Kevin E. Johnson

Article / Updated 10-28-2021

What makes online education unique for younger learners? After all, it can’t be the same as online education for college students, can it? In the next few sections, we consider safety issues, extra parental involvement, synchronous meetings, and the need to work offline. Safety concerns with children We won’t kid you: Having children learn online is a reason for parents and guardians to be concerned about their safety. For starters, children tend to trust everyone and may not have the same sense of boundaries that adults do. Plus, creeps on the internet prey on children. In the interest of avoiding hysteria, we want to frame some of these concerns with the positive solutions that online schools have put in place: Online education must be supervised by adults. In the next section, we discuss enhanced parental involvement, and one of the primary reasons for this is to monitor what children do online, where they go, and with whom they communicate. Online programs must be password protected with limited access. Institutions establish protocols so that only the students and their adult supervisors can log in to the learning space. Coursework is conducted within that space so that a child has no need to interact with anyone else online. Educators who work with children online must pass stringent background checks. In the same way that teachers in brick-and-mortar schools must be blemish-free, online institutions ensure that their faculty are likewise squeaky clean. Aside from addressing adults who prey on children, anyone with children online must also be aware of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the act of a child embarrassing, threatening, or harassing another child through online tools, such as email, instant messaging, social networks, and public discussion forums. With adult learners, the same behavior is possible and disconcerting, but children need to be afforded special protection. (As soon as adults become involved, the language changes to cyberstalking or cyberharassment.) Schools help children understand what is acceptable communication with their classmates and encourage those who experience bullying to report it swiftly. Policies and procedures guide schools in addressing offenders and determining an appropriate punishment. If your child decides to study online, here are some pointers to keep in mind: Talk to your child about expectations. If your child is going to learn or play online, you should talk as a family about rules for engaging online. For example, in Kevin’s family, parents control their son’s contacts list, and their son can engage only with people on that list. Parents also require login and passwords to all accounts, and no new accounts can be created without their permission. Beware of false identities. One form of cyberbullying is tricking a person. A student may believe they are communicating with a friend when in fact it’s a false identity. Help your child discern when and what to disclose online. Personal information should be off limits. Monitor social networking. Classmates naturally form interpersonal relationships online. Your student may want to communicate with their classmates via email or social networking spaces like Facebook. However, these activities should be monitored by an adult. In other words, if your kid has a Facebook account, make sure you can see what’s going on. Report inappropriate activity. If another child posts embarrassing or harassing statements or images, report this to the school officials immediately. It may be out of the range of their ability to discipline, but noting the behavior can have a significant impact on stopping it. Then again, online schools know the types of behaviors that should be further reported to the police. For example, consider reporting to the police if personal information is involved in a threat against your child. You may hesitate, thinking that the incident is minor, but it’s best to let the police sort it out. Don’t immediately delete the offending messages. The authorities may need to see them. Whatever you do, don’t retaliate with the same kinds of threats or harmful messages. Getting involved in a verbal tit-for-tat will only result in your child being accused of being a cyberbully. Teach your child to walk away from the computer and cool down before reporting such an incident. Block bullies. By all means, block communication with cyberbullies. Email programs and instant message software, such as Yahoo! Messenger, allow you to do this. For more information about cyberbullying, consult one of these sites: Stomp Out Bullying, the National Crime Prevention Council's site on cyberbullying, or the U.S. government’s Stop Bullying site. Enhanced parental involvement In K-12 schools, parent-teacher communication is getting better, with electronic grade books and online learning portals that support the face-to-face classroom. However, direct communication between parent and teacher around specific areas in which a student needs to improve can be difficult based on schedules, student-to-teacher ratios, and communication preferences. Parental involvement is completely different with virtual schools. If you follow any of the virtual school links, you will quickly note that every institution requires greater parental involvement than traditional schools. Parents have access to everything: grades, feedback, and lessons. Adults who supervise at home are given various monikers by online schools — parent/guardian, home facilitator, and onsite instructional support, to name a few — but their roles are the same. The need for enhanced parental support stems from the age and abilities of the learner. Here are a few examples of the roles parents must play when their child attends school online: Because most information is delivered by way of text online, the only way to survive in an online course is to read. That’s impossible for the average 6-year-old! Adults serve as readers. Few children are as self-motivated and disciplined as they need to be for online learning. Adults serve as watchdogs and taskmasters. Because an online teacher may not see the whole family situation, routine communication becomes more important. Teachers schedule weekly or monthly communication with parents or supervisors, depending on the age of the learner and the structure of the school. Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School has an interesting way of communicating parental expectations in its course catalog: It tells parents how much time and effort should go into their supporting role based on the grade level of the learner. For example, home facilitators with children in second grade are expected to assist the child 90 to 100 percent of the time that the child is working on material. In other words, if you have a second-grader, you’ll probably need to teach the material and watch your child do assigned tasks. You can’t expect a 7-year-old to read the computer screen and know what to do independently. As the child progresses academically, the amount of assistance decreases. By the time a student is in Grade 12 and takes more ownership of the learning process, the adult should be active no more than 1 to 10 percent of the time and not at all instructionally. Instead, the adult’s role shifts toward holding the student accountable while continuing to provide motivation and support. Any decent virtual school for kids requires parental involvement! Schools tell you this using some of the main links on their web pages — for example, a Parents tab or a link to parental involvement. It shouldn’t be a secret. If it seems obscure, look at another school. More real-time opportunities The world of online education for children is more synchronous than their adult counterparts’ experience (in other words, it takes place in real time more frequently). Students may be expected to participate in online meetings daily, weekly, or monthly. These synchronous meetings with instructors and other students reinforce the subject matter, build strong community bonds, and, generally, keep learners on task. Even schools that follow a self-paced model for curriculum usually back up their courses with regular synchronous meetings. Synchronous meetings typically use web conferencing