The Future of Online Learning

Online education has been growing in the past few years. There was a one million student increase in the number of students taking online courses from 2009 to 2010. In 2010 nearly 30% of college students took at least one online course (Borden, 2011).  We will only see these numbers continue to increase as technology improves and new technologies like tablets and smart phones become the norm. I would expect that in the next 10 years over 50% of students will take at least one online course.

As more online courses and degrees are offered you will see the quality and standards become more standardized. By making sure that the quality, standards and academic integrity are maintained, it will ensure that online education is regarded the same as a traditional face-to-face educational degree.

As instructional designers it is important to maintain the integrity of the course content. An online course must meet the same objectives s a face-to-face courses. Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012) gives research and strategies that have proven to work in the online education environment. ID’s should use proven strategies and keep abreast of the latest research. Borden (2010) found that online students perform moderately better than students in the same face-to-face course.  IDs need to continue to ensure that the quality of the education offered in online course is equal to or better than the face – to – face courses.

To be an advocate for online learning I would push for accreditation of all online degree programs. Accreditation would ensure that the programs followed a certain protocol and met certain academic standards.  I would also work toward advertising the positive outcomes and aspects of online learning. I would also work to continue to push for technology that makes the learning more interactive for the learner. Using the latest technology and proven strategies can go a long way to making online learning accessible to more students as well as meet the needs of more types of students. It is important to know that as technology changes distance learning would need to change also to continue to be effective and meet the needs of the vast numbers of students who will be enrolled in online courses in the future.

References

Borden,J. (2011) The future of online learning. eLearn magazaine. Retrieved from http://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=2024704

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Guidelines for Converting a Face to Face Course to an Online Course

The process of converting an face to face class to a hybrid or online course may not be a simple process. You can't simply take the lectures and notes from the traditional class and put it online. The course content needs to be evaluated and redesigned to meet the needs of an online environment. Below you will find a guide to help assist in the development and redesign of the far to face course to make it a successful online course.

Guidelines for Converting Face to Face Course to an Online Course

Week 5 Blog Assignment : Open Course Analysis
HIST 119:The Civil War and the Reconstruction Area
By Carie Jackson

            Open courseware classes are free online learning experiences available to anyone who decides to take them. In the past few years many colleges and universities have started offering class lectures, notes and assignments online for free. Many of the classes are very comprehensive ( Education Insider 2012).

            I choose to  review a course from Yale , HIST 119 The Civil War and Reconstruction Era  1847-1877 taught by Professor David B Blight. (http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119).

Course Planning
            Open Yale offers course free of charge in a variety of subjects. They contain selected lectures and other materials (About OYC, 2012). The course  layout is easy to navigate and includes a syllabus and links to the 27 different lectures which are elements of effective online course design (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek 2012. The lectures are videos of the actual lectures given when the class was given. The course also includes recommended readings and essay assignments. You can download the course materials which also include lecture notes in pdf form. Videos are also available for free from itunes. All the course content is easily accessible with no registration or login required.

            It is clear that the course has been carefully planned. However, this is a case of simply taking a face-face course and putting it online. There have been no changes to make the course more online learner friendly.

Online learning activities
The class consists of 27 lessons. Each lesson has a video taped lecture with available transcripts if needed. There is also a set of reading assignments for the section. The learning is completely self paced as nothing is turned into an instructor. Simonson et al. (2012) discussed that -one of the characteristics of a distance learner was that they wanted to have as much control over their learning as possible.

There are many draw- backs to this type of online learning experience. Most of the class are archived classes. The online learner is basically just reviewing the material presented in class. There is no contact between class participants or between student and instructor. There is no collaboration among the students and no feedback from the instructor. These are all key points to ensuring an active learning environment.
The class is not interactive nor is it very engaging. Watching a 55 minute lecture on line will not engage many learners. These online courses may provide learning opportunities for people around the world but for many the lack of interactive learning will not make the learning meaningful and lasting.

These open courseware classes serve an important purpose for those students who are interested in a course but do not want to spend the time or money to take it for credit. But to be an effective distance learning course there needs to be modifications to make the course more interactive and engaging.

• References
• About OYC. (2012). About Open Yale Courses. Retrieved from the Open Yale Courses website: http://oyc.yale.edu/about
• Education Insider. (2012). Colleges and universities that offer free courses online. Retrieved from the Education-Portal website: http://education-portal.com/articles/Colleges_and_Universities_that_Offer_Free_Courses_Online.html
• Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson

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Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

EDUC 6135

Carie Jackson

I have chosen to address scenario #3. In this case a bio-diesel company needs to address the issue of a declining safety record. They need to design a safety design a series of satety training modules to accomplish this task. The modules must be stand alone and be able to be accessed by worker on all shifts throughout the day. Workers must be able to demonstrate their understanding of the safety modules.

 

"Beginning in the early 200s, however, a new generation of web applications emerged, tools that are highly participatory and promote collaboration, networking, sharing and the widespread genration of content." (Simonson,Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2012) One of these new technologies is Adobe Captivate. Adobe Captivateallows for easy development of eleraning lessons. PowerPoint presentations can be imported and turned into interactive learning experiences. Captivate also allows for HD video to be imported in a variety of formats. You can also create quizzes with multiple types of questions to assess understanding of the content presented. Captivate also allows for translation and text to audio features to allow access to the content for individuals who do not have English as their first language. Captiivate can them be converted into a flash document which can them be put into any website. This will allow them to place these safety training modules on their own company website for access by the employees at anytime (http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/features.html).

