On‐Line Education: A Study of Emerging Pedagogy

Abstract

Students are beginning to expect access to new models for lifelong learning. Many institutions are feeling pressure to offer on-line courses, yet most faculty and administrators are ill prepared to do so effectively. This chapter identifies significant issues in the development of such courses, including ways to create interaction between and among learners, drawing on research, on the experiences of the author in teaching on-line courses, and on interviews with instructors, potential instructors, and students of on-line courses.Examples of traditional courses offered with a variety of telecommunications methods (e-mail, computer conferencing, satellite delivery) have been discussed in the literature (Harasim, 1993;Hiltz, 1990;Rice-Lively, 1994;Schrum, 1992;Sproull and Kiesler, 1991). In the majority of these courses, instruction is delivered entirely or principally via computer-mediated communications (CMC). These and other studies suggest that this form of education is effective for well-motivated students. More important, they indicate that traditional courses cannot be delivered effectively through CMC without significant changes.The impact of on-line courses has only begun to be investigated. To date, the traditional distance education literature has focused on the design and implementation of correspondence, compressed video, or satellite broadcast delivery courses. That literature provides some parallels, but does not directly inform the design and development of on-line courses.Large numbers of community colleges, continuing education centers, universities, and private training enterprises have expanded their programs to include courses delivered partially or entirely on-line, and many other organizations are considering implementing such courses. Institutions are feeling

Linking Social Work Students to the Wider World via an Asynchronous Learning Network

“…Imagine the effect if social work students across the country or across the world were to study a phenomenon in their own communities (Weisenberg & Hutton, 1996)-then amass that data in a common data base to be searched, compared, and analyzed. Or imagine students pairing up for an assignment with peers in other parts of the world, sharing diverse cultural experiences and orientations (Schrum, 1998;Harasim, 1990).…”

“…Distance education and asynchronous learning offer solutions to problems that have made it impossible for some social work students or potential students to obtain education, continuing education and training: poor health, accessability problems, caregiving obligations, weather and travel obstacles, and scheduling conflicts, to identify only the most obvious (Schrum, 1998;Owston, 1997). These uses have reasonably received the bulk of attention because they make education accessible to a new pool of students.…”

Using Information Technology to Create Communities of Learners

“…Developing technology-assisted courses is more expensive (Ehrmann, 1999) and more time-consuming by two to three times than teaching a traditional class (Schrum, 1998). Effective Web-based courses need a full complement of course materials on the course Web site but also need the appropriate campus resources to support the course.…”

IRRODL Volume 4, Number 1

“…Within the context of traditional DE delivery, interactivity occurred mainly through asynchronous correspondence between individual students and their instructors using print materials. With the advent of the Internet based technologies, however, DE practitioners now have at their fingertips technology that allows them to magnify and greatly enhance the quality of current DE models, thereby creating new and increased levels of interaction, communication, and collaboration among and between students, teachers, and their institution (Schrum, 1998). According to Harasim (1989) online course characteristics include independence of time and place, communication of many to many, collaboration of learning, and dependence in literal communication.…”