software and call together multiple students in a class. These meetings can be a lot of fun! The teacher may present new information or reinforce what the students are studying. They can ask and answer questions about content or assignments. Perhaps the greatest value of the synchronous meetings is the feeling of interpersonal connection between the student and teacher, which is still vital in virtual education for children. The figure shows what a synchronous interface may look like for an online K-12 course. Don’t forget that the telephone is a synchronous tool, too! Teachers often call students to monitor progress and talk about what’s happening in class. The need to work offline Surprisingly, not all online education happens online. Although adults can work offline, such work is especially important for younger learners. Young learners need time away from the computer to accomplish academic tasks that involve the following: Textbooks and workbooks: Can you imagine learning to print numbers without having a pencil and paper in hand? Some early academic tasks have to be done away from the computer screen. Further, at the point when children learn to read for information (around fourth grade), they begin to access materials like books and periodicals offline. Almost every virtual school uses textbooks. Flashy media may be available online to explain concepts, but online education for young learners also involves print materials. Old-fashioned, hands-on learning: Curricula for young learners includes hands-on opportunities to experiment with concepts. For example, a child in an earth science class may be provided with rock samples to examine and evaluate. Or, the child may be asked to collect leaf samples for a botany unit. Exploring one’s natural curiosity is part of learning, and good online curricula requires students to go out in the world and find these key relationships. When you’re researching online schools, ask how much learning occurs online versus offline. If a program seems especially off balance with no adequate explanation, consider looking at a different school. Kids need balance.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Think back to middle school (if it isn’t too painful to remember those days!). Did you ever complete a homework assignment and forget to take it to school and turn it in? The same thing can happen online; you do the work and forget to submit it. In this article, we review several methods for getting your homework to the instructor. These include uploads, email attachments, and Submit buttons. We also provide some pointers for turning in any kind of assignment. Where did you store that file? Sometimes files end up in random places. Before you log in to submit an assignment, make sure you know where it sits on your computer (or in what cloud). Did you put the final version in OneDrive? Is it a Google Docs document? Is it on your desktop? Figure that out first. Attachments! Uploading papers and projects Some learning management systems use a feature whereby students upload assignments. Different from email, this feature lets you put the document in only one place, and you don’t need to know the instructor’s address. The instructor retrieves your document, downloads it, and reads it. They may then comment on it and add a score to the grade book, all within the same tool. If there’s a secret to using this feature, it’s knowing how to upload and hitting the Submit button until you receive confirmation. In most systems, you look for a button labeled Add a File or Upload. This prompts you to browse your computer to find the file. (See why knowing where you stored it is important?) Usually, you click Open after you identify the file you want and then click Submit. The next screen you see should be a confirmation that the file has been uploaded. This figure shows what this looks like from the Student view in Canvas. If your instructor doesn’t have this tool available, they may ask you to attach your work to an email. This process works the same as attaching photos to send to your dear cousin Ted. You find the Attachment icon (usually a paper clip), browse for the file, and upload. The uploading skill seems to be universal, whether you’re attaching a document to an email or a discussion board posting. Some learning management systems connect to your Microsoft 365 or Google file structure, so you may be able to upload files from there. Post, Emily! Submitting discussion posts When you have a discussion question to post or respond to, the magic words change slightly: Compose: Look for this button if you need to start a new discussion, one that isn’t attached to anyone else’s idea. Reply: Use this button when you want to respond to something another person wrote. Here’s a super tip: Copy and paste one or two lines from the original text (delete the rest) so that you can quote the first author and focus your comments. Post: After you have composed or replied, you must remember to hit Post or Submit. Otherwise, your great ideas don’t appear on the discussion board. The Submit button on quizzes and tests Your teachers probably told you this when you were younger: Check your work before you turn in the test. Make sure you answered every question. Technology has an interesting way of forcing you to do this with online quizzes and tests. It’s called the Submit button. In some cases, you’ll be given additional options such as Save without Submitting, Submit Page, and Submit All and Finish. All of these make you think twice and check your work! Tips for submitting any assignment Whether you’re working with papers, projects, discussion posts, quizzes, or tests, consider the following general pointers: Submit early, have a backup plan, and keep a copy. Here’s why these are important: Submit early, when possible, in case of problems: What if you plan to submit your assignment at 11:56 p.m. on the night it’s due by midnight and the whole system crashes or your hard drive freezes? You don’t have a lot of time to remedy that situation. A safer bet is to submit your work during normal working hours, well before you need to. That way, if you encounter a problem, you’re more likely to contact a real-life tech support person who can assist you. Attach to email when technology fails: Still on the 11:56 p.m. track? When all else fails, send the same assignment as an attachment to an email to your instructor. Include a polite note explaining that the system wasn’t cooperating and that you wanted to be sure to get the assignment turned in, one way or another. This shows good problem-solving skills. Keep a copy: Always, always keep copies of your work for the term of the course. You never know when you might need them. It’s common for the system to freeze up when you’re trying to submit a great discussion post (always when you’ve written something worthy of a Pulitzer), so if you first compose in a word processor and then copy and paste to the discussion area, you’re safe in knowing that you have the original text. Should there be any question, you can find the file and resubmit it.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