 

These features of Captivate will allow the biodiesel company to develop individual safety modules. They can take HD video of the proper way to use equipment along with step-by-step procedures to follow. After the content for each module is completed workers can then take the assessment to show their knowledge of the material. The supervisers can easily track the progress and performance of each worker on the safety modules (http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/features.html).

 

Several companies and school districts are using captivate to provide, assess and track employee performance.Palm Beach Schools in Florida use captivate to provide anytime training for their employees. They also use captivate to provide classes for teacher recertificate. This allows them to track participation and points earned(http://tv.adobe.com/watch/elearning-customer-case-studies/palm-beach-country-school-florida/). Nikon also uses Captivate to train all their sales representatives on the use and features of each of their cameras. It allows for employees to be trained the same regardless of their location. (http://tv.adobe.com/watch/elearning-customer-case-studies/nikon-adobe-captivate-in-use/).

 

Since Captivate is currently being used for the same purpose as the biodiesel company needs, there are a lot of tutorials and supports to help them create effective safety training modules. If the company goes with captivate they can meet all their perscribed needs with one software.

 

Resources

Adobe Captivate 6 (2012). Features retrieved September 23, 2012 from http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/features.html

Nikon (2012) Basic Photography retrieved September 23, 2012 from http://tv.adobe.com/watch/elearning-customer-case-studies/nikon-adobe-captivate-in-use/

Palm Beach County Schools, Florida (2012). Adobe TVelearning customer case studies retrieve September 23, 2012 from http://tv.adobe.com/watch/elearning-customer-case-studies/palm-beach-country-school-florida/

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

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Evolution of Distance Learning

What is distance learning? According to our text, “Distance education is a method in education in which the learner is physically separate from the teacher.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012, p. 35) . My definition fits closely with this definition. I came into the class thinking that distance learning involved students and instructors being in different locations but learning the same content. I immediately think of online classes when I think of distance learning. Online learning provides an opportunity for students who can not regularly attend a brick and mortar classrooms because of time, distance or other constraints.

I then thought of the type of distance classes I have taken in my education career. When I look back at my educational experience I have had distance learning experiences that were not online classes. I thought of the correspondence course that I took in the late 1980’s. Then I took a telecourse in the 1990’s where I watched lessons on public television and went to the school to take tests. I have taken online courses where I had to go to the college testing center to take midterm and finals and then I have taken courses that are completely online with no interaction at a school site. It made me think of how distance learning has change in the last few decades. Most of these changes seem to be related to the changes in available technology.

After this weeks learning I find that my definition of distance learning is to narrow. As a teacher, I focused my attention on the formal educational setting. Distance learning is not confined to high school and college educational classes. Corporations are using distance learning as a model for training employees on new technologies and for new jobs. Moller, Forshay, & Huett (2008) explain a number of advantages for companies using distance learning as a training tool.  These advantages include reductions in training costs, on-demand learning, and training that is available to a large number of employees at various locations world wide.

Distance learning is also making advancements in the K12 eduational arena. “Distance education in the K-12 arenais often referred to as “virtual schooling”and learning through virtual schooling is one of the fastest growing areas for K-12 school” (Moller, L., Forshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008).  This is a new an uncharted area of distance learning. In the US Journal of Academics they have found that the most significant factor helping students to succeed -or not -in Web-based classes has been their ability to manage time. (2012). The concern that younger students do no have the ability to manage time effectively and work independently. My school district is increasing the number of virtual classes to help students with credit recovery and for students who are no longer able to attend a regular classroom. These are students who by definition are least likely to be successful in the online classroom environment. There has to be support systems in place for these populations of students in order for them to be successful.

Another concern for the K12 distance learning is the actual instructional design component. Younger learners have different learning needs and requirements than older learners. We can’t just us the same instructional design delivery system that is successful at the high school and college level. There needs to be a delivery system that accommodates the varying student population that is enrolling in K12 virtual education. There is very little research on effective K-5 online learning since it is just now becoming more accessible and popular.  Ideally, ID professionals would play a key role in researching and designing K-12 distance education environments to carefully accommodate diverse learners with varying degrees of maturity (Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. 2008). It is important that schools take the time to collaborate and develop effective programs and not rush to put something together to be see as a cure all for the problems that are plaguing the schools in the current economic setting.

Distance learning needs to continue to evolve with research on the effectiveness of different content delivery methods. K12 education needs to use Instruction Design personnel to work with content experts to design programs that will be effective for not just different ages of learner but for different types of learners. I think that distance learning will continue to evolve in response to the continuing growth of new technologies and computer advancements. What we know as distance learning will probably be much different than the distance learning models in 5 years. As technology changes so will distance learning.
           

References:
Columbaro, N. L., & Monaghan, C. H. (2009). Employer Perceptions of Online Degrees: A Literature Review. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, XII, (1).

Moller, L., Forshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008) The evolutions of distance education:Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: k12). TechTrends p63-67.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: foundations of distance education fifth edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

The advantages of distance learning (2012). US journal of academics. Retrieved September 8, 2012 from http://www.usjournal.com/en/students/help/distancelearning.html.

Introduction

My name is Carie Jackson. I'm a middle school science teacher in Los Angeles, California. I'm working toward a graduate certificate in Instructional Design and Technology with an emphasis on teaching K-12 online. My goal is to eventually teach in an online school so I can stay at home and home school my youngest sons who is struggling with some issues related to his autism.

I'm a a single parent of 2 boys: 13 years old and 10 years old. They keep me busy with football, water polo, basketball, tennis and diving. Not to mention their drama and choir adventures.

I'm looking forward to this class and working with all of you.