The stereotypical image of a student in higher education is probably one that shows a student tirelessly trying to keep up with the lecture in the classroom on the university campus. Not everyone takes a seat in a classroom, but it is true that one in four students in Sweden studies through distance education. This means that around 100,000 of the country's 400,000 students are distance students. This brings us to an interesting discussion about distance education versus on-site education. Why should distance education be treated differently? Shouldn't the same principles apply to distance education as to campus-based education?
Despite such a large proportion studying remotely, there is a very limited amount of material and documentation from the student union movement on distance education. Therefore, SFS member unions have decided that the organization will strengthen the student perspective on the issue of distance education during the 2023/24 financial year. In response, SFS will publish a series of blog posts on the SFS website in the spring of 2024. The blog posts will touch on various aspects of distance education and will ultimately be summarized in a comprehensive publication.
SFS does not believe that distance education should be treated differently, but that distance education should be included in the foundations that we have agreed on for higher education. However, there may be reason to look more closely at certain aspects because distance education is different compared to location-based education, where the absolute biggest difference is of course the form of teaching, which in the one case mainly revolves around a physical location while in the other it mainly takes place remotely.
Correspondence courses – the first distance education
How does distance learning exist? Today, distance learning is probably associated with teaching taking place online and digitally. It has not always been that way. The roots of distance learning stretch far back in time to correspondence courses where students received written material for their lessons and assignments were then sent back to the teacher. This form of learning took a more organized form in the early 1700th century in the United States with shorthand lessons sent by mail, and similar initiatives appeared in Sweden during the 1800th century. In England, a shorthand course was introduced in the 1840s that used Bible quotes on postcards as study material, marking the beginning of a more interactive form of distance learning. In Sweden, Hermod's Correspondence Institute was founded in 1898 and began providing instructions to students via letter. This method made studies far from the traditional school environment possible and laid the foundation for the emergence of distance learning in Sweden. This also became a way to make mass education possible regardless of time and place.
During the post-war period in particular, higher education in Sweden grew and more and more higher education institutions were added around the country. The geographical spread increased and some higher education institutions even created branches with educational and research activities in locations other than the main location of the higher education institution. This development, combined with the fact that higher education remained free of charge and the birth of the modern student aid system, meant that several of the correspondence schools in Sweden decreased in popularity and more people began to study at higher education institutions instead.
The entry of computers
The next step in development took place as we began to approach the turn of the millennium. During the 1990s in particular, there were major successes in IT, which of course also affected higher education. The 1992 Higher Education Inquiry already mentioned the importance of computers in teaching and learning. Many more people also had access to a computer with the internet, which had not been obvious before and introduced new dimensions to the issue of distance education. To organize this, a lot happened in the higher education sector. The university data network SUNET supported development at the higher education institutions and the Distance Education Authority was formed in 1998, to which the higher education institutions reported their distance courses for distribution. In 2002, the authority was renamed the Swedish Agency for Networked Universities. The higher education institutions also received additional compensation for development costs for IT-supported distance education. In 2006, the authority was renamed the Agency for Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education. The agency was dismantled in 2008 as the newly elected government attempted to streamline the state administration and reduce the number of agencies. Some of the agency's tasks were transferred to the then Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, and today the higher education institutions themselves are responsible for their own distance education and its development.
Reports and surveys on distance learning
What do we know now about distance learning in higher education and how has it fared? Let's fast forward a few years. In 2011, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education published the report Mapping of distance learning activities at universities and collegesThe report is over a hundred pages long and makes for interesting reading. Below are some interesting excerpts from the report.
- Approximately 70 percent of distance learning students were registered in independent courses, a significantly larger proportion than undergraduate campus education.
- The most common subject areas for distance learning students were humanities and theology, law, and social sciences.
- The majority of distance learning students had previously completed a university education and a significant number also had a degree. The authority therefore concluded that it was rare for individuals new to higher education to start their studies with distance learning and that this suggests that distance learning plays a more important role in lifelong learning compared to broadened recruitment, which has previously been justified for its existence.
- In the 2008/09 academic year, the average achievement rate in distance education was 56 percent, significantly below the overall achievement rate for higher education of 79 percent. In addition, a significant proportion of distance students, 38 percent, did not earn a single registration point.
- More than half of the higher education institutions lacked joint strategies for distance education.
- During the 2008/09 academic year, Gotland University was the university with the largest proportion of distance learning students (68 percent), closely followed by Mid Sweden University (54 percent), Dalarna University (47 percent) and the University of Gävle (40 percent).
