In my limited experience, I have found that society often looks down at online learning. I have heard individuals make comments about how it is better to attend a traditional classroom setting as opposed to an online setting despite better accreditation. The evolution of distance education will have to negate these beliefs in order for society to completely adopt this innovation. Often, these comments are uttered from the same mouths that say, “If it was good enough 20 years ago, it’s good enough now.”
Moller, Foshay, Huett, and Coleman (2008) believe that the evolution of distance education needs to occur within instructional design. I strongly agree with this belief. Teacher preparation programs prepare educators to enter a traditional classroom. While technology has become a big emphasis in this, online learning has not. Many teachers are not prepared to enter such an environment as online learning. Many of the tactics used within a classroom setting are nonexistent in an online setting. Therefore, just as traditional systems have instructional specialists constantly staying abreast best practices in the classroom, distance education needs its own experts in instructional design.
In addition to discriminating between the instructional approaches of traditional vs. online classrooms, the individual students need to be considered as well. Moller, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) state that “the personal and psychological characteristics of successful online learners include autonomy, metacognition, self-regulatory skills, positive self-efficacy, motivation, and internal locus of control.” A world where every student encompasses these skills exists in fairytales. We accept the differences among students in a traditional classroom, so why should we assume these differences disappear when entering a learning environment with even larger boundaries?
Simonson (2000) argues that the Equivalency Theory should be used in regards to online learning. I believe this is accurate as well. While the learning outcomes should remain the same for both environments, the roads to meet those are different (Simonson, 2008). Just as students have different learning styles, different learning environments require different means. Like a traditional classroom, distance education settings must evolve the meet the ever-changing state of society. Distance education provides a medium to meet many of the needs that are missing in a face-to-face setting. However, the needs to maximize learning must be met.
Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.
Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.
Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classrooms. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29–34.
Simonson, M. (Presenter). (2008). Distance education: the next generation. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.
Blog replies to:
Karen Wagoner
http://wagzz1.blogspot.com/2012/12/compare-and-contrast-articles-and-video.html
Erin Rocha
http://erinrocha1981.blogspot.com/2012/12/module-1.html
Blog replies to:
Karen Wagoner
http://wagzz1.blogspot.com/2012/12/compare-and-contrast-articles-and-video.html
Erin Rocha
http://erinrocha1981.blogspot.com/2012/12/module-1.html
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