It's no secret. One of the best things about electing to take distance education courses is the element of learning on your own time. Though this is indeed one of the best aspects of distance education, a lot of people don't realize that there may be some form of synchronous style learning involved. Most of the discussion forums are gathered using asynchronous teaching/learning styles. This means that you don't have to be signed on at the same time, reading the same material at once. The instructor can post the material to be commented on in threads, and this can be viewed at different times within the subject start-end date.
This all gets very interesting when it comes time for a group project to be completed, especially when half the students work, may be in different time zones, and have all kinds of other obligations. Well just like within traditional face-to-face courses, there are group projects assigned. This is no different within distance education courses. It's for a purpose, and it still ensures students are able to grasp the material and prove this through projects effectively.
Do I think synchronous style projects are discouraging? Not at all. Again, it enforces a certain level of determination. With distance education, it's all about determination. In fact, since it is a greater lax environment, or at-will per se`, maturity and a real will to learn plays an important part. So, what do the students do? They link up a lot of times through chat or email. The University of Maryland University College offers a chat service through their LEO platform, and this allows the students to have synchronous conversations. This serves a great purpose for tasks such as this.
The debate is whether or not students really prefer asynchronous style learning or synchronous learning.
What do you think? Is it a disappointment or disadvantage either way?
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI've also been pondering the facets of group projects in distance education. As you mentioned, they foster a certain level of determination. Certainly they require more active communication than face-to-face projects, as it could take twice as long to determine things as a group when no one is available to talk synchronously. As you said, time zones and busy lives make group projects difficult, but I don’t think that should deter a student from pursuing distance education. Group projects are extra work, but distance education students are already responsible for much of their own education.
I definitely prefer asynchronous learning, and it is my guess that many working adults would agree. While perhaps many of us would love to attend classes on a campus, it simply isn’t practical with our jobs and families. However there are many who would never take an online class because they prefer synchronous learning. I do not view the two styles as opposing, but complimentary. Each fulfills the needs of students that the other can’t. At this point in time, there are enough of both synchronous and asynchronous classes to provide options, either on a campus or online. The field is still growing, and I am confident that soon, any student will be able to find a program that fully meets their needs.