Established in 1983, the Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE) is a national, bilingual and voluntary organisation committed to excellence in the provision of distance education in Canada. It is founded upon six objectives:

• promoting distance education nationally;
• advancing research into distance education theory and practice;
• providing membership services including professional development;
• enabling forums for interaction on a national, regional, provincial basis;
• representing Canada internationally in the distance education field; and
• continuing to provide learning at a distance.

CADE is consistently recognised by national and provincial governments for leading-edge information on models of distance delivery, application of technologies to distance/distributed learning and methods by which distance learners, institutions, businesses and organisations can be supported in Canada. In keeping with these goals, CADE was awarded a seed grant in 2001 by the Office of Learning Technologies–Human Resources Development Canada, to explore opportunities to enhance the support of institutions, workplaces, government, business and international marketplaces. The first step was to identify consultative research strategies for the project.

Consultation Methodologies

On the basis of an extensive literature review, a concise discussion paper, entitled Exploring the Future: Options for CADE, was initiated describing four potential models to meet multiple needs of a national distance/distributed marketplace. Specifically, the gradual and sustained approach and the research and policy approach were consistent with the structures of a ‘traditional’ voluntary association, while the collaborative network approach offered an innovative, flexible, dynamic and fluid capability to support a national distance learning association. A combined approach was discussed to bridge the ‘gap’ between these approaches.

To explore which of these models might prove the ‘best fit’ to the Association, three consultative inquires were employed to capture the electronic, print and face-to-face communications currently used in the distance field. Knowing that organisations can experience significant transitions in expanding their roles (e.g. McCardell & Willment, 1987), a specialised needs assessment methodology was developed for this study. The Opportunity Assessment Survey was completed voluntarily by the Association membership, and offered to conference delegates attending the International Conference of Distance Education–Canadian Association of Distance Education and the International Symposium of Educational Technology Conference. Both conferences also included presentations by adult graduate distance learners. Further, a series of questions were designed for CADE Board of Directors to use when leading focus groups (Morgan, 1993) scheduled throughout both conferences. Finally, the CADE website was adapted to enable responses to be sent through electronic discussion.

Interim Results from the Consultation

While results are not complete, several themes have emerged. These include:

1. with the current areas of international development work presently underway by the Association, consideration should be given to developing an enhanced role/presence within the international community;
2. development of specialised support service for specific workplace occupations (e.g. instructional developers in educational and corporate settings, administrative and program managers, resources for support services, university/college instructors, e-learning businesses);
3. matching grants and potential associations with national and international bodies to develop collaborative research dialogue to support new technologies for online learning, web-development, bandwidth, internet and related provisions;
4. opportunities to provide third party evaluation services to work with national and international colleagues on the effectiveness of distance/distributed learning opportunities;
5. an invitation to adult distance education graduate learners to serve a specialised role within this national distance education association; and
6. significant international partnerships in the global economy would enable the Association to share, collaborate and extend the role of distance/distributed learning within international communities.

These themes underscore the importance of the dual researcher and practitioner perspectives within a national distance education association, and continue to speak to the critical importance of furthering international partnerships for the distance learning field.

Exploring the Future

Given the emerging themes developing from this current research consultation, it is clear that CADE continues to be a leader in the distance/distributed learning field. These research results indicate this is an Association that serves as the national voice of distance education by projecting the capabilities of a learning organisation. CADE has moved from a traditional organisation to an Association that actively reflects a collaborative network approach by working in partnership with others.

In conclusion, these results provide a barometer of current suggestions from keen participants within and outside our membership. Further, this strategic consultative research inquiry method has reaffirmed the six aims and objectives of the Association, and has extended the parameters by identifying enhanced national and international innovations to expand the role of the Association within the distance/distributed learning field. A final report outlining further discussion on this innovative research will available for readers on the CADE website in Spring 2003.

References

Canadian Association for Distance Education. (2002). Participants’ Research Package. Ottawa, Canada

McCardell, N. & Willment, J.H. (1987). ‘Innovative Policies and Practices for Human Resource Development in a Canadian Community College’, CSSHE Professional File, Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education, No. 1, Spring.

Morgan, D.L. (Ed). (1993). Successful Focus Groups. CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Willment, J.H. & Campbell, B. (2002). Exploring the Future: Options for the Canadian Association for Distance Education. Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Association for Distance Education.