Final Essay- Compostion 106

THE ONLINE LEARNING REVOLUTION

“The future is outside the traditional campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning is coming on fast.”
-Peter Drucker

Like the business world, the field of education is always changing and adapting. Often, this change is inspired by an alteration in demographics of students and these students’ varying needs. The average student of today is older and busier than their predecessors. They often juggle education along with families, jobs, and other responsibilities. With these full schedules it is difficult for the modern student to fit in a traditional on-campus education. The education field has met this problem with a fresh response- online learning. Through online courses, students can create a schedule to meet their needs and fit into their schedules. Additionally, online learning is broadening the educational field by introducing new opportunities to make students more globally conscious and by connecting the best teachers to the right students.

The collective demographics of college students have changed considerably from college students of twenty years ago. Where the typical college student of the 80’s was between 18 and 22 years old, today, colleges and universities are catering to a new college student; one who is 23 years or older, married with children, and employed full-time. In light of this change, online learning appears to offer the "non-traditional" student a practical alternative to on-campus courses. These patterns were witnessed firsthand by Professor Daria S. Heinemann, the Lead Speech Instructor at the Keiser University eCampus. Over her years teaching, she has witnessed this progression of popularity in online courses and documented it in an interview saying:

We are a ‘Now generation’. We are the ‘instant gratification’ generation. We want things now, or whenever we want them. This means that taking a class on Mondays at 6 pm no longer fits our schedule, so we want to be able to take it on Tuesday at 3 am or Friday at 12 noon – whenever we feel it is convenient. Technology allows us to do that. Online learning allows access to education to anyone and everyone. People who work full-time and have families can now attend classes and receive quality education.

In addition to increasing the convenience of education, online learning has opened up the education field to a variety of new opportunities. Previously, colleges and universities were confined to only employ teachers who live close enough to travel to their campus every day. However, through distance learning, schools can now employ teachers globally, picking from an expansive pool of the best teachers available. Furthermore, schools are given the opportunity to reach more students. Rather than limiting their marketing to local students only, a school offering online programs can include students internationally. This broadening of the educational field simultaneously benefits the students and schools by connecting each student to their choice school and program of study. For instance, should a student live in the United States and have an interest in studying Music Theory, Pop Culture, and The Beatles, they would essentially have to move to Liverpool in order to receive a degree in The Music of The Beatles. However, online education is working to bring programs of greatly varying interests to the students who are attracted to them, without ever having to leave their home.

In addition to broadening the variety of courses and programs offered, online learning works to supplement traditional classes in innovative ways; for instance, by connecting Language students to native speakers of the given language they are studying. Through online courses, a student in a Spanish class can connect with other students in Spanish speaking countries and gain important real world practice. Shirish Nadkarni, co-founder of an e-learning Web 2.0 platform called Livemocha, recognized the necessity of this feature in Language Education:

The challenge that we saw was most of the current learning methodologies do not result in good learning outcome, my kids have been learning Spanish for a number of years in both middle school and high school. They get good grades, but if you ask them to carry on a conversation, they can't really do that. To become proficient in a language, you need to be able to interact with native speakers. You need to be able to practice.

Online education easily provides that opportunity for practice through the utilization of international multi-lingual chat rooms and web-based learning programs in place of or as supplements to on-campus learning.

In the case of language studies especially, the educational community still sees online learning as a supplement to on-campus education. However, with the rapid expansion of online educational opportunities and the increasing rate at which entire programs are being offered online, it is unclear where the online revolution will end. Some analysts predict that eventually the entire educational field will be based on online learning. This drastic change would reasonably hold many benefits as well as a few draw backs. Some benefits might include lower tuition rates. Because universities would no longer have to buy property, purchase insurance, pay electricity bills, etc., they would be able to offer their classes at a much lower expense to themselves and consequently their students. Additionally, computer based education helps develop a comfort with technology and an imperative understanding of the online community that will aide students once they enter the work force.

On the other hand, there is also a sizeable opposition to this education revolution. As is true in the case of any major societal shift, there is an ample collection of people who are somewhat hesitant of the change. Should universities ever make a complete shift to online learning, what will be the disadvantages? One disadvantage many are concerned about is how the lack of face-to-face communication between teachers, students, and classmates will hinder a student’s necessary growth of people skills in college. Through online degree programs students miss out on important aspects of college life hindered on campus life such as socializing and networking. Furthermore, online courses tend to include much less supervision therefore one’s success in online programs is largely hinged on self-motivation and organizational skills. While this sort of educational environment may be incredibly useful in training grad students for the workforce, it might be slightly unrealistic for college freshman accustomed to a highly supervised high school setting.

At this stage, it seems somewhat unlikely that online learning could ever fully replace traditional on-campus programs. However, with technology continually advancing, online courses are working as integral supplements to our current education system, introducing revolutionary opportunities and transforming the classroom daily.

Survey Results and Analysis

Thank you all again for taking my survey! Your opinions were greatly helpful in my research! =) Here is a short summary of my results...





Above are two graphs of the data I collected from the survey. The first graph shows that of the survey participants who had not taken an online course thus far, 100 percent might consider taking one in the future. This tells me that there is currently a market for distance learning and most people are ready to embrace technology in education to an extent. However, the second graph shows the limit to which people are ready to rely on distance learning. Although many people might consider taking an online course, 100 percent of the survey participants felt that a complete shift to distance learning would take away something from their education. This data fully supports my thesis that although online education can work as an important supplement to online education, it could never adequately replace the traditional classroom experience.