As you find out in the following discussion, you can use quite a few web-based tools to collaborate and communicate with your online learning group. These tools are often external to your learning management system. Many of these tools are free for public use. The key is to either use tools that are simple to learn or use only tools that every member of the group is already familiar with. Trying to learn a new tool in the middle of a group project can be frustrating and can distract you from completing the project on time. Document collaboration Suppose you and your fellow group members are asked to produce a written document such as an essay. In the “old” days, one person would write something and forward the document to all other group members. Then everyone would provide feedback and send back their comments individually. The originator would have to open several documents and do the best job possible of combining the input of the others. No longer is this necessary, thanks to collaborative tools such as Google Docs and Microsoft 365. These web based tools allow multiple people to contribute to the same document. In a group-project situation, this means that you can collaborate on the same document at the same time as your fellow group members. The file is created by one of the group members who shares a link to the other group members with permission to edit the document. As a group member, you click on the link and are taken directly to the document, where you can start editing. Depending on the privacy setting determined by the original document creator, you may be required to log in with your account or create a new account with that service in order to access the document. Technology has come a long way where applications on the web look almost exactly the same as they do when installed directly on your computer. Therefore, when you get to the shared document via your web browser, it looks and feels just like a common word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation program. It doesn’t matter what software you have on your individual machines, because everything is handled online! Each of you can edit and download a copy. Eventually, one of you can save a final copy and turn it in for your assignment or link your instructor and class to the page. Online document sharing can be used for group projects, company policy documents, and much more. In some corporate setups, you may have access to a product from Microsoft called SharePoint. If you have access and are working on an online learning course in your company’s learning management system, SharePoint may be the best choice for you because you’re probably already using it for work. One of the more common online document sharing applications on the web right now is Google Docs. With Google Docs, you can collaboratively create a word processing document, spreadsheet, presentation, or web form. This free service gives a document originator the ability to invite others to edit the document. The following figure shows a document created using Google Docs. For your essay assignment, one group member or the instructor would start the document. Then that person would invite the other group members to view the document as collaborators in order to provide them the permission needed to edit the document. Based on your group’s organizational meeting, the editor might add headings to the document as a way of visually dividing it into pieces. Group members would then go in and begin filling in the blanks as they completed their research. Web conferencing If your group decides to meet synchronously, a few tools are available to help facilitate the process. Consider the following variables when choosing a synchronous tool: Availability: Don’t spend extra time looking for tools if your course provides them for you. For example, one institution Kevin teaches for provides each class with a virtual office space via Microsoft Teams. Students can access this space 24/7 from directly inside their virtual course. Functionality: Some tools are limited as to which features they offer. For example, the telephone provides voice communication, but you can’t share documents via the phone. FaceTime allows iPhone users to call, talk, and share videos with each other. However, this is limited to iPhone users only. If you have an iPhone, you cannot FaceTime with someone who has an Android phone. Plus, it may not be the best tool for sharing screens and collaborating. Other, more multi-modal tools, such as Zoom, provide interactive features that allow users to share voice, text, presentations, whiteboards, each other's computer screens, and more. Choose your tools according to what you need, or learn to work around your chosen tool’s limits. Cost: These tools can be quite expensive for large-scale use. Luckily these days, many tools have free versions; they may have some limitations compared to their paid versions, but work just fine for short, small-group meetings. For example, Zoom offers a free version of its Meeting tool that allows you to access almost all of its collaboration features. The limitations of this tool are that meetings are limited to 40 minutes and cannot be recorded to the Zoom server in the cloud. You must record locally and find alternative ways to share those video recordings with others for playback. Three available synchronous communication tools are Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet: Zoom is what we call a multimodal web conferencing tool. Multimodal refers to the user’s ability to interact using a variety of methods. For example, Zoom allows users to interact using voice, chat, video, whiteboard, application sharing, and more. The free version of Zoom allows you to meet with up to 100 participants for 40 minutes. The free version also allows you to record to your local computer so that you can later share the archive with members who may have missed the meeting or need a recap. To efficiently use this tool, one group member needs to have a Zoom account. The individual with the account schedules a meeting and invites the group members via email. Group members receive a participant link in their email that they click on to join the meeting. This figure illustrates a conference call using Zoom. Once connected, the group can use the voice and video features to see and hear each other. One member of the group can also share their screen so the group can work collaboratively to create a document or presentation or another type of project. If you’re not in the creation stage yet, it’s also a good idea to share the agenda with everyone and have someone take notes during the meeting and then make the notes available in a place where everyone can access them. Microsoft Teams is a tool, similar to Zoom, that provides unlimited chat, video calling, file sharing, and 10 gigabytes of storage to share and collaborate on documents. Participants use the same process for accessing meetings as they do with Zoom. At least one member of the group must have a Microsoft 365 account. That person schedules the meeting and sends out the invitation to their peers. Teams is fully integrated into Microsoft 365, and participants can seamlessly share Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files with participants. This can be helpful if your group is needing to collectively contribute to an essay or develop a slideshow in order to give a group presentation. This figure illustrates a Teams meeting with group members collaborating to build a PowerPoint file. Google Meet is the synchronous conferencing tool built into Google Suite. Like the other tools, one person must have a Google account and invite the other participants. If your school already uses Google Suite for email and document storage, you may as well use Meet. Imagine having a meeting with your voice, but co-editing a document! This figure shows a meeting in Meet. For conferencing tools such as Zoom, users need a microphone and speakers. We recommend a combination headset-with-microphone. A camera is optional, but it can give a more personal touch to the distant meeting experience. If you have ever attended an online meeting, you know that the discussion can get out of hand quickly. People may unintentionally talk over each other, or there may be so many chats that you can’t keep up with them. To help reduce this chaos, web conferencing tools assign different roles and permissions to different people. For the most part, there are three different roles: the meeting host, cohosts, and participants or attendees: The host is the person who schedules the meeting and sends out the invitation link. Often, this is the chairperson of a committee or the group leader. This person has more permissions during the meeting to help control the chaos. They also have the ability to turn features on and off as needed. For example, the host can determine the people attendees can chat with: everyone, only the host, or no one. This allows them to present information without interruption and then turn on the chat feature when there’s a natural pause in the presentation. They can also turn on and off the ability for participants to turn on video, talk, share screens, write on the screen, and more. Cohosts are participants who the host assigns to help during the session. Cohosts can perform most of the same tasks as the host. A host might assign participants to cohost when hosting large meetings in order to ensure a more seamless experience for the attendees. In peer group situations, a host might assign all team members the cohost role to provide an equitable experience. Participants and attendees join a meeting with limited responsibilities and are able to participate based on the permissions sent by the host. For most smaller group meetings, features are not restricted. Tools like Zoom, Teams and Meet can take a little time to learn how to use, especially as the meeting host. The good news is that most product vendors provide tutorial videos and documents on how to use the tool as both a host and a participant. So, keep this in mind when choosing a tool, and look for support options before making a final decision.