What is an Online Class?
Background
Online classes are part of the distance learning family, but they offer much more than what a telecourse or correspondence course could ever dream of. The interactions between student-student, student-instructor, student-class, and instructor-class separate the online classroom galaxies apart from telecourses. The anywhere-anytime-access that online classes offer definitely beefs up their personality and appeal to students looking for a quality education. They do have drawbacks as you will see also, so it is good to understand overall of what you can do, what you cannot do, and ways to get around that. This whole class discusses many of these issues.
In the early days of online teaching, instructors had to make web sites from HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). The development of an online class usually involved 3 or more people. As online learning grew, new Course Management Systems (CMS) such as eCollege, WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle, and others made it easier for instructors to transition themselves into the online arena through the ease of use of these technologies. Publishers began to bundle their content in formats that these CMS’s could read- thus making it faster to put a class up online. Schools began to offer full accredited degrees online. School administrators saw the demand for such classes and so the need was there to offer more and more classes. The need for more research also grew, and continues to grow.
Online Teaching – The Virtual Classroom
You can think of your online class as your virtual classroom that can be accessed at anytime from anywhere. It behaves like a web site would, but only your students have access to the information. All of your materials are there and you have complete control over who can view them. Your syllabus, quizzes, exams, lectures, PowerPoint presentations, videos, documents, everything is there. Your class is always open, and students are always coming in and out even when you aren’t there! Communication is the key, and your students appreciate hearing from you and other students. It is sometimes a lot of work, but it can many times be a richer environment that is just as conducive to learning as your traditional class.
