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The purposes of this study were: (1)to review literature of distance education (2) to investigate teaching methods, learning strategies and their interaction (3) to understand the impact of distance education to elementary school education. The subjects were forty-three sixth grade students , divided into sixteen groups for cooperative learning. During a three-week distance education experimental teaching period , all groups accepted the online courseware of earth science. The data was collected through interview, e-mail and the distance education questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. The results were as follows:1. Teaching method included: (1)teaching students how to operate computers (2)explaining the goals of learning (3)giving positive reinforcement (4) encouraging students. 2. Learning strategies included: (1) notes taking (2) reading computer screen content (3) team discussions (4) oral questions (5) sending e-mail. There were three types of learning pattern, including: skimming, jumping and systematic.3. Due to the lack of face-to-face interaction and other reasons, the frequency of learner- instructor interaction was low and most of learner-content interaction was one-way.4. The role of instructor in distance education proved to be important. Well-designed content and all forms of interaction were substantial.5. Although learners and instructors agreed that distance education has some advantages which traditional education didn*t have, it still has some problems which need to be solved. Some further suggestions for teachers, students, interaction, curriculum and further research were presented.
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