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.