Online Learning

It's difficult to go onto the Internet and not find someone who isn't extolling the virtues of Online Learning. After all, what could be more intriguing than sitting in your bedroom in your pyjamas and take a course.

Many universities, for example, offer courses that are online so that you can upgrade from at home. Online courses for qualification upgrading in an educational discipline are a prime example.

Like anything, there are benefits and also dangers of this approach. Word gets around quickly that some courses are easier than others; some have considerable rigour and instructor involvement. Some courses actually have no instructor involvement. It's basically a click here, read this, reflect, and move on approach. As with most things education, you get what you put into it.

The next big thing is to provide opportunities for our students to get involved. Education is such a precious commodity. Secondary school students have strict requirements about what and how much is required in order to graduate.

Required courses are only offered when there is sufficient enrollment. Before Online Learning was an option, students could transfer schools or stick around for another semester or term. Online Learning offers an additional option.

If the course is currently being offered, students can enroll and take their credit in this fashion. Online Learning isn't for everyone and guidance counsellors do their best to counsel students into courses (online or regular) where students will be most successful.

So, if you are taking an online course, what does it look like? Good teaching is good teaching. Just as someone would fall asleep in a lecture hall or classroom where a teacher drones on and on, there's nothing intriguing with going online and seeing page after page of reading and links to other websites. Online courses are subject to strict review and quality assurance to ensure that the content is at least as good as its classroom equivalent.

Students are most successful when they are actively engaged in the subject at hand. To that end, opportunities for interactive media enhance the online experience. In the GECDSB Physics offering, Fred Driedger has created a number of Flash movies to let the student interact with the computer as they learn the concepts being taught.

In this movie, Fred takes his online students through the physics of balancing a lever. You're going to want to work this through and see his surprise at the end.

Exciting things are happening in online learning. Look for the Greater Essex County Virtual Academy to have its grand opening / ribbon cutting in the very near future.

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