Try it, you’ll like it….
Education technology company Cengage and five groups that promote online learning just posted a survey finding that a large majority of college students, faculty, and administrators expressing support for continued use of online learning and digital educational materials.
Yes, be suspicious… but even amidst a grueling global crash course in trying to replace vital daily work with screen time, this survey found more positive attitudes about the sometimes challenging technology that is getting them through the pandemic:
Students and faculty members both reported that their attitudes toward online learning had significantly improved in the past year. A majority of students, 57 percent, said they felt more positive about online learning now than before the pandemic. Close to half, 47 percent, said their attitude toward online exam proctoring—a topic of some controversy due to privacy concerns—had also improved.
A similar proportion of faculty members, 58 percent, said their attitude toward online learning had improved.
A lot of the resistance to online learning and teaching that was expressed before the pandemic was due to “unfamiliarity rather than distaste,” said Clay Shirky, vice provost for educational technologies at New York University.
“What COVID-19 and the shift to emergency remote instruction did was burn off the fog of unfamiliarity,” said Shirky [Lindsay McKenzie, “Students Want Online Learning Options Post-Pandemic,” Inside Higher Ed, 2021.04.27].
Coronavirus can kill you and people you love; studying online may make your head hurt, but it can help you survive a pandemic and keep you moving toward your degree.
Students who normally feel discriminated against in classrooms are thriving during the pandemic. Long live online learning!
INDRSeuss; you are so right-those who WANT to learn will-easier for them than being bullied or abused by discrimination!
There is a halo effect in my experience with on-line learning (as a teacher). I would agree that there is a select section of students who thrive on-line (read this as it is NOT for everyone), BUT even those successes seem to dwindle over time. As the responsibility and motivation for continuing progress lies on the shoulders of the learner, even the most promising beginnings taper — even fade to failure.
The most important factor to student success is good teachers. On-line learning does not compete here. Interactive, human interaction beats the machine (John Henry et al.)
This discussion also gets muddled as “on-line instruction” and “distance learning” become confused. I also fear that this is the beachhead discussion to an invasion of private, for-profit, homeschooling.
The price says it all. Why select a good private college if its online learning? This pandemic has made people look at reality in another way. I guess the only sport will be Quidditch. Definitely the worst aspect of J. K. Rowling. Somehow we will all muggle through online everything.