- The flexibility of the studies was considered the most important reason why distance students chose this type of study form.
- The report reveals some alarming aspects of what former students thought about distance education. From some focus group discussions, it was possible to infer that some students considered the pedagogy in the courses to be substandard and that the IT support in the education did not meet their expectations. It was mainly students over 30 who criticized this. Some students stated that it seemed that the teachers had used a campus course without adapting the pedagogy to the fact that it was a distance course.
To gain even more understanding of distance education in Swedish higher education, we can turn to the report Theme: Education; Distance education at the university published by Statistics Sweden (SCB) in 2012. The report confirmed some of what could be read in the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education's report from 2011. According to Statistics Sweden, distance learning students were generally satisfied with their studies. A full 70 percent were satisfied with the education they had started and among those who completed the education, a full 90 percent were satisfied. However, the proportion who completed the education was only 57 percent, which strengthens the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education's analysis of distance learning and throughput. Those who did not complete their education indicated that they were working instead or chose to focus on another course. Statistics Sweden also came to an exciting conclusion that if the distance learning courses contained more meetings, it resulted in the students being more satisfied with the skills training they received regarding making written and oral presentations, collaborating with others, solving problems independently and developing critical thinking skills. There was also a correlation between courses with mandatory meetings and the proportion of satisfied students, whereupon the proportion of satisfied students was even greater compared to campus students. Furthermore, Statistics Sweden found that distance learning students, compared to campus students, were more likely to be employed outside of their studies. For example, one in four distance learning students studied full-time compared to nine out of ten campus students. Like the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, Statistics Sweden concluded that distance learning students primarily chose education based on interest, relevance to their profession or to further their education for their profession.
Even more history and knowledge about distance education can be found in the report Distance education in Swedish universities – Reporting on a government assignment which UKÄ published in 2017. In the report, the authority makes a survey analysis of distance education activities in Sweden and also looks at the universities' strategies and range of distance education. They also looked at the support offered to distance students. UKÄ noted that distance education has depended on general changes in society and has developed a lot since the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education made a report in 2011. Here too, we can draw some exciting conclusions.
- In 2010/11, the number of distance education courses offered was 9,982. In 2016/17, there were 7,332 credit-awarding distance education courses that could be applied for. This represents a decrease of 26 percent or 2650 courses. UKÄ concluded that this was due to a decline in the number of independent courses.
- Of all professional degree programs, distance learning programs leading to specialist nursing degrees, preschool teacher degrees, and elementary teacher degrees had the most registrations in 2015/16.
- Of students who studied exclusively via distance learning in 2015/16, 67 percent were women and 33 percent were men, while the proportion of women among students who studied exclusively on campus was 60 percent and the proportion of men was 40 percent.
- Distance education has accounted for between 12 and 15 percent of the total education volume for the period 2007/08 to 2016/17.
- Of the 34 higher education institutions that responded that they have distance education, 26 answered yes and 9 no to the question of whether they are conducting strategic work for distance education.
In the report, UKÄ was able to summarize that distance education has a central role in promoting lifelong learning and skills development throughout Sweden, especially for those who are geographically or for other reasons limited to participating in campus education. During the ten years preceding the report, registrations for distance programs had increased significantly. Women often chose distance studies, and distance students tend to be older than campus students, often with family formation that contributes to their anchoring in one location. The report also emphasizes the importance of distance education in meeting regional skills needs and points to the cooperation between higher education institutions and local actors as crucial for strengthening both local and national educational and labor market goals. However, challenges were identified with pedagogical and technological development and that distance education was relatively expensive because it involved technical investments. Given technological developments, it would be interesting to see whether the same situation prevails today. Perhaps distance education is actually cheaper to implement than campus-based education?
Another development that touches on the field of distance education is the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses, also abbreviated as MOOCs. It is a form of education that is based on open online courses that are freely available via the internet, where anyone can participate in the courses. The only thing needed for participation is access to a computer with an internet connection. UKÄ released the report in 2016 Massive open online courses (MOOCs) in Swedish higher education – Reporting on a government assignment which focused on MOOCs. The authority noted that some Swedish higher education institutions had already started offering MOOCs as a form of education at this time. However, the report identified several ambiguities and challenges with this new form of education within the Swedish higher education context, such as financing and regulation. UKÄ proposed a number of measures to integrate MOOCs into the Swedish higher education system, including the creation of a new regulation, the allocation of funds for the development of digital pedagogy, and the possibility for higher education institutions to charge fees for course certificates. The report emphasizes the potential of MOOCs to broaden access to education, promote lifelong learning, and strengthen the international visibility of higher education institutions, while recognizing the need for MOOCs to only constitute a limited part of the higher education institutions' operations. UKÄ's recommendations aim to enable Swedish higher education institutions to fully utilize the opportunities that open online courses offer. Since 2018, it has been regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance under the name Open online education.
