Online Learning By Ashleigh Christie Crystal Guerard Shannon Quigley

What is Online Learning? Online learning is a sub-set of flexible teaching and learning that seeks to provide greater access to learning for all students. Basically, it is a collaboration of the internet and the classroom for the purpose of education.

Curriculum and Standards Nearly every state has developed academic standards that delegate what students should know and be able to do. Recently, educators have found that the limitless amount of education available is a great resource to help students reach these standards. Researches have found that this new way of looking at education promotes technology as a tool for learning and collaboration.

The Teacher’s Role The work of the teacher is to plan and carry out a series of interactions between the students and the online subject matter. In general, the teacher must control the way students come into contact with the subject matter. By doing so, the teacher expects to make the key concepts and ideas more accessible to students. Simply “spitting out” information is not always the best way to teach. Leading students to question the material themselves and then search online for answers will allow for exploration, reconstruction, and creativity while at the same time, learning!

E-Moderators Online courses are created by experts in a particular subject area. The experts rarely teach the courses themselves, but instead rely on the knowledge of e-moderators whom have more experience with the teaching aspect. E-moderators can simply be described as an online professor. The only difference between a moderator and a professor is that the moderator more or less looks over the class and is there to help instead of actually teaching the class. An e-moderators main goal is to get students to participate and interact in the online course.

Computer-Mediated Communication Open University, a pioneer of online learning, created a five-step model for e-moderator/student success. Access and Motivation Online socialization Information Exchange Knowledge Construction Development

Online Teaching and Learning An e-moderator’s success depends on his ability to gain and encourage high participation from the online students. Open University developed four areas that necessary in sustaining successful student participation levels. Appropriate numbers of online students enrolled in the course. There are many varying opinions to what this amount should be. The use of online time. Time and complexity. This is very different from time in a normal classroom environment because essentially a class could go 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The development of online communities. Forming student connections and study groups. Studies show online courses which meet face-to-face at least once throughout the course create better learning environments and tend to have better end outcomes.

Assessment of Online Learning Participation is a main factor in online learning. Participation among students is highly recommended and encouraged by e-moderators. Participation is very often measured and factored into a students final grade in an online course. E-moderators keep track of student participation by recording key strokes and by time-stamping records of online events. Some online courses have elaborate management systems that keep a detailed transaction record of every instance where students log in and do work in an online learning environment. One main concern of online learning is cheating. People are afraid the person submitting the work may not be the actual student. This is often avoided by having face-to-face meetings and longer class sessions. These two factors let the e-moderator get to know individual students better and their personal work styles better so they can tell the difference between real work and “imposter” work.

What Students Do Well With Online Learning? College-bound students in need of advanced or specialized coursework Students wanting to improve their skills in specific subject areas Gifted or advanced students in need of expanded educational offerings Remedial students who require one-on-one support Students who are unable to attend school during traditional times Summer school students Active students with scheduling challenges Nontraditional students returning to school Students seeking to expand their educational opportunities Students who may not otherwise have a particular course offering available

Disadvantages of Online Learning Costly - The quality of online-learning is directly linked to the money schools are willing to invest in it. Technology - The technology of the programs are evolving so rapidly that investment could be risky because software can become obsolete quickly. Cheating - Online students may be tempted to use resources that an in-class student would never be allowed to use. Faculty Issues - Few teachers have the technology to instruct a quality online course.

The Future of E-learning In order for us to make any progress on technology in education and e-learning, we first need to change our beliefs on how we approach education and technology. Says John Bailey, Director of Instructional Technology for the US Department of Technology, we must: Move beyond the notion that education is about school buildings, school days, and classrooms. Schools need to become access points to a whole range of educational opportunities. Every educational program is a technology opportunity, and every technology program is an educational opportunity. The potential benefit of online assessment should result in more effective use of class time. Using technology to teach using traditional methods will only lead to traditional results.

To Sum it up, E-learning isn’t anymore about digital technologies than classroom teaching is about chalkboards. It’s about people, and about using technology systems to support constructive social interactions (human learning). E-learning will work best when combined with the face-to- face experience. For More Information about Online Learning: