Getting started in online learning?

Every day, someone new either thinks about doing an online course, or is pressured into doing one. You may have quite a lot of prior knowledge about online learning (or think you do), or may have no knowledge at all. The most important thing to know though is that you probably don’t know enough about online learning, especially if you are just starting out.

Online learning: a definition

Online learning is any form of learning conducted partly or wholly over the Internet. However, with the emergency measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic, commentators have made the distinction between deliberately designed online learning and the emergency measures used to move all instruction online in the spring of 2020:

• Emergency Remote Teaching:

It is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated.

•  Online Learning:

 A form of distance education in which a course or program is intentionally designed in advance to be delivered fully online. Faculty use pedagogical strategies for instruction, student engagement, and assessment that are specific to learning in a virtual environment.

The continuance of online learning

My definition means that learners will use a computer, tablet or some other device for their learning, and it also means that at some point in their studying they have to go online – through the Internet – to access information or communicate with an instructor or other learners.

• At one end, there is teaching with no use of technology, which therefore is NOT online learning, but ‘pure’ face-to-face teaching. However, teaching without any technology is very rare these days, at least in formal education;
• Then there is the use of technology as a classroom aid, which may or may not be online learning. For instance an instructor using a projector and Powerpoint slides would not be using online learning, but students being directed to use a device such as a laptop, tablet or mobile phone to look at a web site during a classroom lesson would be a form of online learning, but the classroom would remain the main means of delivery. However this could be considered a sub-branch of online learning, called blended learning;
• So, as with most continua, we get to a point where definitions become a little less precise, and this is blended learning, which again can mean a number of things, but in general means a combination of face-to-face teaching and a significant use of online learning, especially outside the classroom. This can take a number of forms:
• Flipped classroom is one where student do preparation online before a classroom session (for instance watching a pre-recorded video lecture, and/or online reading);
• Hybrid learning is one where the whole classroom experience has been redesigned to focus on what the instructor thinks is best done online and what is best done face-to-face; in hybrid learning students may spend 50 per cent or more of their time learning online;
• Online learning, where students do not come to campus at all, but study entirely online, which is one form of distance education

Implications

With the increased use of online learning, every instructor now has to ask themselves two important questions:

1. Where on the continuance of teaching should my course be, and on what basis should I make that decision?
2. How do I decide, in any form of blended learning, what is best done online, and what is best done face-to-face?

Three focuses of Online learning:

Learning Goals:

• In-person lectures
• Live discussions
• Video, Podcasts, ppt’s
• Discussion board

Online Learning Community:

• Building trust and Rapport formation
• Setting rituals
• Forming a community of learners
• Establishing a sense of presence online (instructor, students, peer)
• Maximizing participation, collaboration and reflection
• Plan ahead

Learning Tools:

• Recorded lecture
• Virtual Classroom
• Wiki
• Blog
• E-portfolio
• Online quiz
• Online game/simulation
• Social media platform
• Word Files and PowerPoint Presentation

Conclusion:

Online education has made great strides in recent years. More and more schools and learning institutions have introduced or reinforced their online education platforms, the main considerations being cost reduction for students and recruitment expansion in the face of rising competition.