Move over Facebook, the internet isn't just for wasting time anymore. As technology advances education has been finding ways to keep up including teaching through online courses.
The New York Times released the article 'After Setbacks, Online Classes are Rethought.' discussing the trials and tribulations regarding online learning courses. When Online Courses first became an option many schools jumped on the idea, but recorded high fail rates and began suspending the programs indefinitely.
Stanford University Professor, Sebastian Thrun embraced online learning and saw the high fail rates as an opportunity to change online learning for the future. With trial and error Thrun discovered just like with every invention and idea, not everything works the first time.
Click here to view the full article.
This article had me reflecting back on my time spent in class, and online. I have taken classes both on campus and online. In a class of 400 it's easy to feel lost and lose that connection with the course. Yet, online with students and a professor you'll never come face to face with can offer the same loses.
But online courses offered me one thing that on campus courses could not. I could monitor the professors involvement thought his comments on all of the students work and how much time he spent working through the online course since it would show who was active at certain times. In class my professor would give his lecture word for word off of his PowerPoint made 2 years prior while we scratched down notes. Online courses were able to engage me in current conversations and threads from the comfort of my surroundings with assistance from anyone active on the site.
So we want to know, what are your thoughts on online learning? Have you taken an online course or taught a class online?
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