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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