INTRODUCTION

Distance learning is an area which is currently under investigation by educators and scholars alike because of the nature of the issues and the surrounding abstract as well as conceptual questions which have been brought to the forefront of the division of education. On-ground education is an area which requires stimulus in the student by the instructor and the general formatting of the material support system of the course or program supported by that department or institution. Distance learning is an area of education which utilizes varied technological applications which are at times a challenge to the student and instructor or facilitator alike. Within the context of distance learning, we must acknowledge that there is the “other” side which incorporates the aspects involved in the teaching of the distance education courses, and I will call this side “distance teaching.” The association of educational theoretical terms and aspects can be expressed to describe these realms of distance education; I will term these areas empirical and experential contexts in that the empirical aspects can be considered to be the observational or somewhat more of the teaching mode of the distance learning experience. The experential mode of distance learning can be considered, in my view, to be the learning part of the online course experience in that the student is in an environment by herself or himself when he or she is involved in the course session for the time duration of that engagement. The environment is leveled and supported in material as well as abstractly configured by the software developers of that course format, as well as the presentation language of the facilitator. I wish to present semiotic theory as part of the dissertation in that the ways in which the “words as meaning” can support or on defray from the objective of the instruction of the course, in whatever subject field or matter.

To this effect, I wish to relate the semiotic theory components as a mode of support in distance education by utilizing Discourse Analysis Theory. I will be utilizing all of the components of Discourse Analysis to analyze and investigate the nature the series of 63 course sections at a Higher Education proprietary institution and examine the following contexual sections involved in Discourse Analysis: In-Text, Narrative Analysis, Discursive formation, Register Theory, Text Semantics, Genre Theory, Intertexuality, Cohesion Analysis, Attitudinal-Evaluative meaning, Theme-Rheme Analysis, and Conversation Analysis. [1]


Contexts are theoretical aspects of educational theory as well as classroom constructs in both the on-ground and online venues of course presentation. The nature of the subject matter can be related and presented to the students in ways which facilitate assimilation and enthusiasm by a methodology which will implement the constructs of the eight sections which are given as part of Discourse Analysis Theory. I am utilizing the term “theory” along with the “Discourse Analysis” to supplant the technique into a methodology which, in my case, will mean that through the use of the analysis, I will show that a theory will form where subject matter material from a variety of subject fields can be analyzed to yield a variety of constructive information as part of an educational almanac in the field of Distance Education.



Bibliography
1. http://Academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/theories.htm