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Online learning - will it replace the class room? 2

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jnicho02

Programmer
Jul 20, 1999
397
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<i>This question has been posted in the &quot;Where is Technology Going In The Next 5 Years&quot; forum. Members of this forum may wish to take part in this discussion.<i><br>
 
Personaly I think that alot of learning will be done online that is not to bad, but it may become adictive.
this is just what I think I could be rong.
 
Online learning will replace the class room for people who are in remote areas or can't <br>get to a school/campus for some reason. These are the same people who turned to<br>distance education earlier (pre-Web) and made use of TV, radio and cassette based<br>courses. Online education will appeal to many people than these earlier forms of <br>distance education because it can include discussions.<br><br>Online learning will not replace class rooms in the near future, if ever. Too much is<br>learned about and from the social interaction. Would you prefer to send you children<br>to a class of other children or put them in front of a monitor for a day?<br>
 
I don't think that in our lifetimes it will replace the classrooms.&nbsp;&nbsp;Peoples fear of change is making it a slow process.&nbsp;&nbsp;The idea is a very good one, however. For those people like Shidlowsky mentioned that live in remote areas or perhaps are unable to attend school in a tradidional setting.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have personally found that on-line learning is a great way to learn with out all of the &quot;campus life&quot; that attracts younger students to the physical campus.&nbsp;&nbsp;My time is spent learning instead of all of the activities at the school. But I have found problems with on-line learning as well.
 
Good point Shidlowsky! I agree that social interaction is too important to completely remove. It is so tied in with life as a human being and we must keep that sacred.<br><br>I have found that online learning is a wonderful technique for dealing with career-changing. When I remember that my father was totally amazed when I began changing jobs AND careers about every 5 years! The days of one permanent job until retirement are truly gone.<br><br>I also think it is important to incorporate online learning in with the classroom. How else are our children going to be prepared for this career-changing world?
 
Distance Learning provides opportunities not only to those that are in remote locations or who may have to deal with physical disabilities.&nbsp;&nbsp;I do agree that the preference is to to have DL enhance the classroom learning.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tacit knowledge is transmitted more efficiently face to face than electronically.&nbsp;&nbsp;I am currently doing an MBA in Information Technology Management, online through lotus notes.&nbsp;&nbsp;There is a great deal of online and offline time spent in discussion groups/project groups and case study groups - however I do miss the human contact.&nbsp;&nbsp;I do find satisfaction in the fact that doing my MBA online is better suited to my family (allows more face to face with them!) and career commitments.
 
<i>Welcome to Tek-Tips RugbyProp.</i><br><br>It's good to get comments from someone who is actually using online learning in earnest. Who are you taking your MBA with? <p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= home</a><br>
 
On-line learning is a rapidly developing field. There are already many ways that educational material is being handled over the Internet, or Intranet if internal to an organization. Textual information can be used by students taking courses at a distance or even in a classroom and is readily available for students to access 24/7 which means they can learn at their own pace or review information when they need to. This reduces the number of questions students may have about previously covered material. <br><br>Also, as technology advances becomes cheaper, you will find that more of the &quot;softskill&quot; courses will be more feasible over the internet. The use of synchronous and asynchronous delivery will allow instructors and students to interact just as if they were in the classroom.<br><br>Will it ever replace the classroom. No. As long as we have students with different learning styles, there will always be a need for direct student/student and student/instructor interaction.
 
Sorry for the delay jnicho02 - I am currently doing my MBA through Athabasca University- it is a virtual university devoted to distance learning and is accredited member of the Association of Universities and College of Canada. It is the largest MBA program in Canada and has students from over 20 countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF=" TARGET="_new"> - I agree with your observations - softskill courses are perfect for online learning - hardskill will still require some personalization strategy for knowledge sharing&nbsp;&nbsp;to be effective.&nbsp;&nbsp;Most colleges and universities in Canada are feverishly developing&nbsp;&nbsp;online learning solutions for the regular classroom as well as for distance learning.&nbsp;&nbsp;The regular classroom solutions are only to enhance learning in the classroom not to replace it.
 
I am also interested in distance learning and choose it as the topic of my dissertation. I am conducting a survey to determine the value of distance learning degrees to employers and graduates of distance learning programs. If you will logon and take my survey, I will provide you with the results. My website also has copies of my dissertation in progress. It is at Thank you.
 
I find this topic very interestly. I have worked in a university setting for 12 years as an office manager. I was taking classes whenever I could but was not making headway on a degree because as in most areas of the university--it is too disruptive to have someone gone to take a class, even if it is offered in the same building. A number of years ago I told my university advisor &quot;I need to work x number of hours during y hours to live on & am having trouble finding classes that will fit.&quot; He replied &quot;well I probably won't see you next semester.&quot;

I think that traditional universities will always be around but online education will become more commonplace. There are too many people in rural america either looking to upgrade skills, laid-off employees not wanting to leave their rural roots or people looking for the convenience of &quot;going&quot; to class whenever convenient online. Every month I do web searches to find new sites that have online education.

I wish there were more AFFORDABLE online programs. Most programs are much more expensive than regular tuition. The cheapest I've found is about $200/credit---I realize this is still cheap but I'm used to < $100/credit.

I finally put my education first & started working part-time. This semester I've taken 3 alternative type courses plus 2 regular classes. 2 are independent (COBOL & INTRO HTML) & 1 (C PROGRAMMING) is an internet class.

