The Medium and the Message: Interactive Television and Distance Education Programs for Adult Learners

Distance education programs are expanding to meet the needs of a growing population of adult learners. The interactive television (ITV) classroom, a relatively recent technological innovation made possible with compressed digital video (CDV) transmission, has been found to be an effective teaching tool with mature students. A review of the literature suggests that ITV, although in its infancy, has the potential to overcome the pedagogical difficulties inherent in more traditional distance education technology based on audio alone. The results of a recent study conducted in graduate education courses by the authors at the University of New Hampshire indicate that adult students have generally positive attitudes toward their ITV classes. Essential to the success of distance education programs which use ITV is the training of both professors and students who will be involved in this emerging technology.