Barriers to Distance Education as Perceived by
Managers and Administrators: Results of a
Survey
© Zane L. Berge and Lin Y. Muilenburg
Cite as: Berge, Z.L. and Muilenburg L.Y. (2000). Barriers to distance education as perceived by managers
and
administrators: Results of a survey. In Melanie Clay (Ed.), Distance Learning Administration Annual
2000.
It is becoming increasingly unusual to pick up a professional training or education journal without seeing
articles concerning alternatives to in-person teaching and learning. Distance education is not new, but the
new technologies used for delivery in recent decades have fueled different perspectives, methods, and
debates than had been the case starting a century ago.
The technologies used to deliver education at a distance have changed, and have also allowed a broader
range of teaching methods to be used. Still, no one believes now, if ever they did, that this is a panacea.
There are many barriers to successful distance education—some are new but many have plagued distance
education since it was first conceived.
A survey was conducted to help better understand and more systematically study these barriers. From a
review of the literature, experience in various distance education settings, and discussions with distance
educators, I hypothesized that several factors might affect the barriers that an individual perceives. This
survey addressed six such factors: 1) work place (e.g., community college, government); 2) job function
(e.g., support staff; manager, researcher, student); 3) type of delivery system used (e.g., audio-tape,
computer conferencing, ITV); 4) expertise of the individual regarding distance education; 5) the stage of
the respondent’s organization with regard to capabilities in delivering distance education; and 6) the area in
which the respondent primarily works (e.g., fine arts, engineering, education).
Hypotheses for each demographic characteristic were made, but due to space limitation here, notes on only
two of these six factors are mentioned. With regard to individual expertise, I had hoped to have a wide