My C Programming internet class came with a video tape with 23 lessons (12.5 hours). The problem is the instructor doesn't give feedback. A detailed question to him would receive a short, vague sentence in reply. The video tapes have helped tremendously BUT I miss the availability of an instructor with office hours. With internet classes it will be even more important to have instructors with great communication skills.

I found the C forum to be a wonderful help. I used it a couple times when paricularly stumped. I always announced I was a student & in return was given &quot;tips&quot; on how to adjust my thinking to find the correct answer.

By no choice of my own, my COBOL class was bumped from traditional classroom to independent study. I have my book & syllabus & that's it. I have been floundering.

I find that because of my alternative schooling I have to reach out to alternative sources to find answers to my questions. I have found some great web sites that help explain things in a slightly different way (& sometimes more understandable) from my text. I feel the more information the better.

BUT I have also run into more educational closemindedness because of my searching for more information, answers & reasons why. This really hit home when the head of Tek-tips wrote me. I had written a COBOL thread & was in a panic because I just didn't get a program to work & didn't understand why & was frustrated with COBOL itself. I wrote a thread & wasn't sure what to submit because (if you know COBOL) the programs are incredibly long. I figured too much is better than not enough & submitted it. I got a response & went to review it----it was gone. I couldn't figure it out. I wrote a thread titled missing thread, asking if I had done something inappropriate or if there were technical difficulties. Someone wrote back & it was deleted too. Finally the head of Tek-Tips wrote, he said Tek-tips is for PROFESSIONALS ONLY and a number of people had &quot;red-flagged&quot; my thread & that was why it was deleted.
He then commented on that I should figure it out on my own like everybody else had to do when going school. I would bet $$$ he went to school in a traditional setting, with an instructor, lectures, lab time & probably even a lab assistant.

I like this forum but if I get deleted I guess I deserve it. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute & if you have a role in online education PLEASE KEEP AT IT BECAUSE IT IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE & is very much needed.
 
I attended a talk by a professor who leads an online class. He has found out that it's great for someone who cannot make it to the clasroom becuase of work/home schedule, distance or illness. HOWEVER, he also found that students who were not disciplined to sit down at the computer w/o distraction did not succeed.

He also found out that some students have difficulty with a course because the instructor did not factor in download speed, possibility of disconnects & length of each course &quot;session&quot; when designing their course.
 
How can on-line education replace tradicional education if
the scholl does not know who is behind the computer ?
Even when considering web-cams it sounds not credible...
 
Be SURE it will happen in VERY near future and it has been started already. This one will get a speed of the light when people around the Worl start to understand that THIS IS and WILL remaind to be a FUTURE of The Internet learning and communication.

Check it out now among the first ones:


Pekkanet
Finland
 
I've taken both. In the classroom is far better. Online classes arent new. I took an W95 online class from Microsoft in the early 90's.
 
I understand CLEARLY that this is NOT a forum to sell anything and I'm NOT doing that. But tell me where people could get information about new things if not in discussions with others and there's ALWAYS 'selling' included no matter what's the way spread the words through the World.

In this you will find ONLY telling, NOT selling:


Pekka Heikkinen Finland

EDU ID: 1268
Mob: 358-(0)41-4738525
Email:
heikkinenpekka@hotmail.com
PHeikkinen@edublvd.com
EduTalk:
 
I think it will for several reasons:

1. Classroom training is riddled with 'get-rich-quick' people swicthing careers. They slow down the class. Some mcse courses I've taken, we didn't even get through 1/2 the book because of neebie questions/problems.

2. To save money, classroom training places hire guys who have to teach multiple subjects. This creates for a very poor experience. The guys who tought me slq and exchange couldn't answer my most basic questions. Basically all they did was tell us to do the lab in the book, and then he would summarize the chapter. Completely worthless.

3. Some of the CBT vendors hire extremely talented trainers. Trainers that specialize in the subject they're teaching.

4. CBTs are much cheaper. For a mcse cbt course, it coust around $500. For a classroom mcse course, it cost around $5000.

5. CBTs can be viewed during work. I spent 7 weeks in the classroom this year for mcse2000 training. I enjoyed being away, but thats expensive for an employeer, and hard to get approved.

 
I am currently studying the validty of online/distance learning as a credible alternative to traditional learning at universities.
Can users get a better education/training through these mew media developments?
and will the user be more likly to gain employment, after studying with E-learning methods?
I believe that the quality of training can be of a higher quality, but the need for interactivity with other members may lack the comaradry of working with your peers?
 
I don't think online learning will replace traditional learning because most 18 year olds will want to go away to school.
 
I am all for distance learning since we have adopted it at our college.
It has several advantages that benefit the students and staff and college funding.
During a normal lesson, using an interactive whiteboard, you can actually call up the web site and conduct your pre-arranged lesson and add to it if needed. If a student is absent for any reason, they can access the web site and catch up on that material, or revise previous material and if necessary print the material which saves us producing reams of handouts.
All material can be updated when needed, thus helping to keep costs down without waste of resources. The material produced can be tailored to suit the course running. And the best of all is that with the programmers help parts of the lesson can be annimated which is extremely helpful for the students to gain a proper understanding.
The response from others about it not replacing the classroom is quite true. You need the interaction from the lecturer, you also need the real life situation, the heat from the experiment, the electric shock hazzard, the pressure vessel rupturing, you can't smell burning or get an electric shock on a computer program.
Distance learning, CBT and any other name you give it is assiting in the teaching of the students. it helps the teacher and the student equally I am all for it.
 
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