This pandemic has forced everyone to embrace online learning.  Online learning has been around for several years.  However, some people were use to and comfortable with doing things the old way.  When new ways of learning and thinking are first introduced, there is often skepticism and resistance.  As the world changes around us, we have to adapt to meet the needs of the world and the people in it.  With the introduction of the internet many businesses have found convenient ways to connect with the global world in which we live. In 2020, we live in a technology driven world, so embracing the use of technology is inevitable.  Children and adults have been faced with transitioning from brick and mortar classrooms to learning online.  You can get the same quality education in an online educational setting, when instructors design their courses in a manner that is conducive to students learning style preferences (kinesthetic, auditory, visual, and verbal) and use differentiated instructional strategies.  Differentiated instruction means that instructors incorporate written and verbal instructions, as well as instructional videos to supplement the lesson, provide clear instructions that are easy for all students to comprehend and follow with or without facilitated guidance, actively engage with students through constructive feedback, and engage students in infrequent collaborative activities to ensure he/she is an active learner.  

 

The effectiveness of online learning is contingent upon how well you design the course, as well as how well the students participate in the learning environment. When you are designing an online course there are a few things to consider and they are followed:

 

-Develop an appropriate well designed course that is easy to navigate and students can find important information and assignments.
 

-Construct well written questions that promote critical thinking skills.

 

-Include assignment deadline dates.

 

-Utilize valid and reliable measurement/assessment tools that align with your course objectives.  The course objective should include what skill and/or knowledge a student should be able to effectively demonstrate by the end of your course.  The measurement tools used, should accurately assess whether or not learning occurred as a result from what you taught and identify if modifications to your instructions need to be made.

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-Use differentiated instruction that includes a variety of ways that students can learn (written, verbal, hands-on practice exercises, etc.)

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-Use Quality Matters as a good measurement tool to use when designing your course online to ensure that you include all the important course components.

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-Make sure that your lesson plan and/or course syllabus matches with your course design.

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-Include a detailed grading rubric for assignments, so that students will know the course expectations and exactly how he/she will be graded accordingly.

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-Make sure that you consider people with learning disabilities who may need accommodations, when you are designing your course to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn. 

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-Technical support systems have to be readily available.

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There are several benefits to online learning which are: it is a convenient way to learn in any location where there is internet access, provides the opportunity for working adults to pursue an education while working full-time, provides the opportunity for introverts to communicate more in the course, provides the opportunity to assess all students in the course in real time (versus in the classroom, where you only know which students grasps the course material when he/she speaks out in class or at the time of testing, i.e. in a traditional classroom you don't know prior to testing, if students do not volunteer or are not called upon to respond to questions that the instructor asked during the class), it is an alternative way to learn (if we didn't have online learning as an option, how would students learn during this pandemic?), and all students are required to participate/engage in the course to complete it, when students want to learn and gain knowledge he/she is more invested in their own learning process, and everyone has to learn the use of technology tools, which can be transferable skills used in the workplace.

 

There are also some challenges with online learning as well.  Students who do not have intrinsic motivation and good time management skills and/or need more guided instruction can find themselves falling behind in completing their coursework, students who are uncomfortable asking questions for clarity and/or need immediate feedback could feel like he/she is teaching themselves, especially if the course instructor is not actively engaged in the course.  Online courses have more assignments than in person courses and when students do not practice good time management skills this can become overwhelming to students.  In addition, access to technology is not always available to low income students, and technology doesn't always work properly, so technical support is important. 

 

The benefits of online learning outweigh the challenges.  However, online learning is not for everyone.  Some students thrive better in a traditional classroom setting depending upon his/her learning style.  Some instructors are also better at teaching in the brick and mortar classroom, when he/she is not innovative, does not possess technology skills, just wants to "feed" students information (share what they know based on their own personal experience through storytelling) without student feedback, is not good transferring knowledge through articulation of what he/she knows about the subject matter in a way that all students can learn, and those who are stuck in the mindset that online learning is not as effective as learning in a traditional classroom setting. 

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Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, none of us have a choice in the matter about the setting in which students learn.  So, hopefully now more people will see and understand first hand how online learning can be just as effective when the course is designed appropriately and students are actively engaged in their learning process.  Online learning, embrace it, it will be around forever.

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By Lynnette Clement