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Some instructors describe discussion as the heart and soul of online learning. For academic courses that require participation, there’s little doubt that discussion is a cornerstone. In this article, we look at why discussion is important, how discussions are organized, and how you can determine what’s expected of you to succeed in online discussions. Why you’re asked to discuss No doubt you’ve heard the expression “Practice makes perfect.” It makes perfect sense if you’re studying keyboarding skills or French pronunciation, but seeing how this works is a little more difficult when you’re studying a subject like economics or world literature. Furthermore, in an online course, it’s impossible for the instructor to see learners practicing, right? Not so! Online discussion is one of the methods instructors use to witness your learning. Here’s why: Discussion shows you are reading. When you answer a discussion question and refer to your assigned readings or textbook, you demonstrate to the instructor that you’re actually reading the material. Discussion shows your ability to think critically. Many instructors want you to take the content and break it down, analyze it, put it back together in a way that is meaningful, and add an interpretation of how this works in the real world. This is critical thinking! When you participate in discussion, you show your ability to think critically. Discussion helps you learn better. It’s not enough to read, cite, and move on. Instructors want you to personalize and internalize the information. In fact, this is one of the ways adults learn better and faster. Others benefit from discussion, too. In the constructivist classroom, everyone wins when you take a topic and develop it fully. When you add your insights and interpretations, the rest of the class is able to consider whether they agree or disagree and, most importantly, why. Discussions organized in different ways Discussion is a conversation that occurs online and requires more than one person. For example, John puts forth an idea to which Chris responds with an example supporting his idea. Others join in the conversation, too. Sally suggests an alternative view to what John has written with an additional reference to the literature. Pat asks a question for clarification, forcing John to find another way to explain his original idea. All of this gets rolled together for a more complete understanding of the content. By the time the discussion runs its course, the readers and authors have looked at the subject matter more thoroughly because of the diversity of views. Depending on the learning management software, you may see your conversations displayed as small pieces connected to one another in a couple of ways: chronologically or threaded. Each piece comes from an individual speaker and is a piece of written text, or post: Chronological posts: The posts may be connected in a linear fashion, following one another in chronological order. This figure shows what this looks like. Threaded posts: A threaded discussion displays the conversation in a different graphical fashion: When you look at the display, you’re better able to see how ideas connect to one another. The dates may seem out of order, but not if you follow the conversation as if it were in outline form. Text that’s indented is directly related to the post above it. This figure shows a threaded discussion. Does it matter whether your software shows the discussion in threaded or chronological fashion? Not really. What matters is that conversations are occurring between learners and that you can follow these conversations. Many learning management systems allow you to change how you view discussions. You control whether you see them in threaded or unthreaded fashion according to your settings. If you have this option, play around with the settings until you find the system that works best for you. Discussion requirements Each instructor has their own expectations regarding discussion and participation. You may find these expectations in several places: The syllabus: Chances are good that the instructor lists discussion as a component of your grade in the syllabus. They may say something like this: “Participates in discussion by posting an initial statement and responding to two other peers each week.” Read those statements carefully to determine what is expected. The instructions: You most likely have a page in your course that describes what you should do in the discussion area; you should be able to find a link to this page from the course’s main page. The questions you’re expected to answer may be listed there. Often this is where the instructor reminds you of how much to write and how to post. For example, you may read, “Answer one of the following questions in 300 to 500 words. Be sure to reference one of our assigned readings. Before the close of the module, respond to two of your fellow students’ posts.” The grading scheme and rubric: These items may be on a separate page within your course, or they may be woven into either the syllabus or the instructions. The grading scheme is the overall plan for how you are graded. A rubric spells out what counts in an individual assignment. For example, a rubric may state that you need an on-time post of 300 to 500 words with proper citation, and you must respond to two peers. Avoid overposting Overposting can occur in two manners: writing too much and responding too frequently. Both have consequences. Writing too much: When your instructor asks for 300 to 500 words and you submit a three-page essay, you have overposted! The result is that your classmates won’t read through your ideas, and no one will want to discuss them. You may be penalized for overwriting, too. Before posting, count your words. You can do this in Microsoft Word by looking at the bottom of the document. Toward the left side you will see page x of y and then the number of words. You can also find this information by choosing File-->Info (or Properties) from the menu at the top. You may need to isolate (highlight) the paragraph you want counted. In Google Docs, choose Tools-->Word Count from the top menu bar. Responding too frequently: You don’t need to respond to everyone’s posts. When your instructor asks for a minimum of two responses to others, they may be hoping for four or five, but not 15 or 20! Think of this in terms of the face-to-face classroom. How do you react to a student who has something to say to everyone’s comments? Doesn’t that person seem to be an attention-seeker? After a while, aren’t the ideas a little self-serving? Do learners begin to roll their eyes when the commenter opens their mouth? The same happens when learners overpost. However, in the world of online education, you can choose to avoid reading what those who overpost have to say. This is not always a good thing. We like to encourage good discussion with quality posts. Think of contributing 10 percent of the comments. Discussions can grow exponentially, and you don’t want to be the person whose posts no one reads because you’re too prolific.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