Everyone please take my survey on online education! Thank you! =]

Click Here to take survey

Interview Profile

In preperation of writing my argumentative essay on online education, I had the privelege of interviewing Professor Daria S. Heinemann on her experience in the field of distance learning. Following are some pictures relating to our interview:

Professor Heinneman's Webpage

The Traditional Classroom

The Modern Classroom

Second Life Project

Q: Analyze the name Second Life. What does it suggest about the virtual worlds relation to the first life of the physical world?

The name Second Life seems to suggest that this distinct Cyber reality is a whole separate world from our physical world, the "First Life". Its interesting that many people really do view Second Life as a whole seperate place of being, rather than just a video game. In some sense, i suppose it is another life; it might not exist in the phsyical sense but it is a finite place where people regularly gather. I also feel that the name Second Life really reflects the idea that one can have a whole seperate life and seperate persona in this online world than the one they have in the real world. For instance, MTVs TrueLife once did a segment on a girl who was a well known rockstar in Second Life but a timid girl with stage freight in real life.

Survey Link

Click Here to take survey

CMC VS. FTF Article Summaries

With the constant advancements of technological capabilities, professor’s methods of teaching and communicating with their students are altering as well. The world of education has seen numerous beneficial changes in the last 15 years alone, such as a student’s use of emailing in communicating with teachers and peers and the use of chat rooms where class discussion can occur outside of the classroom. As the familiar communication plain changes, many analysts have begun to examine what, if any, affect this introduction of Computer mediated communication (CMC) has on the learning process and general school atmosphere.

The first article I chose, “'Let's you and me have a little discussion': Computer mediated communication in support of campus-based university courses”, is from the March 2000 issue of Studies in Higher Education. Online Networking has recently become an integral part of learning and using practicing foreign languages. Clearing house noted that “Synchronous CMC allows language learners to use the target language and interact with classmates, learners elsewhere, and native speakers worldwide”. The clearing house team developed a case study based using a third year undergraduate course, in which the tutor set up group-based CMC discussion of a course but did not participate himself in any way in that discussion. Among the questions the experiment sought to address were the following: “How effectively, and by what means, will communication and exchange of ideas be achieved in this situation? How stable will such interaction be? If groups diverge in their patterns of interaction, what factors underlie this divergence? How, and how similarly, will students and tutor judge the value of this experience?”. The Study ended up taking a turn the researchers had not expected when the chat rooms began experiencing large amounts of harsh peer criticism and to an extent bullying. It seemed that often socializing could get in the way of developing a strong educational discussion. The study concluded that there was a strong feeling that a leader was needed to actively monitor and pull the reins in from time to time, and to keep the discussion more focused.

The second article I chose, “Effects of educational context on socialization in computer-mediated communication”, is from the Winter 2000 issue of The Journal of Computer Information Systems. To investigate the suitability of CMC for supporting socialization in educational settings, the research team created a survey instrument that “measured perceptions of CMC relating to socialization” and applied the instrument in two different educational contexts: general communication and project team communications. The instrument was administered to a study with three courses in the final week of a 15-week semester. In one of the courses, students used CMC for general communication with the instructor and other students and for receiving course materials. Of the other two courses, one covered 3GL programming and the other covered database concepts and application development. CMC was perceived to be significantly better for initiating social relationships and for social influence in the context of general communication than in project teamwork. Subjects rated their perceptions of effectiveness for each item using a five-position Likert scale ranging from (1) Very Ineffective to (5) Very Effective. CMC is perceived to be much better for initiating social relationships and influencing others within the context of general communication, comprising personal and course related communication, than for supporting project teams. First, team project work may require faster turnaround of messages than general communication. Second, it may be more important in team projects to illustrate ideas, e.g., through drawing and graphic modeling, rather than simply telling about them as a mechanism for developing shared understanding. Third, team project work involves deadlines and deliverables that may place a premium on being able to quickly initiate social relationships and influence others.

My final article looks at the use of CMC in language classes and its effect on the development of language skills. “On "chatting" in the foreign language classroom” was printed in the August 2001 issue of The Clearing House. This article provides an interesting look at how Network technology has been incorporated into the classroom, with concentration given to incorporating synchronous computer-mediated communication technology (CMC), or chatting, into foreign language study. The researchers noticed a few notable differences between FTF communications and CMC. First, written debates in synchronous CMC, tend to elicit more complex language than oral debates, and learners tend to produce longer and more coordinated statements. This is because when typing out a thought students have more time to plan what they are going to day and are not worried about the pronunciation. Another observation reported in synchronous CMC studies is the equalizing effects on the distribution of learners' participation. Compared with FTF classroom interactions, there are distinctions in the composition of the communication tendencies between the teacher and learners as well as among the learners themselves. In a CMC setting, the teacher and learners become equal participants in the flow of conversation, no one monopolizes the conversation. The Clearing House suggests that “the absence of visual and social cues in the electronic medium determines this role shift. Physical and spatial classroom arrangements disappear, and the classroom transforms into a screen in which everybody has an equal voice”. The Clearing House discussion ultimately concludes that “learners tend to perceive the on-line environment as less threatening”.