Online learning has changed everything. Well, it has certainly changed a lot. Years ago when I first graduated from high school in 1996, the web was still in it's relatively early development. We didn't have the capabilities we have today. A classroom blog was not a feasible plan, nor was a class project like cotc.wetpaint.com. The idea that a classroom could exist in cyber space was not much more than a dream then, and even if it had been, I wasn't interested.
Let's move forward to 2006. I've been working at a job that was less than dreamy for about eight years. Life was simple enough, just not very fulfilling. My wife had been attending classes part time at COTC for a few years now, both on campus and online, and getting a pretty good education while she was at it. My curiosity was aroused. I bet I could go back to school and get a pretty good education at COTC as well, and do it while I continued to work full time. My job offers a fairly flexible schedule, but it would still be necessary to take most of my courses online. Turns out, COTC offers a lot of classes online, I could be a college student without having to step foot on the campus for entire quarters!!
Here we are in 2008, I've been a student at COTC for four quarters now and I've never attended a class on the main campus. I've attended class at The Works, two to be exact, but The Works is about two minutes from my house, doesn't get much more convenient than that.
How has online learning changed the way I perceive education? Almost completely.
Online learning has made it possible for me to not only attend school, but enjoy it as well. I can sit in my sweatpants, drink my coffee, smoke a cigarette and yell at my dogs, all while listening to Bill lecture. Try doing that at the Works.
Has online learning been easy? Sometimes. The ease of being able to pause and resume at my convenience has been invaluable. The option of being able to wait until 11:59 PM to turn in assignments has sometimes been my downfall. I'm a person that hates to do today, what can be put off until tomorrow. In a traditional classroom this was bad enough, but in the online world, it has sometimes been disastrous.
Has it been frustrating? Occasionally. Not getting immediate answers to questions I have for instructors can be very irritating. Waiting on replies to emails is like watching paint dry. In Marketing I had a group project that required coordination of several people. In a traditional classroom, not a big deal, for an online class, very difficult. I have a very different schedule than some and that's why I take online courses. I guess I can see the relevance of being able to coordinate online, but it's not something I expected from Intro to Marketing. If I ruled the online learning world, I would ban group projects.
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my online learning experience. Just as I suspected and made note of at the beginning of this course, Bill has armed me with an abundance of knowledge that will no doubt help tremendously as I continue in my online learning, not to mention completely changed what I expect from an online course. I have a feeling that next quarter, when I take all online courses again, I won't be nearly as enthused about the lectures as I have been this quarter.
So how has online learning changed the way I perceive education? It has allowed me to feel like I am part of something new and fresh. My input into the system could make it easier for the next person, and their's for the next, and so on. I feel like with the advancement and evolution of the Web, online learning will continue to evolve, or at least it should.
My suggestion, get the instructors on board, teach them how to teach in this environment. Teachers can't be as effective if they don't understand the medium they are using and it has been my experience that some of them clearly don't. I honestly feel like what we are doing right now, blogging, is the future of this medium, or at least it should be.
Thanks to everyone who has commented and shared with me this quarter, I've thoroughly enjoyed the exchanges.
-Zack
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2 comments:
You hit on this point, and I think more will. When working in groups for online classes, the experience is only as good as the work ethic of each student. I suppose if a person is a control freak he or she can assume full responsibility, but most of us take online classes because something about our schedule conflicts with the face-to-face time or there is an issue with distance. Evan a control freak like me dislikes group work conducted for online classes.
So yeah. I agree with you. Group work is a drag online. BUT, I think it depends, too, on the format. What we did with this blog and the wiki was essentially group work. I think it's all a matter of how the material is assigned. There still needs to be personal accountability.
I couldn't agree more. This was a group project. I hadn't even considered that fact. SO, I guess I wouldn't ban the group projects, just make sure they were formatted in a way that was more user friendly or even, God forbid, entertaining...
Thanks for the always thought provoking comments.
-Zack
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