In a robust online course, you can expect to see communication occurring on several different levels. Messages are directed toward the class as a whole from the instructor, individually from the instructor to single learners (and from learners to the instructor), and from learner to learner. If you were to visually plot that network of messages, a good course would look messy because there would be so many connections between learners. This article examines some of the primary ways people communicate in an online course. Instructor-to-class communication in news and announcements Think about the first day of school at a face-to-face school. Assuming that Security remembers to unlock the classroom door, the instructor stands at the front of the class and welcomes learners. Entering the virtual classroom isn’t much different. Typically, a welcome message or some kind of greeting from the instructor awaits you. This communication is intended to be read by every member of the class. It may be posted on the course’s home page in a News and Announcements area or within a specially designated discussion forum. This kind of introductory message lets you know that you’re in the right place. It may also tell you what to do next. The figure shows the Recent Announcements tab on the course’s home page, which has a link to a Welcome to Class message. The figure also shows the announcement itself. After that initial announcement, your instructor may use the same public method for several different purposes. They may use announcements to Keep everyone on task. For example, if you’re three days into the course and no one has been brave enough to post the first assignment, the instructor may post an announcement to reinforce the procedures and help students feel more comfortable trying the assignment. Again, this announcement may appear on the course’s home page or in a discussion forum. Summarize the last unit and preview what’s to come. The instructor may review the material the class examined in the previous unit and connect it to what’s to come in the next unit. Read these kinds of summaries with the idea of mentally testing yourself. Do you know what the instructor is talking about? If not, go back and review! Reinforce news from the institution that you should know about. For example, occasionally the school needs to shut down its servers for maintenance. Someone may email you and post a message on the portal or the first page you log in to, but chances are good that your instructor will remind you again. Read all messages posted by your instructor, even if you’re tempted to bypass lengthy messages in favor of getting to your next task. Instructors include pertinent information in their messages. Plus, you spare yourself the embarrassment of asking a question that was already addressed in an announcement. Learner-to-learner communication in discussions We hope the kind of communication you find most common within your course is learner-to-learner discussion about the subject matter. Why? Because a course in which learners actively discuss and debate is a course where the learners are interested! It’s also a course that demonstrates active, engaged learning at its best. Many online courses follow a social-constructivist format of presenting information and then asking learners to discuss and add to the concept. By writing about how the materials fit into the world or one’s profession, everyone in the class gains a clear picture of the subject matter. Collectively, they “construct” their understanding. For that reason, instructors ask students to engage in discussions with one another. Discussing means having a conversation. This is a little different online than in person because your fingers often do the talking. Learner-to-learner communication should dominate your online experience. One-on-one communication via private email or messaging Private, one-on-one communication is meant for your eyes only and may come via your email or an internal messaging feature if your learning management system supports it. Whenever possible, use the tools that are available within the learning management system (LMS) to communicate. For example, your system may have built-in “messenger”-type tools — these systems act like instant messaging when the other person is online. If the person isn’t online when you send the message, they receive it when they next log in. Your school may assign you an internal email that doesn’t require you to give out your personal email address. The advantage of sending and receiving messages within the system is that your academic work is all recorded in one place. You don’t have to sort through your Aunt Tilda’s forwarded jokes to find the instructor’s note. Here, we describe three types of private communication: instructor-to-learner, learner-to-instructor, and learner-to-learner. Instructor-to-learner communication Instructors communicate with learners privately for several reasons: They send feedback. Many instructors like to follow longer assignments, such as papers, with comments. Though these can be posted in an electronic grade book, there usually isn’t sufficient space. Therefore, instructors email their comments and feedback. They nudge. Occasionally, you may have an attentive instructor who notices you’re not meeting the deadlines. They may send you a little note to remind you to stay on task. They praise and send additional resources. Sometimes an instructor wants to acknowledge excellent work from an individual and perhaps provide additional resources that the rest of the class wouldn’t be interested in. This may be a case for private communication. They communicate grades to you. Thank goodness! Actually, your instructor must communicate grades privately, by law. Your grades and feedback can’t be posted publicly. This figure is an example of a private communication your instructor may send. This one was sent via an internal messaging feature. The same result can be accomplished via email. Learner-to-instructor communication Not only can instructors send learners private communication but learners may also need to communicate privately with instructors. Why would you want to communicate with your instructor privately? Here are some reasons: You’re in distress. Something is going on in your life that requires your attention and is preventing you from focusing on school or completing your assignments. The whole class doesn’t need to know about this, but your instructor does. This is a case for private email. You’re experiencing technological difficulties. Whenever you have a problem with your computer, the software, or the system and need to work with technical support, it’s a good idea to also inform your instructor. They may not be able to remedy the situation, but you’re at least alerting them to the problem. You want to ask a question specifically about your academic work. Instructors cannot discuss your work publicly — it’s the law! Therefore, if you ask a question in a public forum about your performance, your instructor can’t answer it. On the other hand, you can discreetly email the instructor to ask about your work. When it comes to communicating with your instructor, diplomacy is the best policy. In other words, try not to push the instructor beyond reasonable expectations. Most institutions have faculty guidelines related to how quickly instructors should respond to emails — usually, within 24 to 48 hours. If you send an SOS at midnight, don’t expect a response right away! Learner-to-learner communication Learners can privately communicate with one another, too, as in these examples: Email is a way to continue conversations that may be of interest to only you and one other person. For example, if you read that your classmate Sarah has an interest in the culture-based health issues specific to the Polish community and you’re a Polish immigrant, you may want to email her privately to share some family stories. Having the opportunity to continue a conversation with one of your peers keeps you from overposting on discussions as well. Two ways that groups work through projects is via email and collaborative spaces. Email allows you to exchange files, send updates, and establish meetings. Plus, it’s easy to copy your instructor on the email so that they know your group’s progress. Collaborative spaces allow you to store documents that you can all get to and work on. For example, if you have a Google Docs document stored in a folder on Google Drive, anyone in the group can add their comments and continue working. Sometimes, students exchange contact information such as cell numbers, but there’s not a lot of work you can do on your phone. At best, this is a way to say, “Hey, did you see the new edits?”

