Traditional and Online Learning - Assignment Example

Traditional and Online Learning Distance learning is a term that has come to represent most recently the current proliferation of on-line courses and colleges that allow students the ability to complete courses and degrees via the Internet at home. Surprisingly this is not a new concept and there were distance learning courses available in the United States as early as 1728, at that time they were called correspondence courses. Initially these were courses that a student could take at home by receiving a syllabus of material and weekly coursework assignments in the mail. (Barket & Holley, 1996). Later on the dimension of sound was added by the inclusion of phonograph records which included lectures from the professor recorded on them. Now, with the advent of computer and other telecommunication technology, virtual classrooms and colleges are growing at an almost alarming rate. The educational system has been trying to keep up with these changes and has, reluctantly at first, offered accreditation to certain online campuses that met their criteria, but one has to wonder about the overall value as compared to traditional "brick and mortar" colleges. Ultimately it is the value received by the learner and perceived in the workplace that is of ultimate importance. The Problems: Although the current decade has seen many changes and improvements, there lingers a certain stigma from the past from on-line universities that guaranteed accredited degrees, but it was later discovered that their accrediting came from unrecognized sources. This led to a high level of dissatisfaction when applying to certain employers that actually checked the accreditation of the college and turned down the applicant. Unfortunately this practice still continues today and although on-line universities are handing out degrees they sometime are not worth the paper they are written on. The learner must do their due diligence and check the accrediting sources, this is especially important in fields like psychology where licensees are issued by the state of residence. If the college accreditation is not recognized by the state then they will not license the individual. Lists of accrediting sources are usually available on the states licensure web site. Another clue would be if the accrediting consortium has a location on an island in the Caribbean, it may not be an accepted agency. There have been certain other drawbacks noted. Without a physical presence in class and proctors observing exams, every course item completed is always in open book mode. All test are take homes and this certainly negates the ability for the teacher to judge just how much information has been retained and understood by the student, absent access to the course material. After all, if you can look up all the answers it isn't much of a test. Additionally, highly complex technical or scientific course material may also be difficult to comprehend without classroom times with a teacher. Furthermore, as flexible as the scheduling and course time is for the student, most distance learning coursework is set in stone and usually does not allow for any adjustments by the teacher to help match more accurately the needs of the individual students taking the course. Overall this general lack of physical interaction has always been one of the main concerns of the process of on-line education. However there seems to be little or no studies that have been done to verify this particular aspect of distance learning (Hannay & Newvine, 2006). Cheating and academic dishonesty is another major concern facing on-line learning. There is always a certain amount of cheating even in a traditional environment. In fact some studies show that between 40% and 60% of college level students have cheated at least once on their exams and a similar amount in regards to the writing of term papers (Kennedy, Nowak, Raghuraman, Thomas, & Davis, 2000). It is feared that even higher numbers are evident in on-line universities, although there are few studies to substantiate these numbers at this time. However, anti-plagiarism efforts have increased tremendously over the past several years, both in distance learning as well as traditional education. Web sites like TurnItIn.com and others have greatly improved the search for plagiarism in college term papers and theses. Requiring that all papers submitted to the on-line university to go through such sites adds another layer of security to online, as well as traditional, education. What about the learner? In a traditional brick and mortar college there is not only one on one real time communication with the teacher, but an entire network of students and other social functions that are traditionally part of the college environment. These social sources are certainly touted greatly by those who are staunch advocates of the physical college campus. After all, isn't there something missing in an education where one does not have to sit in an actual class with warm bodied students and teachers? Where is the humanity and is that important? First of all one must analyze what type of learner would be motivated to take advantage of this environment. Currently the large share of on-line classrooms are populated by learners that are already in the workforce or that have a family situation that does not allow them the flexibility of attending a traditional daily, semester by semester education. Many still believe that the traditional on-campus four year (or more) college education is essential to the emerging adolescent between 18 and 22, and that it helps to further their social and independent skills (Uhlig, 2002). However, the flexibility of an online education for those in the former category certainly has an increasing appeal and value in our society and the workforce. However, the perceived need for distance learning must certainly be tempered with strict guidelines and policies to protect both the overall system of education and the learner. By creating and maintaining a more fixed system whereby distance learning can be monitored and justifying the suitability of its qualifications so that they fall within our national system of educational credentials (Perraton and Lentell, 2003), distance learning can be a viable source for non-traditional education. This is also true for institutions that are finding very profitable incentives in providing more distance learning courses. With the low overhead of such classrooms and a burgeoning consumer base for the product, even Universities like Harvard and Yale are offering courses online. (Singer, 2000) The Advantages: As mentioned previously, the ability to learn at your own pace creates unprecedented advantages for