Cedo550: Week One - Online Learning

Enrolling in this program is the first time that I've taken online classes, so my impressions have been formed from my experiences here. Overall, the experience has been wonderful, and although it took a bit of time to understand all the technical issues, once I got rolling, everything fell into place. So, with this in mind, I at first assumed that the articles and sites that we were asked to examine this first week would mimic what we've been doing in class as online learners. Little did I know how extensive the whole online learning environment is and how far it's going. Much of the classes we've been taking have been more or less a lecture type of format with some interactive activities taking place. Thus, I thought that this was the typical format for high school and middle school students when they take online classes. How surprised I was to discover just how interactive and how large the online learning community is. Classes offered take the form of games, discussions, group work, and so much more. In addition, I was impressed at how complex the course were in terms of objectives and design. Clearly a ton of planning has gone into many of the courses, and each one seemed to address everything from learning style to communication to instructor involvement. In addition, each class addresses skills aimed at getting students to develop their critical thinking. As I perused to wide variety of courses, I kept thinking how much my own kids, one of whom is a high schooler, would enjoy some of these classes. So many classes in the traditional setting, especially high school classes, spend much of their time lecturing with students taking notes. Even though many teachers work hard to include some variety, many are still unfamiliar with technology and/or afraid to do something different. Thus, the students are bored and not engaged.

The other thing that struck me from a teacher's standpoint is how available the instructors are and how much time they must put into their online curriculum. Not only does the instructor have to search to include all the technologies, but then he/she has to be available almost 24/7 to help students. It all makes me wonder what the salary is for online instructors and how proportional that is to the time they put in. And as someone stated in their discussion, I wonder how instructors will be effected as the enrollment continues to rise. Will class size become an issue?