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

There’s no easy way to break the news: School isn’t cheap. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, annual tuition in current dollars for two-year institutions increased from $3,367 for the 1985–1986 school year to $10,598 for the 2016–2017 academic year. It’s impossible for us to tell you that a two-year degree, for example, will cost you $15,000 because we don’t know whether you want to attend a private college, a four-year institution that awards associate’s degrees, or a two-year school. In addition, as soon as we give you a price tag, tuition will increase (it never decreases), making the number obsolete. Therefore, we look at the cost of one course in 2020. For this baseline, consider the following costs for an undergraduate accounting course that awards three credit hours: At a well-known, private online institution: $514 per credit hour ($1,542 total) At a public university that offers this course online: $229.84 per credit hour in-state or $689.52 out-of-state At a two-year community college in the Midwest that offers this course online: $171 per credit hour in-district and in-state, $247.50 out-of-district but in-state, or $302.50 out-of-district and out-of-state ($513 to $907.50 total, depending on where you live) In the last example, you save money by taking the course by way of the local community college, though not everyone has that kind of option. Now consider a graduate level course in education that awards three credit hours: At a well-known, private online institution: $776 per credit hour ($2,328 total) At a public university that offers this course online: $360.37 per credit hour for in-state residents; $808.46 for out-of-state residents and international students The more classes you take at one time, the more you owe at one time. And, the formula for determining tuition and total costs can vary based on the institution, program of study, fees, supplies, and location (online or on-campus). We can’t provide exact numbers, but the table shows some typical costs and specifies where you may see differences. On-Campus versus Online Costs Cost On-Campus Online Tuition Costs vary depending on the type of institution (public or private, two-year or four-year). Expect to pay the same amount as for on-campus education. Typically, schools charge by the credit hour or for the completion of an entire degree or certificate program. Fees You might pay fees for the college’s technology, student activities, fitness center, on-campus labs, student health insurance, and other services. These vary greatly, depending on the type of institution. You’re less likely to have to pay the same fees online. Some schools charge for the services you use (for example, technology), and others charge no fees. Books Textbooks are expensive. Spending $100 or more on one textbook isn’t uncommon. The price of online textbooks is the same as for on-campus. As with books for on-campus courses, you may be able to buy discounted or used books, but you might incur the additional cost of shipping and handling. Some sellers offer free shipping above a certain dollar amount. Room and board You might live at home and incur no additional charges for room and board. However, if you’re an on-campus student enrolling in a residential college, you may be required to live on campus for at least the first year. In that case, you can add $6,000 or more to the price tag. You can definitely live at home and incur no additional room-and-board charges. Travel If you’re commuting to school, consider the cost of fuel and of wear-and-tear on your vehicle or the cost of public transportation. No additional cost — you just work from the convenience of your home. However, some programs may require you to make an annual trip to their main campus (some doctoral programs and other graduate degrees, for example), so this trip would count as a cost. Another way to save money is to look for courses that employ open education resources (OER), which are resources created by people with the intention of making them available to others for free or at a dramatically discounted cost. Some states now have a way to flag these courses in the course catalog. For example, Washington state public institutions specify courses with total materials-and-supplies costs of $50 or less. The result is that you might not save money in tuition and fees if you attend school online, but you may save money in room-and-board and travel costs, depending on how you run your own comparison. What you save on books depends on the seller and whether it offers free shipping.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Online learning is using the internet to learn. It is about connecting the learner to educational materials by way of the internet. Online learning can happen in a variety of forms and fashions, but the underlying use of the internet and its technologies are fundamental. Lessons, communication, and assessment (grading) all happen by way of the internet. The two major models for this communication and assessment are instructor-led and self-paced. Instructor-led courses An instructor-led course is just what you think it is: An instructor determines what happens with the content, pace of instruction, and evaluation. Here are a few distinguishing traits of this type of course, which is the most common type out there: In an instructor-led course, students follow a distinct schedule, and the whole class works through the content at the same time. While you’re reading and completing activities for “module 2,” so is the rest of the class. Typically, you find the schedule posted as a calendar or within the class syllabus. If you’re a procrastinator, an instructor-led course can keep you on task. Not only do you get to interact with your peers, but you also have regular communication with the instructor. The instructor is present and virtually “visible” by way of regular announcements and interaction in public discussions. If you’re enrolled in a synchronous course — real time, with a web conferencing component — it’s instructor-led. The instructor is present and “visible” by way of web conferencing software. This is common in business settings. Be sure to read the regular announcements posted by the instructor. Doing so not only keeps you on task and on time but also helps you avoid looking silly by asking a question they may have already addressed. You also see the instructor via private communication. As you complete assignments and turn them in, the instructor communicates with you and provides feedback. This may come via private email or the electronic grade book. This communication reminds you that the virtual classroom has a live instructor and that you aren’t alone. You don’t see the whole course at one time. This fact may be one of the most distinctive features of an instructor-led course. Many instructors prefer to “time-release” the content according to when the students need it. In other words, if you’re in the fourth week of an eight-week course, you may not be able to see the content for weeks five and beyond. You see only the week you’re working on. This strategy keeps all students in the same place and prevents discussions from becoming disjointed and confusing. If you find yourself in a course that uses the time-release method and you know in advance that you’ll be traveling, let your instructor know the dates you’ll be on the road. Ask whether it’s possible for you to view some of the content in advance so that you won’t fall behind if you experience technological difficulties getting connected to the internet. The three basic components of an online course are content, evaluation, and practice. An instructor-led course is more likely than a self-paced course to have the practice component, because someone is available to check your homework and smaller assignments. Your learning can be evaluated by means other than traditional testing. If you think about it, it takes the capacity of a real human to read someone’s essay and determine whether it makes sense. A computer can’t possibly evaluate that kind of assignment as well as an instructor can. If practicing what you’re learning is important to you, an instructor-led class is for you. Sometimes online teachers are known as facilitators. In contrast to what you may think of as traditional education, with a professor lecturing and learners soaking up the information, a facilitator provides resources for learners to consider and then facilitates their understanding through a series of discussions or activities. Although facilitation happens in traditional classrooms through face-to-face discussions, it takes on a special significance in online education. Typically, instructor-led courses require learners to interact with one another and everyone follows the same schedule, so they’re always aware that others are taking the course with them. Not every opportunity to learn is tied to a formal program. If you’re taking a course by way of your local two-year college, we count that as formal. If you sign up for a four-week course by way of Udemy (an online self-paced education portal), that’s informal. Nevertheless, in both