On e-Learning

There are a wide array of pros and cons in regards to online learning. Unlike some of the previous articles, this slide-style presentation was more balanced I thought.
The article did list pros which are not necessarily pros of online learning. For example, the article did mention that group projects can be easily incorporated (just like in a class) and that the course has access to a wide range of resources (just like in a class). So these are not necessarily benefits of e-learning. Any article that you can find on the web for your e-class, I can find on the web and print it for my classroom. So there is no real difference there.
The real benefit, I think, is the manner in which it brings people together. You can assemble a team of students from all corners of Ontario to participate in a course which might never run if it had to be held in a traditional setting.
There are cons to this model too. I teach Latin in a Hamilton high school. in an average year I will get about 75 Latin students (25 students in each of three classes). If we offered a province-wide e-Latin course and 15 students from Hamilton decided to take that e-course, then I would lose the necessary teacher/pupil ratio and my school could cancel all of my Latin courses to the dismay of the other 60 students. Latin teachers are very conscious of this around the province. I have been approached to write an e-Latin curriculum, but most Latin teachers in the province hotly oppose the development of e-Latin because they feel it will kill the programs in their schools.
Many classes offer a learn at your own pace model. This is highly valuable to the busy professionals of today. We are all pulled in so many directions, it is incredibly useful to tackle an assignment in advance or to have some flexibility to hand it in a bit later. It does require students to have greater self-discipline and to be self-motivated learners.
Learn at your own pace can prove to be problematic too. Lazy students can wait until other students have posted answers and then simply mine the other assignments for information which they will use to construct their own answers - a form of plagiarism. This can be countered by having posting "windows" within which students must submit their work. eg. All answers to question 1 must be submitted on Sunday night between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. You can write your answer in advance, but must post it during the window. This reduces the likelihood of other students stealing your work.
The article suggests that learning can be customized to the learner. This has good potential, but in the number of courses that I have taken, there is no real customization.
One nice aspect is that students are obligated to become somewhat techno-savvy. (Did everyone see my post that came in filled with programming code?) ok. I learned and I won't do that again! And technology is omnipresent so it requires us to polish old skills and to learn new ones.
The cost of running an e-course may be different from a traditional course. This is because networks, servers, soft-ware, help-desks etc. may be expensive.
I do have some concerns about the "type" of training that happens with some e-courses. Much of what I have been exposed to is very basic. Read the text and answer the questions. Read the article and offer an opinion. This is learning, but it is rather superficial learning. It generally requires little analysis, justfication, synthesis, comparison or anything. We often see assignments that require students to comment on other students work. This is supposed to be a "feedback" or "collaborative" aspect of the course, but many of those posts look like this: "I totally agree with Bob. Good work."
That, of course, is feedback which contributes nothing to the overall tone of the course or anyone's learning.
Here is an example of an assignment that I received in a recent e-course: Write a paragraph about an object that you have which is meaningful to you........marked "good job mark is 3 out of 3" As a university graduate with two degrees and taking a university level e-course was I actually marked on a paragraph about my most prized possession?
I think that the role of the instructor has also changed in the e-learning environment. Many e-instructors are not instructors at all, but rather facilitators, site managers, helmsmen, or mailboxes. They steer you into different directions and encourage/require you to find answers to your questions. But I have yet to take a course where an e-instructor has actually taught a lesson. The whole process is rather Socratic and it is both fun and interesting because some of the best lessons come from the students themselves with their posts.
There is also a risk if the facilitator is knowledgeable about the subject matter, but not knowledgeable about computers. It impairs their ability to facilitate, to moderate conferences and so on.
I believe that e-courses have made the world smaller and more accessible. Sure some people do not have computers or high speed computers. But those people do not need to take e-courses. Some people don't have cars, but they can take the bus.
My fear is that many e-courses are just ticket-punching courses with very low academic rigor or that the courses are actually CYA (cover your A&* courses.) I recently took an e-course with an exam in the army. It allows me to make contracts and spend National Defense dollars. But nothing prevented me from simply printing the reference material and putting it on my desk and then referring to that printed material when I wrote the exam. If the "course" simply requires me to copy stuff from a page into a forum, that is not much of a course. Much of my last e-course was like that: "transfer information from box A into Box B. I think that e-courses have higher potential than that.
Cheers,
Dan