The stereotypical image of a student in higher education is probably the one that shows a student tirelessly trying to keep up with the lecture in the classroom on the college campus. It is far from everyone who takes a seat in a classroom, but it is the case that every fourth student in Sweden studies on a distance education. This means that around 100 of the country's 000 students are distance learners. This brings us to an interesting line of reasoning about distance education versus location-based education. Why should distance education be treated differently? Shouldn't the same principles apply to distance education as to campus-based education?
Despite the fact that such a large percentage studies at a distance, there is a very limited amount of material and documentation from the student union movement about distance education. Therefore, SFS member unions have decided that the organization during the 2023/24 business year will strengthen the student perspective in the matter of distance education. Due to this, 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 finally be summarized in a single publication.
SFS does not believe that distance education should be treated differently, but that distance education should be included in the foundations 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 at a distance.
Correspondence courses – the first distance education
How come there is distance education? Today, distance education is probably associated with teaching taking place online and digitally. That has not always been the case. The roots of distance education stretch far back in time to correspondence courses where the 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 in the 1800th century. In England, in the 1840s, a shorthand course was introduced that used Bible quotations on postcards as study material, marking the beginning of a more interactive form of distance education. In Sweden, Hermod's Correspondence Institute was founded in 1898, which began to give instructions to students via letter. This method enabled studies far from the traditional school environment and laid the foundation for the growth of distance education in Sweden. This also became a way to make mass education possible regardless of time and place.
Especially during the post-war period, higher education grew in Sweden and more and more universities were added around the country. The geographical spread increased and some higher education institutions even created branches with educational and research activities in places other than the main place 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 studying in higher education instead.
The entry of computers
The next step in development took place when we began to approach the turn of the millennium. During the 1990s in particular, there were great successes in IT, which of course also affected higher education. Already in the 1992 Högskoleutredningen, the importance of computers in teaching and learning is mentioned. Many more people also gained access to a computer with 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 the development at the universities and the Distance Education Authority was formed in 1998, to which the universities registered their distance courses for distribution. In 2002, the authority was changed to the Authority for Sweden's Online University. The educational institutions also received additional compensation for development costs for IT-supported distance education. In 2006, the authority was transformed into the Authority for Networks and Cooperation in Higher Education. The authority was dismantled in 2008 in connection with the newly elected government trying to slim down the state administration and reduce the number of authorities. Some of the authority's tasks were passed on to the then Swedish Higher Education Agency, and today the higher education institutions themselves are responsible for their distance education and its development.
Reports and surveys on distance education
What do we now know about distance education in higher education and how have they fared? We fast forward a few years. In 2011, the Swedish Higher Education Agency published the report Mapping the distance activities at universities and colleges. The report is upwards of a hundred pages long and offers interesting reading. Below are some interesting excerpts from the report.
- Approximately 70 percent of distance students were registered on independent courses. It was a significantly larger part than campus education at first level.
- The most common subject areas for distance 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 begin their studies by distance learning and that this suggests that distance learning plays a more important role in lifelong learning compared to broad recruitment, which has previously justified its existence.
- During the academic year 2008/09, the average performance rate in distance education was 56 percent, which was significantly lower than the total performance rate for university education, which amounted to 79 percent. In addition, a significant portion of the distance learners, 38 percent, did not take a single registration point.
- More than half of the universities lacked university-wide strategies for distance education.
- During the academic year 2008/09, the University of Gotland was the institution with the largest proportion of distance students (68 percent), closely followed by Mittuniversitetet (54 percent), University of Dalarna (47 percent) and University of Gävle (40 percent).
- The flexibility of the studies was considered to be the most weighty reason why distance students chose that type of study form.
- The report reveals some alarming parts about what students at the time thought of the distance education. From some focus group discussions, it could be deduced that some students felt that the pedagogy in the courses was 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 indicated that it appeared that the teachers had used a campus course without adapting the pedagogy after it was a distance course.
To gain even more understanding of the distance education in the Swedish university, we can turn to the report Theme: Education; Distance education at the university which Statistics Sweden (SBS) published in 2012. The report confirmed part of what could be read in the Swedish Agency for Higher Education's report from 2011. According to Statistics Sweden, distance students were generally satisfied with their studies. Fully 70 percent were satisfied with the training they had started and among those who completed the training, fully 90 percent were satisfied. However, the proportion who completed the course was only 57 percent, which strengthens the Norwegian Higher Education Agency's analysis of distance education and throughput. Those who did not complete their education indicated that they worked instead or chose to focus on another course. SCB also came to an exciting conclusion that if the distance courses included more meetings, the result was that the students were more satisfied with the skills training they received in terms of making written and oral presentations, collaborating with others, solving problems independently and developing the ability to think critically. There was also a correlation between courses with compulsory meetings and the percentage of satisfied students, whereupon the percentage of satisfaction was even higher compared to campus students. Furthermore, Statistics Sweden found that compared to campus students, distance learning students were more likely to work alongside their studies. For example, it was one in four distance learning students who studied full-time compared to nine out of ten campus students. Similar to the Swedish Higher Education Agency, Statistics Sweden concluded that the distance students primarily chose education based on interest, relevance for their profession or to further their education for their profession.