cases, you’re learning online. In most cases, instructors are present in the online environment just as they are in a traditional one. However, what they do with their time in the environment might be a little different from what you would expect an instructor to do in a traditional classroom. Instead of lecturing, the instructor might post a series of narrated slides they created. Or, they might draw out additional responses in discussion rather than tell the class the answers. Self-paced courses In a self-paced course, you’re on your own to determine your schedule, so if you’re a self-starter, you may find this type of course to your liking. The content, or what you are to learn, is predetermined. When you access the course, you usually find that it has been divided into modules or units. You click on the first unit, read the content, and move through the course at your own pace. You can spend more time in the challenging areas and breeze through those that are easier for you. In the business world, self-paced learning is the most common form of online education. A lot of corporate training is delivered by way of web-based programs that look similar to PowerPoint slides, sometimes with audio or video attached. At the end of the presentation, you typically find a self-test worked into the program. As the learner, you make the decisions and control the pace of the instruction with a simple click of the mouse. In a business setting, self-paced courses are often prepackaged with simple software interfaces. The window loaded on your screen might look like the one here. These courses have navigational tools to help you move through the content. You’ll probably see arrows at the bottom to help you advance and a menu on the left. You use these tools to help you move through the content at your own pace. In a self-paced course, you work at your own pace with little or no instructor input. In an instructor-led course, you follow an established schedule and interact with the other students and the instructor. Even self-paced courses often have instructors assigned to monitor what’s happening. What you want to know is what that person does. Will you have regular contact throughout the course or just at the beginning or end? Can you call with questions? When you identify a potential self-paced course, see whether the instructor has an email address available and ask. If no instructor is assigned to the course, be wary. What about evaluation? How does the person in charge know that you learned the content? In the business world, most often this comes via traditional testing. After you read or listen to a portion of the content, you take a short quiz that’s embedded in the program. These quizzes test your ability to recall or apply what you’ve just heard. Is the course instructor-led or self-paced? How do you know the difference between an instructor-led course and a self-paced course? This is where you need to drill down to course descriptions. See whether they include terms like instructor-led. If nothing is mentioned but the name of the instructor is listed, email that person and ask whether the course is self-paced. This information helps you succeed because you know what to expect. It also makes you look downright savvy in the instructor’s eyes. Sometimes schools don’t mention that the courses are instructor-led, and a lot of students sign up thinking they’ll be taking independent-study courses. It’s worth asking about before you register so that you don’t waste time or money.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Assistive technology is the term used to describe tools that help people complete daily tasks. For example, the spell check feature on your word processing program is considered an assistive technology. It helps people write faster by automatically correcting most misspelled words and highlighting those it doesn’t know. This helps speed up the writing and editing process. People with disabilities can benefit from assistive technology when they take online courses. The following sections describe a few assistive technology tools that institutions should provide and/or design coursework for. Depending on the accommodations you need, your institution may be able to supply some or all of the assistive technology to you for free. This doesn’t mean the institution will buy your computer for you, but other resources may be available for free or at a reduced cost, if needed. This is another reason it’s important to communicate openly with the staff member in charge of your accommodations plan. Reading web pages with screen readers People who are blind or have other visual impairments often navigate the web via sound. An application that runs in the background, called a screen reader, reads the information on the web page using a digitized voice. Screen readers rely on good site organization and design to allow the visitor to quickly skim each site and navigate more efficiently. This technology is also helpful to students with dyslexia. Think about how sighted people navigate a website. They go to the site, look to see what links are on the page, and quickly click on what interests them. The links they use may be the first item on the page or on a navigation bar on the left side of the screen. A screen reader goes to that same page and starts reading every word on the site, from top to bottom. If the site is designed appropriately, the user can ask the screen reader to announce all the navigation links and headings on the page. Good design allows the person to more efficiently browse the page and navigate to chosen links. Screen readers are software applications that either come supplied with your computer or have to be purchased and installed separately. For example, Mac computers have a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver; you pay no additional charge for the application, and it works out of the box. Windows machines also have built-in accessibility tools, including a screen reader. However, the robustness of these tools is sometimes questioned, requiring users to purchase and download an external program. For example, Windows users can purchase and download a screen reader called Jaws for Windows from Freedom Scientific. It’s not cheap ($1,000), but if your accommodations require you to use a screen reader, you may be able to get a copy of the program from your institution at a discounted price or for free. Contact the person in charge of your accommodation plan for more information. Transcripts and captions for audio and video files A transcript is a text-based document that provides a word-by-word account of what was said in a separate audio or video file. Providing a transcript for audio and video files is one method for making content more accessible to students with a variety of learning styles and special needs. Another option for video files is captioning, which provides synchronized text that matches the video in real time. This allows viewers to read what is happening while seeing an image that coincides with the text. This is helpful to students who are unable to hear the audio correctly or prefer to learn by reading versus listening. The figure illustrates a video with closed captioning. Courses that are designed with accessibility in mind caption videos and add transcript links directly within the course where everyone can easily access them. For example, you may click on a link that has a video pop-up on it. In an ideal situation, the video would be captioned, and a link to the video transcript would be directly under it. If this isn’t the case, the institution may hire an internal or external resource to add captions to video or transcribe the audio on the spot. Once complete, the video is reposted and/or the transcript is provided by the instructor. Ask for captions or transcripts if you need them and do not see them. Accommodation options for synchronous sessions A person with a disability can attend a synchronous (real time) session using any of the following assistive technology tools: Closed captioning: Programs that require synchronous sessions should provide either a captioner for those events or a live video of a sign language interpreter; these options benefit students with hearing impairments. Videos occupy a lot of bandwidth and are often very small, making it difficult to see the interpreter’s hand signs. Archive links and transcripts: In case a student misses a synchronous session or needs to review the session to better understand a topic, each session should be recorded and an archive link provided to all students in the course. When necessary, a written transcript of the event should also be provided by the instructor. A telephone bridge: A telephone bridge allows a person to connect to an internet meeting by calling a phone number instead of logging on to a computer. For example, if you’re blind or have other visual impairments, the screen display may not matter to you. A phone bridge allows you to call in and listen to everything that is going on without having to log in using the computer.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

