Obviously by being an online master's degree student, I am a beliver in online education. However from the assignments in this course, I have gained an even stronger insight into the boundless benefits of online education. Educators in standard classrooms wishing to enhance their lesson design can implement online learning in order to give students opportunities for exploration outside of standard class time. Additionally, educators can implement online learning in order to provide lesson recovery opportunities for students who might be absent from lessons.
Districts implementing online learning can provide credit recovery for whole classes that students have either missed or failed during the standard school year. Additionally, districts can implement online learning as part of their regular course offering in order to better prepare students to meet the online learning opportunities offered when they get to college. What’s more, teaching “across the curriculum” through integrated online learning can help students truly undersand lessons and encourage students to apply what they learned in one subject to necessary problem solving in another (Cook, 1995).
The professional development course I designed in this class is appropriate for both the classroom teacher and for the corporate trainer to understand more fully the learning styles of his students as well as to achieve the teaching style he hopes to adopt or modify. In my current position in public relations, the class I developed is less relevant than if I became a teacher of students wishing to enter the public relations field. Once my master’s degree is complete, I can then attain a teaching position. As a teacher, I can use the course I designed coupled with Dabbagh’s online theories database to help students learn techniques to help their students to achieve a higher level of understanding (2010). I can also teach others how to integrate hands-on learning into lesson design.
I think integrating online learning is paramount in any modern learning environment. Whether used during standard class time, or designed for students to “catch up” or get ahead, students are going to begin to expect online learning opportunities. What becomes more important in the days ahead is to design relevant and rigorous online learning that corresponds to the curriculum and not simply have online learning for the sake of having it. The online learning should alleviate frustrations, not create them, and should be technically useable in order for students to concentrate on the concepts to be learned instead of spending all their time on the technical side of operating the interface (Shank, 2009).
Armed with this new learning I will not hesitate to create online learning opportunities for even the most outwardly simple tasks. Even in my position, I have people at each of our district schools who help me collect news items to publicize about the district. I can create online learning to help them understand timeliness, essential elements of a news story, how to capture and transmit engaging photographs, etc, or as Williams and McTighe state it, "to have both knowledge and the ability to transfer it to practical applications" (Ch. 3, p. 41). By directing my helpers to these online courses and giving them the opportunity to excel at what I design, they may become more confident in the materials the submit to me for publication.
My remaining questions about online learningare simple: What are the leading techniques for creating online learning for handicapped learners?; How can differentiated online instruction best be integrated with the standard differentiated curriculum?; and In what instances is online learning best suited compared to standard personally interactive class time?
Cook, Cathy J. (1995) Critical Issue: Aligning and Articulating Standards Across the Mathematics Curriculum, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/math/ma400.htm.
Dabbagh. N. (2006). The instructional design knowledge base. http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm
Shank, Patti, Ph.D. (March 5, 2009) Usability Issues That Impact Online Learning. Faculty Focus. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/usability-issues-that-impact-online-learning/
Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, 2005.
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