instructional approach. Developing a model for integrating the strengths of in-class, online, and telecourse elements may prove more useful than debating their relative merits. Future directions for research include evaluation of the integrated strategies.

Braun, K. L., Roberts, E., Dubanoski, J. P., Lenzer, A. M., & Goodman, R. J. (1998). Evaluating a telecourse on aging. Educational Gerontology, 24, 141-157.

Growing Old in a New Age is a 13-hour telecourse in gerontology produced by the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in 1993. The telecourse producers at the university have been teaching the course for several years and this manuscript reports on findings from evaluation efforts. In a first study, students taking the television and classroom-based versions of the course in 1993-1994 were compared on a number of outcomes, e.g., completion of assignments, improvements in knowledge, and attitudes toward older adults, grades, and satisfaction with the course and access to the instructor. Findings suggested that telecourse students completed more of the readings and rated the videos and readings as more helpful than did the in-class students, but that in-class students reported better access to the instructor. Upon post-test, both groups showed similar improvements in attitude, but only the classroom group reported a significant increase in knowledge as measured by the Palmore Facts on Aging quizzes. Both groups reported enjoying the course and the distribution of grades was similar. While offering the telecourse in 1996, efforts were made to increase instructor contact and interactivity for students. A second study compared outcomes between telecourse students who took the enhanced version of the course with those who took the course in 1993-1994. Findings were similar in terms of improved attitudes toward older adults. In addition, the 1996 students made significant improvements in the knowledge measure and, overall, got higher grades than did the 1993-1994 cohorts. These results confirm findings reported in the literature that well-organized telecourses are as effective as classroom-based courses, especially if efforts are made to enhance telecourse learning with opportunities for instructor contact and student interactivity.

Goodman, R. J., Dubanoski, J. P., Braun, K., Roberts, E. & Lenzer, A. M. (1995). Development of an introductory gerontology telecourse. Educational Gerontology, 21, 581-592.

The development and uses of a gerontology telecourse titled Growing Old in a New Age are described. Produced by the Center on Aging at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa under a grant from the Annenberg/CPB Project of Washington, DC, the telecourse involves an instructional design with three essential components: television programs, printed support materials, and local faculty participation. The methodology for creating the telecourse included grant writing, instructional design, content and video treatment development, interviewing, narration and script-writing, student and faculty guide development, expert reviews, formative evaluations, pretesting of video and guide elements, studio production, and promotion skills. The usefulness of formative evaluation and pretesting in telecourse development is highlighted, and a methodology is outlined that can serve as a model for the planning and implementation of telecourse projects.

Note: We would like to include your telecourse research on this Web page -- please send your citation and a brief abstract to dubanosk@hawaii.edu.