We can find even more history and knowledge about distance education in the report Distance education in a Swedish university - Accounting for a government assignment which UKÄ published in 2017. In the report, the authority makes a mapping analysis of distance education activities in Sweden and also looks at the strategies and range of distance education offered by the higher education institutions. They also looked at the support offered to distance students. UKÄ stated that distance education has depended on general changes in society and has developed a lot since the Swedish Higher Education Agency made a report in 2011. Here too we can draw some exciting conclusions.
- In 2010/11, the range of distance education courses was 9. In 982/2016, there were 17 searchable credit-bearing distance education courses. This means a reduction of 7 percent or 332 educations. UKÄ deduced that it 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 primary teacher degrees had the most registrations in 2015/16.
- Of students who only studied remotely in 2015/16, 67 percent were women and 33 percent were men, while the percentage of women among students who only studied on campus was 60 percent and the percentage of men was 40 percent.
- For the period 2007/08 to 2016/17, distance education has accounted for between 12 and 15 percent of the total education volume.
- Of the 34 higher education institutions that answered that they have distance education, 26 answered yes and 9 no to the question of whether they carry out 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 competence development throughout Sweden, especially for those who are geographically or for other reasons limited to participate in campus teaching. In the ten years preceding the report, registrations on distance learning programs had increased significantly. Women often chose distance learning, and the distance students tend to be older than campus students, often with family formations that contribute to their anchoring in a locality. The report also underlines the importance of distance education to meet regional skills needs and points to the collaboration between universities and local actors as crucial to strengthening both local and national educational and labor market goals. However, challenges were identified with pedagogical and technical development and that distance education was relatively expensive because it involved technical investments. Given the technological development, it would be interesting to see if the same relationship prevails today. Maybe distance education is downright 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 MOOCs. It is a form of education 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 Open online courses (MOOCs) in Swedish higher education - Reporting of 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. The report, however, identified several ambiguities and challenges with this new form of education within the Swedish higher education context, such as funding and regulation. UKÄ proposed a series 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 widen access to education, promote lifelong learning, and strengthen higher education institutions' international visibility, while recognizing the need for MOOCs to form only a limited part of higher education institutions' activities. UKÄ's recommendations aim to enable Swedish higher education institutions to make full use of the opportunities offered by open online courses. Since 2018, it has been regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance under the name Open online education.
Government assignment Quality in distance education
Back to distance learning again. In 2021, the University and Higher Education Council, UHR, received the government assignment Quality in distance education. The government wanted the investment to result in increased access to higher education and better digital tools for distance education, as well as contribute to strengthening the supply of skills throughout the country. Another goal of the assignment was to develop the institutions' long-term conditions for offering distance education. To carry out the mission, UHR received 15 million kroner for 2021 and 12 million kroner for 2022, which is quite an eye-opener now that financially tough times have meant that grant news of a million counts as a "bet". Several higher education institutions were awarded development funds to improve the long-term ability to offer distance education. In evaluations of the investment, it could be deduced that the universities had increased the quality and throughput in distance education, but that a project duration of just a few years is far too short. Processes in the academy take a long time, and this applies above all to the development of new educations. The project ran during 2021-22 and was reported in February 2023.
The impact of the corona pandemic on higher education
We jump back in time somewhat. At the end of January 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic came to Sweden. This naturally had enormous and brutal consequences on society. For higher education, it meant a change, whether you wanted it or not. There was a concern among us students about what would happen if the education was cancelled. Would we get student funds then or be completely without income? On the other hand, we came to the conclusion in Sweden that we should keep our large educational institutions running. Schooling continued and so did higher education. The then higher education and research minister Matilda Ernkrans (S) put it that the education would be "conducted remotely". A friend of order can ask himself whether it was really communicated correctly. The fact that location-based elements in teaching on campus courses disappeared probably does not justify playing around with the concepts in that way. Possibly "conducted digitally" would have been more appropriate.
Well, within a short time we became aware of a number of 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 credentialing and therefore must have certain practical elements? Should students in healthcare and medicine, just like healthcare workers, get priority for the vaccine against the virus? How do we ensure legally secure examination at a distance? Why are there more reports to the disciplinary boards? Can the higher education institutions request camera surveillance of the students at home when they write take-home exams? Can the university 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 analyzes have been published, but for me the main lesson is probably that it is actually possible to change to digital, even though it can be far from a comfortable journey, in some cases a painful one. UKÄ has presented several reports on the subject, among other things Lessons learned 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 digitized world. They also emphasize the need for pedagogical and technological developments for hybrid education and digital examinations. Both reports also underline the need to address the student experience as a whole, both when it comes to student social aspects and student support.
Today and forward
My guess is that digitization will continue to characterize higher education in the future. This will place higher demands on the entire university. Teachers, students and administrative staff will have to adapt to the digital order. Technology development does not wait for the reflections to be finished baking in the faculty committee's 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.
Regarding SFS's involvement in the issue of distance education, as mentioned at the beginning, I have not been able to find any substantial 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 done some analysis assignments for UHR in connection with the previously mentioned government assignments, but I have not been able to find any major material about distance education in particular, whereupon I hope that this writing will succeed in becoming a much-needed addition to SFS's work with students and higher training. This blog post is just the beginning. Join us on this journey of discovery, because now is the time to fully focus on distance learning!
This is one of several parts in the SFS blog post series The Distance Student. The posts will be summed up in a collective writing that will be published in the summer of 2024. The author of this post is Jacob Färnert.