Developing Independent Learners through Distance Ed

I just read Bill Anderson's article about Independent learning in The Handbook of Distance Education. What excited me most was the comment on p. 117 that read, "…studies suggest that for students who learn in a distance education context, the ability to learn autonomously improves over time.” This seems like a hopeful perspective in relation to the observation towards the end of the article which stated that as more fields utilize distance education options, the types of students enrolled in distance ed will be increasingly diverse in their backgrounds as well as their skill set and their propensity toward self-directed learning. Since distance education is the ONLY option in some situations, Anderson pointed out that it will become imperative to help students develop their abilities as independent learners through a distance setting. He pointed out that a fair amount of study and practice has taken place regarding strategy development in face to face settings, but not in distance education settings.

I really liked the theoretical frameworks (if that's what we're calling them) presented in the article but want to understand specific applications better. So, if I'm designing a distance education setting, what do I do to promote and develop independent learning? How can I assess the students' independent learner characteristics early on in a course? What affordances would be most important to help students who are not already self-directed learners?

One of the only thoughts I've had so far is that web analytics could play a significant role in assessment of independent learning. Knowing how students are navigating an online course would be revealing. If you could see which students are using which resources and when, where students seem to get lost or stuck in a course format, etc., you would be able to discern who is most autonomous in their learning.

One advantage to a distance environment is that as students leave a "paper" trail of their questions, collaboration, and resource use, their independent learning strategies could become very visible. For example, if part of a class website allows free posting of questions by students, their efforts to ask and answer questions by each other would quickly reveal who the most autonomous learners are. Having students evaluate their own strategies for navigating the course might also help them recognize their level of independent learning and could allow them to make plans for improvement.