Government mandate Quality in distance education
Back to distance learning again. In 2021, the Swedish Council for Higher Education, UHR, received the government mandate. Quality in distance learning. The government wanted the initiative to result in increased access to higher education and better digital tools for distance education, as well as to contribute to strengthening the supply of skills throughout the country. Another goal of the assignment was to develop the universities' long-term conditions for offering distance education. To carry out the assignment, UHR received SEK 15 million for 2021 and SEK 12 million for 2022, which is quite an eye-opener now that economically tough times have meant that new grants of one million are considered an "investment". Several universities were awarded development funds to improve their long-term ability to offer distance education. Evaluations of the initiative showed that the universities had increased the quality and throughput of distance education, but that a project period of just a few years is far too short. Processes in academia take a long time, and this applies primarily to the development of new education programs. The project ran during 2021-22 and was reported in February 2023.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education
Let's jump back in time a bit. At the end of January 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic came to Sweden. This of course had enormous and brutal consequences for society. For higher education, it meant a transition, whether you wanted it or not. There was concern among us students about what would happen if the education was canceled. Would we then receive study grants or be completely without income? However, we came to the conclusion in Sweden that we should keep our large educational institutions running. School education continued and so did higher education. The then Minister of Higher Education and Research Matilda Ernkrans (S) put it that the education would be "conducted remotely". A friend of order may ask himself whether it was really communicated correctly. The fact that location-based elements in teaching on campus education courses disappeared probably does not justify playing around with concepts in that way. Possibly "conducted digitally" would have been more appropriate.
Well, within a short time we became aware of several challenging issues in connection with the transition to digital teaching. Can the same pedagogical methods that were intended for classroom teaching be used in Zoom? How do we create conversations between teacher and student and between student and student when we are not allowed to meet physically? How do we create trust and understanding through a computer screen? What do we do with educational programs that lead to certification and therefore must have certain practical elements? Should students in healthcare and medicine, just like healthcare employees, be given priority for vaccines against the virus? How do we ensure legally secure examinations remotely? Why are there more reports to disciplinary committees? Can higher education institutions request camera surveillance of students at home when they write take-home exams? Can the higher education institution require the student to provide two cameras that monitor the student during examinations at home? Can students have study social activities despite restrictions?
After the pandemic was managed with new vaccines, teaching has in many cases returned to campus. The lessons from the pandemic are many. Several reports, research studies and analyses have been published, but for me the main lesson is that it is actually possible to switch to digital, even though it may be far from a comfortable journey, in some cases a painful one. UKÄ has presented several reports on the subject, including Lessons from the transition to distance learning during the corona pandemic − for the design of future higher education programs and Long-term consequences of the corona pandemic for teaching and examination, both from 2023. In summary, the reports conclude that the transition to distance learning and the rapid changes in teaching methods have had a significant impact on both students and teachers. They emphasize the importance of having a holistic view and maintaining the academic conversation between teachers even in a digitalized world. They also emphasize the need for pedagogical and technological developments for hybrid education and digital examinations. Both reports also emphasize the need to address the student experience in its entirety, both when it comes to study social aspects and student support.
Today and beyond
My guess is that digitalization will continue to characterize higher education in the future. It will place higher demands on the entire university. Teachers, students and administrative staff will need to adapt to the digital order. Technological development does not wait for the reflections to be ready-made in the faculty board meeting room. When it comes to distance education, I want to believe that it will continue to have a great importance for learning in Sweden. Especially in the transition in the labor market, distance education can certainly be a good alternative for those who do not want to become a campus student.
As for SFS's involvement in the issue of distance education, as mentioned at the beginning, I have not been able to find any major material. As usual, SFS has over the years responded to a number of referrals or commented on reports that dealt with distance education. SFS has also carried out some analysis assignments for UHR in connection with the previously mentioned government assignments, but I have not been able to find any major material specifically on distance education, whereupon I hope that this publication will succeed in becoming a much-needed addition to SFS's work with students and higher education. This blog post is just the beginning. Join us on this journey of discovery, because now it is time for full focus on distance education!
This is one of several parts in SFS's blog post series The Distance Student. The posts will be summarized in a collective publication that will be published in the summer of 2024. The author of this post is Jacob Färnert.