Dr. Farhad Saba, Professor of Educational Technology was elected to serve on the advisory board of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA). The primary mission of USDLA is to provide national leadership in the field. It is the first nonprofit distance learning association in the United States to support research, development and practice for government, higher and K-12 education, and business.
Founded in 1987, USDLA has created a powerful alliance among state distance learning associations including California. Dr. Saba served as the President of Alliance for Distance Education in California, the state chapter of USDLA in academic year 2004-05.
Speaking about the field, Saba said: “Distance education has seen a tremendous growth in the past decade. The growth has brought many new practitioners to the field. This is very encouraging. We are now at a point that distance education can fulfill one of its major objectives, that of decreasing the cost of higher education. This will happen when practitioners increase their use of teaching and learning strategies that are indigenous to distance education and are designed for a 21st century system of education. Too often expensive technologies are used to duplicate on line or on wireless systems what can be done in the classroom less expensively.”
Distance education is effective when it is designed to provide students on-demand registration throughout the year instead of two or three times that is the case now. Its effectiveness increases when the power of the computer is used to offer personal instruction, so students can learn at differential rates. This inevitably reduces time-to-degree for thousands of students, thus reducing the cost of staying in the system.
USDLA as the umbrella organization for state distance education associations strives toward creating the legislative and regulatory environment in which these innovations can take place. Some of the rules that were put into effect for supporting industrialization of the country are now impeding expanded use of distance education. In the post-industrial era, new rules are needed to address the requirements of an economy that is increasingly dependent on higher education for talented and skilled innovators as well as for generating new knowledge.
“The US system of higher education is the best in the world. Native uses of distance education will keep it that way” Saba concluded.
Contact:
Farhad Saba, Ph. D.
Department of Educational Technology
San Diego State University
San Diego, California 92182-1182
(619) 594-6138
fsaba@mail.sdsu.edu
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/People/FSaba/FSaba.html

Labels: awards, faculty