an increasing number of individuals to receive an upgrade to a higher level of education and hopefully a proportionate improvement of income as well. Increasingly the availability of on-line learning is growing in popularity among military as well as many other businesses and industries that are trying to keep their workers competitive with the changes and advances in technology. Many professions have changed considerably over the past twenty years and have adapted to this technology. For instance, in the Securities and Insurance industry virtually all companies and organizations utilize online training and examinations for licensing their representatives and also for providing continuing education on many levels (Uhlig, 2002). One of the most striking advantages of distance /online learning is the technological use the learner makes of the system. Depending on the institution, a virtual classroom requires a fairly sophisticated knowledge of Internet communication via e-mail, blogs, files and the ability to navigate an often complex online classroom environment. This alone gives the distance learner an advantage to the practical application of e-communication on many levels. In an ever-increasing need for these skills in the global job market, this has also become one of the essential advantages to distance learning. One distance learner, an 22 year old single mother, had this interesting perspective on online education in an article in USA Today entitled, Distance learning gets its Close-up: "You have to do everything yourself because you don't have anyone feeding it to you," she says. But "I learn more this way. I have to read the book and do the work to understand it, because I don't have a professor talking about it to me" (MacDonald, 2007). In a sense a distance learner is a maverick, totally responsible for their efforts in the class. However, a tremendous amount of feedback is also available from instructors as well as classmates via the virtual classroom environment where discussions ensue and direct personal e-mail contact is available, as well as personal contact by phone, etc. Designed similar to the bulletin boards of the past, online classrooms generally consist of several sections of running dialog on course discussion projects, as well as place to post final papers and receive feedback and grades, all usually in an accelerated fashion as compared to traditional education. Typically, the cost of distance learning is anywhere from 30% to 50% less than their traditional brick and mortar counterparts (Singer). Further Notes on Technology: There has been an initial effort to keep online learning as similar to brick and mortar classroom as possible. By creating actual class time with instructors via web interfaces and speakerphone connections, real time classes have been conducted (Barket & Holley). However, considering the need to have learning at your own schedule that students of this method prefer, real time classes are often disadvantageous. So, efforts were made to record the class for viewing later and while satisfactory this is slowly becoming superfluous. The attempt to maintain the human element and the traditional classroom setting has certainly limited the flexibility of distance learning. Furthermore, anyone who has either been in the workforce or born into the computerized generation has a new concept of what the actual human element really is. This generation has become so accustomed to words on a page creating a dialog, whether instantaneously in chat rooms or through the slight delays of blog postings and e-mail, requiring that a physical presence is necessary for the classroom is almost vestigial. However, some distance learning is also a combination, "of on- and off-campus resource-based independent and collaborative learning" (Rumble & Latchem, 2003, p. 119). The human element is always present in some form or another in any classroom environment. Concluding Comments: Distance learning is becoming a valued member in the ranks of higher education. While detractors are still reserved in giving an all out vote of confidence, even they realize that the cost and convenience of this educational method has made it a staple for a large cohort of learners that normally would not be able to attend traditional classes. The constant improvements of technology and the need for businesses to keep their workforces current without loosing valuable staff time in the process are all powerful incentives for distance learning to continue to flourish. The problems with accreditation and dishonesty are effectively being addressed and many established institutions are providing distance learning as a viable option. Now an eleven billion dollar a year industry (Singer), Colleges that have been floundering financially find distance education a way to increase enrollment and limit the actual time a teacher has to spend in class as well. While policies are still in the process of catching up with this venue, the need and the quality of the education are both on the rise. More and more on-line universities are being accredited as well as having the ability to offer federal and private student loans to students. So what was once a single correspondence class in the seventeen hundreds has become full-fledged virtual university capable of bestowing Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees. References Barket, R. T., & Holley, C. L. (1996). Interactive Distance Learning: Perspective and Thoughts. Business Communication Quarterly, 59(4), 88+. Hannay, Maureen & Newvine, Tracy (2006) Perceptions of distance learning: a comparison of online and traditional learning. Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 2(1) Kennedy, K., Nowak, S., Raghuraman, R., Thomas, J., & Davis, S. F. (2000). Academic Dishonesty and Distance Learning: Student and Faculty Views. College Student Journal, 34(2), 309. MacDonald, Jeffrey, G (2007) 'Distance learning' gets its close-up USA Today; 11/28/2007 Perraton, H. & Lentell, H. (Eds.). (2003). Policy for Open and Distance Learning. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Rumble, G., & Latchem, C. (2003). Chapter 7: Organisational Models for Open and Distance Learning. In Policy for Open and Distance Learning, Perraton, H. & Lentell, H. (Eds.) (pp. 117-140). New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Singer, K. (2000, November/December). Distance-Learning Ventures Propel Top Universities into For-Profit Sector: Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford among Those Lured by $10 Billion Potential. Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Higher Education, 1, 61+. Uhlig, G. E. (2002). The Present and Future of Distance Learning. Education, 122(4), 670+. Read More