Challenges for Distance Education: A cultural analytic perspective on asynchronous online courses in Sweden

Abstract: Increasingly popular, distance education has been researched from many angles, but studies done from a cultural analytic perspective are rare. Most studies up to this point have focused on the pedagogical perspective. This thesis aims to investigate challenges faced by different stakeholders in distance education, including online course promoters, teachers, and students, from a cultural analytic perspective. According to empirical materials, I would suggest that various gaps exist in asynchronous online courses which go unnoticed, but which greatly impede student learning performance. These gaps exist in all areas of distance education, including: the sensory experience, online communication, between mind and body as well as the assumptions and expectations for and knowledge of distance education. If these gaps were reduced, distance education would be more effective and appealing.