Online Learning

The role of proximity in the learning process comes to mind when thinking about some of the differences between online and face to face learning. I took a calculus for the social sciences class (face to face) a few years back. The class was challenging to say the least and I spent many hours in the math lab taking advantage of the ‘free’ tutorial services, also face to face. The class met three times a week for 50 minutes and the instructional strategy aligned with what McLaren describes as “Information Transfer”. He writes, “during information transfer, learners are usually passive participants in the learning process” (p.230). Basically, the students watched the chalk board and listened to the professor. You might say that this is not a very progressive or exciting learning paradigm, but there was one activity that occurred in this class that I cannot imagine being replicated in the online environment. Every class we turned in problem sets from the text related to the lectures and the professor began each class painstaking working through several of the assigned problems, answering questions along the way. The way this relates to proximity is in the give and take interaction between the students and teacher in real time. Moreover, a question from one student encouraged other questions which solidified the learning exchange. As an aside, I also had the opportunity to participate in a study group, an event not likely to happen online because of issues of proximity.

On the other hand, online learning is more conducive to learning outcomes related to reflection, self-regulation and self-monitoring because you have to take responsibility for your own learning. And because online learning is more self-directed, for example, I can spend more time on the concepts that are unfamiliar and less on concepts that I can pick up quickly. This may be self evident and commonsensical, but it is a level of control not apparent in a face to face setting.

Orellana, A., Hudgins, T.L., Simonson, M. (2009). The Perfect online course: Best practices for designing and teaching, (Ed.). Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.

Assessment

The role of assessment for me, as a learner, is an affirmation of skills or the attainment of some level of proficiency in a subject. A part, and in some cases, a big part of the engagement with the subject matter is based on the assessment process and how the achievement or mastery of the material will be evaluated. As an undergraduate, I was required to take several math and science courses which were very challenging to say the least. Although this logic may be flawed, as a political science major (liberal arts), I assumed the assessments in my science and math courses would be more objective. I felt the cut and dry nature of the science and math curriculum provided a straightforward path to what was needed to pass the “test” and most time it was a test. This is not a diminishment of testing, on the contrary, in the end I greatly valued the achievement that acing a biology or calculus test signaled.

In my limited experience as an instructor (I taught an adjunct government class), assessments were crucial for me and for my students. The government class I taught was a required general education class, i.e., must take in order to graduate and as such, the students were fairly attentive (or captive, if you dislike politics). I mentioned this because whatever the assessments used had to cater to a very diverse crowd. For this class, the students wrote timed essays twice a week on questions about the functions of government and current events. The essay questions enabled the students to make connections between seemingly quiescent institutions and current issues facing them as citizens. The results were mixed, but the essay responses alerted me to gaps in the comprehension of the course reading materials which in turned helped to focus my lectures.

As an aside, I have to comment on Harlan’s assessment video. I laugh out loud when Harlan mentioned Michelle Rhee. What an absolute nightmare for those of us concerned about K-12 education here in Sacramento, where I live, because Rhee is married or will be marrying Mayor Kevin Johnson! I am sure she will be subjecting us to her foundation MichelleFirst, err, I mean StudentsFirst. Here is a nice Eva Peronish response from Rhee about the latest high stake testing scandal, http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/29/rhee_cheating/index.html