Case for Student Communication in Online Classes

What was very intriguing was the follow up study provided by Nagel, Blignaut and Cronje (2007), in which student rated others’ participation. This study showed that peers could indicate which students were successful just by their participation. This indicates that online participation is essential to creating a healthy online community (Collison, et al., 2000).

Although taking online courses may appear to be very time consuming and hard at times, the idea of obtaining your college degree from the convenience of your own home has made it easy for students to continue on with their everyday life. This article has given me a whole new perspective to this online learning experience. Through the group assignments and class participation, online learning generates relationships amongst peers and instructors and allows us as the students to value each individual student’s walks of life under the same subject. This online course will prepare me to become the educator that I need to be when dealing with the different diversities with the students, parents,

Their primary findings was that participation and communication is certainly a requirement for successful completion of online courses. When instructors are involved and encourage students to participate it motivates students to not give up or drop the class. They were able to classify students into different categories, and they found these types of students in the online class:

engage and learn even when not taking part in online discussions. The context of this

From this study, results of both success and failure were discovered and documented. From the aspect of success, the following results were found: First, classes that had online discussion helped students that would normally be introverts in a traditional class, to be active in discussions. Second, this type of class helped to improve

With all the publicity over online courses, great professors alike have been determined to find out whether online courses are just as effective as face-to-face classes. There have been some controversies over the situation; therefore, several studies have been made. One study by Adam Driscoll, Karl Jicha, Andrea Hunt, Lisa Tichavsky, and Greatchen Thompson shows that given the appropriate pedagogy or instruction, online courses is just as an effective teaching format as face-to-face classes (Driscoll, Jicha, Hunt, Tichavsky, & Thompson, 2012). The study showed that when comparing online courses against face-to-face courses, the midterm scores for both teaching platforms are the same. Given that the GPA of the students is taken into consideration, the test grades do not improve or become worse when the class is taken online. The same study showed that when comparing online courses to face-to-face courses, the student satisfaction does not increase or decrease when

I have since realised learning in the digital world is more challenging than it appears with feelings of isolation playing a vast role in my study to begin with. I found, during this time that I needed to participate in as much collaboration as possible and to converse with the class and my group to facilitate myself to learn as much as conceivable with also feeling connected to the class. Constructivist theorists believe a child learns best using collaboration with peers to build on their current knowledge. Vygotsky called this the "Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD) and he came to this view by observing children who were tested on tasks individually compared to children who were tested on tasks in a collaborative way, he found that the progression of engagement helped to refine the thinking and make the learning more effective (Atherton, n.d.). I believe the same can be said for adults as well, especially after going from one online university where no group tasks were initiated to studying here were grouped collaboration was encouraged

They help and stimulate one another towards success. Social interactions encourage class-mates to endure while studying for a high stake exam and lower their stress in times of need. On the contrary online learning makes the students feel isolated or alienated. Online learning takes away the pleasure of face-to-face interaction which is not only a pleasure for the ones taking the course, but also for the ones teaching the course. Teachers’ interaction with their students is a crucial factor in their job satisfaction. Online learning takes away from the teacher the pleasure of monitoring the students’ facial expressions that will guide them through their teaching. Additionally, teachers’ motivation may decrease since they are not encouraged by the audience in the moment of their

In today’s society, so many people are continuing their education beyond high school. We realize that in order to make a decent living, a degree is most likely a requirement. In some cases even a bachelor’s degree is not enough to qualify for many positions. Nevertheless, thanks to technology, we now have the option to learn online or in a traditional classroom setting. There are very few differences between the two, and students need to understand that as much time and energy will need to be devoted to the online courses as on a campus. “A 2010 meta-analysis and review of online-learning studies concluded that online learning was as good as or slightly more effective than traditional face-to-face instruction” (Mendenhall, 2011).

It is no secret that technology plays a critical role in our society. In fact, it has become one of the most used items in the world, starting from personal computers and ending in smartphones, thus it was only a matter of time when educational institutions would start to utilize these gadgets in order to improve the overall state of current education. According to a U.S Department of Education (UDE, n.d) report, all 48 states, including the District of Columbia are now offering online education. Additionally, the report states that these schools operate on all kinds of scales, including state scale, district scale and charter scale, thus it would safe to assume that the whole state of current education in the United States is large and the whole approach is clearly technology based. However, despite the

However, advocates of classroom learning believe the online method isolates the students from one another as well as their professor minimizing the overall value of taking the course. They also claim that students learn better when working together with their instructor and their fellow classmates. Students learn better when they are given the opportunity to ask questions, join in class discussions, and they move the process of learning forward through their participation. Face-to-face advocates firmly believe that this kind of interaction is not possible over the Internet; and for many types of education, e-learning will never meet the potential of live human interaction in the classroom. An article in the New York Times titled, “Second Thoughts on Online Education,” backs up the points made above. A recent research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, comes to the conclusion; “A rush to online education

Students taking online courses are not engaged in their academic life. These students are not taking advantage of their education while on campus. By being on campus, there is the opportunity to be connected with their faculty members. From my own experience, interacting with my professors promotes the concept of learning with purpose through the process of socializing, mentoring, and networking.

Non-traditional students are finding it easier and easier to maintain a job, a family, and pursuing a college career at the same time. This is possible because more and more non-traditional students are receiving an education using distance learning, as opposed to traditional, in-the-classroom teaching. Distance learning is basically taking college level, credit-bearing courses via the Internet. One of the most obvious advantages of distance learning is that it puts the classroom in your home, office, or wherever you can find a computer and log on to the Internet. However, there is much controversy regarding the quality of the courses being offered on the Internet versus the quality of

Technology is changing every aspect in our lives, even the way we learn. Online classes are a rapidly growing trend it today’s society. Online classes are a cost-effective substitute for traditional courses and more convenient for many, so more schools and universities are offering this option. Due to the increase in online course enrollment, people are questioning if students truly learn something from online classes because it’s not a traditional learning environment. Online classes are just, if not more, effective as traditional classes because grades have increased and online discussions provide students with the chance to interact through networking while earning a degree for less than what it would cost to enroll at the same university.

Compared to classroom learning, the interaction occurring at online courses is more international. Learners can develop online conversations on forums and interview other students around the world by using web-conferencing technology (Kruger-Ross and Waters, 2013:182). However, it is reported that students prefer face to face contact directly with the tutor who was seen as the focal point of learning, a channel through all interaction that connects ideas, builds understanding, provides feedback and gives summary immediately (Sweeney et al, 2007:316). Additionally, establishing social relations may need classroom environment (Paechter & Maier, 2010:295). Classroom teaching and learning is a complex, multilayered, and social experience, which develops friendship, connection and satisfaction among students. Social community is considered to be relatively poorly experienced in online learning due to learners’ disconnection and could probably cause isolation (Baturay & Bay, 2010:44).