Nb: See also my previous blog entry, Review of an Ed Tech article, The Role of Tech in Quality Education(1). That article was a research paper about online learning. It was not intended to be persuasive one way or the other, but in my review of it, I came down on the side of caution, suggesting that we were going into online learning ‘full steam ahead’ without doing the due diligence that the article said was being done elsewhere, and that we would do well to implement some of those criteria for success before going ahead with online learning in BC.

Here is my review of another article,

Online High School Advantages and Disadvantages

http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Online_High_School_Advantages_and_Disadvantages.html.(2)

This one gives the pros and cons of online learning. Naturally, there are clear positives:

1/”The main advantage of an online high school is being able to work at your own pace. You determine when, and even where, you study (sic) your assignments.”

2/ Another advantage is the absence of the “distraction factor. You don’t have to worry about the cliques, the parties, apathetic peers, etc. When you decide to study, your complete focus is on the books… In this way you could look at your pursuit of an online degree as an opportunity to develop your identity apart from the social and peer group pressures of traditional schools.”

3/ The article also suggests that online students would be able “to focus your degree in your online high school by learning subjects of particular interest to you.” and that from having done independent study and research, they “will have the skills of a college freshman.”

I added the italics in #2 above, “When you decide to study, your complete focus is on the books“, since I thought it was relevant. That is, I see this as being the main disadvantage of online learning. Most people are procrastinators by nature, and teenagers are typically fine examples of this all-too-human trait. My guess is that a significant percentage of students will sign up for online learning because of the above mentioned advantages, that they will have a difficult time with the “when you decide to study part” and will struggle with their coursework.

Let’s see what the article had to say about learning online disadvantages:

1/ “most online programs don’t have all of the fun elements of high schools: prom, senior day, graduation, etc.”

2/ “isolation. Some online students may develop anti-social feelings.”

3/ The above-mentioned procrastination factor, ie, ” a challenge to focus on completing work when no an actual teacher is present to encourage them on a daily basis.

4/ The possible lack of a reliable resource person, “teachers … are also the ones you should go to if you have problems with your assignments. … Some subjects, such as English and math, may be hard to comprehend without a teacher present.”

This article does not mention other potential pitfalls of online learning (OL):

*That an institution may simply be jumping on the OL bandwagon, seeing it as an inexpensive way to offer courses without providing classrooms, but without also providing a carefully modified program, tailored to smoothly transition from a class course to an OL course.

*That there is an enormous amount of socialization that occurs in school classrooms; from learning to deal with bullies, how not to become a bully oneself, how to get along in cooperative groups, how to be a good team member, learning how to develop leadership skills, how to delegate responsibilities, how to manage team members, and I’m pretty sure there are a lot more that I’m not thinking of here.

*That one of the main things that OL could do to address concerns about a lack of varied input, would be to have multimedia available, ie, lots of graphics, video, sound, etc. to avoid having the student simply reading pages of text. BUT, internet browsers typically have limited formatting of content so, “if your content relies on a lot of media “bells and whistles,” or particular formatting, the Net might not be the best delivery medium. Limited bandwidth means slower performance for sound, video, and large graphics” (from the article,

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/210058/36)(3).

So, my fear is that we’re going ahead with OL, without having looked into potential pitfalls, that it will cause considerable upheaval in schools (declining enrollment, loss of teaching staff, loss of courses available), and that a significant percentage of the students who sign up for it will not experience success. So we’ll have had this huge and detrimental effect on schools, all for naught.

Sources
1.Garson, G. David, The Role of Tech in Quality Education, http://www.comminit.com/en/node/210058/36
2. Online High School Advantages and Disadvantages,
http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Online_High_School_Advantages_and_Disadvantages.html
3. James, Gary, Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning,
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/210058/36