Course Reflections
This was the course that ate my summer. From June 9th to August 3rd this course consumed my life. This being said, it was a most enjoyable experience. Never being one to read the fine print, I was unaware that this was a sixteen week program presented in eight weeks. I can see now why an online course designer position is a full time job. I came away with an even deeper appreciation of my previous professors who developed instructional videos and original content for presenting their material. Creating a quality online class consumes a great deal of time.
I stress the word quality in the previous sentence specifically because I noticed, while reviewing my peer's materials, that a great many of them simply aggregated other materials for their presentations. While I believe in aggregation as an enhancement to the learning experience, I'm still burdened by the notion that teachers ought to teach and do so in a fashion that is unique to them. E-learning provides educators a great opportunity in that they can actually create their own materials for a class. What once required a huge investment of time and resources and the publishing of a textbook can now be accomplished by a few megabytes of server space. The online learning environment allows the instructor to target their message to their learners. Textbooks need no longer serve as conduit or a means of presenting material. That this is a powerful tool cannot be denied, but at the same time, it presents a challenge to educators in that they must rethink the way things should be done.
Online learning challenges the old model of read a chapter and write something about it. To be sure such activities should not be completely replaced. Written expression is still a vital means of communication, but e-learning offers so much more. It introduces elements of interactivity and immediate feedback to each and every learner and not just the one standing at a white board explaining the previous night's homework. This new layer of learning was an absolute joy to discover. I have some skill in computer programming and designing my e-learning course allowed me to put that skill into practice to create online exercises to coincide with my lessons.
This course also served to permanently embed in my mind that up and coming teachers must be required to be computer savvy beyond surfing the net and email. The technology available screams out to be used by those educating the next generation. In my opinion, there is a dire need for education systems to offer continuing training on this subject to those training the nation's children. Simply introducing technology into the classroom is not enough. Teachers should be trained, not only on how to use existing online activities, but on how to create activities of their own to engage their classrooms.
