ABSTRACT
In reviewing the area of independent learning in distance education, the term “independence” is used initially because of its connection to the beginnings of the modern practice and study of distance education through Wedemeyer’s (1971) work on independent learning. Th is review will pull together threads of discussion from several related areas, each of which contributes in its own way to our understanding of the ways in which learners are seen as independent. Th e fi elds of distance education and adult education, the fi eld from which much of the early theoretical work in distance education arises, provide three dominant descriptors for this area: self-directed learning (SDL), autonomous learning, and independent learning. Th ese descriptors are oft en used with a considerable degree of equivalence. Tight (1996), for instance, suggests that the concepts of independent and SDL are so closely linked that they are essentially synonymous, while Moore (1986), in describing one type of educational transaction, explained them by saying “Th is is autonomous, or self-directed learning” (p. 12). Th ese areas and the various concepts that have coalesced around each in relation to distance education, form the basis of the literature from which this chapter draws.
