The Impact of Applying an Instructional Model in Distance Learning: A Case Study.

Abstract

This article presents the results of applying an instructional model to distance learning of subjects related to information and communications technologies within the information technology specialists training programme taught by the Spanish Public Administration. The study was conducted on a Java programming course, which has been taught presentially since 1997 and as distance education since 2001, originally by virtualizing the contents and simulating face to- face classroom teaching through videoconferencing, and later, as of 2004, using this instructional model. The model also incorporates a blended approach to the learning process in web-based distance education, combining self-paced learning, live e-Iearning and face-to-face classrooms. The results of this study show the impact of applying the proposed instructional model on the time it takes students to study the course and learning objective attainment. To do this, we took into account three instructional conditions; traditional face-to-face classroom, distance learning after contents virtualization and distance learning applying the proposed instructional model.