Moore's Transductional Distance

Transactional distance refers to the theory of cognitive space between instructors in an educational setting. In distance education students and instructors experience a sense of separation that is caused by more than the single physical distance between students and instructors. Transactional distance is a psychological and communication gap a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner.

I did a google images search on Moore's transactional distance to uncover a range of representations. It is interesting to note the various presentations which I found appealing:

Conclusion

Using the above images we can note that we can design units for different stages of learner autonomy by varying the dialog and structure. According to Saba's systems dynamics hypotheses, when structure increases, transactional distance increases and dialog decreases. When dialog increases, transactional distance decreases and structure decreases, this is simplified by the image and equation below:

The above image can be written as an equation that is:

Transactional Distance (t) = Transactional Distance (t-dt) + ( Structure - dialog) x dt

References

(Moore, 1997)_(Keegan, 1997)

Http://www.aged.tamu.edu/research/readings/Distance/1997Moore

Creative Commons Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92011564@NOO/1106538282