Bridging the Gap: Challenges and Prescriptions for Interactive Distance Education

Abstract

As interactive distance education gains prominence in management education, fanfare about the technology has overshadowed how the distance mode affects the learning context. This article addresses the gap between the technology focus and the learning environment. The authors categorize three specific challenges posed by interactive distance education: (a) the challenge of the technology delivery, (b) the challenge of the work-site context, and (c) the challenge to the student/professor relationship. Because others have written about the technology delivery, the authors focus on the work-site dynamic and the context of learning and offer prescriptions for managing these critical dynamics more effectively. The work is based on one of the author’s MBA organizational behavior classes offered via interactive video technology to seven off-campus sites simultaneously and is supplemented with field observation, student surveys, and interviews.