Author Description

Understanding the reality of the format shifting effect in the distance education threshold period is vital for the people who teach at a distance. It is also helpful for the students who are taking their first distance class to understand that the format- shifting dilemma is unavoidable but transitional. A good transition and accommodation to the new learning format could minimize the starting difficulty, maximize learning effect, and provide a wiser metacognitive resolution to the problems encountered (Pressley, et al.,1995) to keep students better engaged in the new paradigm. Informational technology revolutionizes education, but human effort makes an essential difference.