In this article, we give you some practical advice on what we consider best practice when it comes to being an online learner. We throw in that self-care angle because you’re making an investment in yourself, so show yourself some love! Treat learning like it’s a job Learning is work! There’s no way around it. No matter how engaging a course may be or how interested you are in what you’re learning, there’s work involved. Therefore, look at this as a for-hire situation. Set a schedule for yourself. Clock in and out at specific times, and decide whether this new job is ten hours a week or fewer. That also means you need to figure out a compensation package for yourself. What reward will motivate you to work? It might be as simple as a bubble bath. For some learners, receiving a digital credential after a course is a bonus and quite rewarding. Especially for professional certifications, these gems can be career enhancing. While we’re thinking about work, where is your office? It might be worth your while to invest in an ergonomic desk chair. Working from your sofa with your head bent down isn’t sustainable! Asynchronous courses, especially those for academic credit, usually state how many hours per week you should expect to work. Most 3-credit-hour courses would expect nine hours of work per week. That includes reading plus working on assignments, plus study plus posting. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon As you approach each course you take, realize that it may be part of a bigger whole. Sure, there are fast training programs you may complete online, but for most true courses, you cannot log in and complete the program in one sitting. Related to this is the idea that quality learning requires some time to let ideas percolate. Even if you could complete an entire course in a weekend, would the learning “stick?" Likely not. Enjoy the slow roll of learning something new, experimenting with new ideas, and seeing how it relates to the next chapter in your life. In fact, you may find that, as you have conversations with others (other people outside of class), it helps bring it all together. Courses are sometimes organized by modules or smaller units, and the instructor reveals one module per week. The practice of releasing one bit of content at a time is a built-in pacer. For classes where the instructor reveals several modules at a time, you need to be your own pacer. The urge to get it done might be there, but, again, what will you have learned by focusing only on getting tasks done? Manage your own expectations Coauthor Susan took up running years ago. She slowly progressed to being able to complete a 5K. (That’s a little over three miles.) As she tells the story, it was one driveway at a time. She had no expectation to be able to run the entire distance at first, and she had no specific speed in mind. She managed her expectations. This is not to say you shouldn’t try to do your best, but when someone is new to a situation like learning online, everyone needs to manage expectations. Is it necessary to score 100 percent all the time? Is it possible that there could be feedback your instructor has to help you improve? Is it good enough that you did your best and tried? We say yes. Give yourself a break and manage expectations. Otherwise, frustration can set in and you never make it to 5K. Pay attention to the syllabus and how you’re graded. Look for opportunities to resubmit work if you’re disappointed with your own performance, but please do not let yourself believe that you cannot succeed. Your calendar is your best friend Many wonderful students fail because they can't meet deadlines. Right from the beginning, find a way to follow a calendar and set deadlines. Susan’s calendar is on her phone, and it sends reminders for work projects. For example, at 8:50 a.m. every Monday, she receives an alert to check on a business project. She’s never late—the time is blocked off on her calendar. If you approach your learning like a job and schedule assignments on your calendar, you will never be late. The trick is to get everything organized in the beginning and then to respect what your calendar says. Learn to coordinate with your personal calendar any calendar that might be inside the learning management system. You can find tips and tutorials to help with this. Advocate for yourself: ask for help If this is your first experience with online learning, you may have a few questions. Ask questions. Ask for help. Here’s a list: If you have questions about how your specific course works, after you have read the syllabus and other course documents, ask your instructor. If you have questions about the technology—specifically, the learning management system, look for tutorials on the school’s website. If that doesn’t give you what you need, search on YouTube! If you’re having trouble understanding an assignment, lean on your peers. Look for an area in the course where you can have learner-to-learner communication and see if others can help. Be present in class (and let your instructor know) We’ve seen a few inspirational posters that say, “Showing up is half the battle.” When it comes to learning online, it’s true! However, “being present” looks a little different online. It’s often measured by how frequently you log in. Make certain you log in frequently (at least three times a week). That way, you’ll see announcements and be more likely to keep on top of the work. Alas, don’t just show up. Leave some evidence that you’ve been in class. Comment on another student’s post or submit an assignment. Your instructor will be paying attention to your level of engagement. Learning management system software gives instructors data, such as how frequently students log in, how long they stay, and what pages they view. You can use this to your advantage. Set your calendar to remind you to log in every two or three days. Give constructive feedback In the world of online learning, it’s not uncommon to be asked to review the work of other students. You might be asked to comment on a discussion post or give feedback on a work project. You can develop a knack for giving feedback that’s constructive. Here are some guidelines: Find something good: Compare what you’re reading to what was asked. Did the person follow the instructions, for example? Are they creative with their response? Start with something you like about their work. Be honest and suggest: To give constructive feedback means you’re helping the fellow student improve; you’re helping them construct a better product. If you think the individual could go deeper in an area, or if you note a few issues with grammar in a piece of writing work, be honest but respectful. As a reviewer, it’s not your role to fix the work, but feel free to make suggestions. For example, you might say, “I wonder if it would help the reader if you elaborate a little more about the difference between constructive feedback and praise?” It’s okay to disagree: If you have a different viewpoint, as long as you present it with respect, share it! The world learns from diverse perspectives. Close with goodness: By goodness, we don’t mean empty platitudes. It can be a comment as simple as “I enjoyed reading your paper/post. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to comment.” Or, “I hope this helps you as you shape your work.” Good manners go a long way! The same method for providing feedback on student work applies to comments you might have for your instructor. It’s okay to take a break Up to this point, we have emphasized setting a schedule, using a calendar, and approaching learning like it’s your job. We sound like taskmasters, but even workers get to go home! Sometimes the best response to stressful learning is to walk away. Take a break. Take a break, whether it’s a 5-minute stretch in the kitchen or 30 minutes playing Fortnite. Focusing elsewhere actually improves concentration later. Plus, ample brain research shows that you’re probably still problem-solving and working it through, even when you’re not sitting in front of the computer. The idea of taking a break can also be applied to sitting out a term. If juggling work, home, and school is getting to be too much, maybe it’s time to skip the next term or enroll in fewer hours. This is where a heartfelt conversation with your academic advisor can help. Breaks come in varying sizes. For a two-hour study session, fifteen minutes makes sense, not forty-five minutes. Sleep is good for you Did you know that when you sleep, your body rids itself of waste build-up in your brain? It’s amazing and true. That leaves your brain “rinsed out” for the next day and better able to handle new learning. (Apologies to brain scientists who have better explanations.) Your brain is an amazing organ, and it needs sleep to thrive. As you approach your role as a learner, consider how you will preserve a regular schedule for sleep. For your health, please don’t skimp. We know that kids can interrupt sleep as can irregular work schedules. However, if you can establish a sleep routine, you will find yourself performing better in all areas of your life. Experts recommend a quiet, dark, cool room with minimal screen time before sleep. Of course, that doesn’t sound like most households we know! A fan for white noise and foam earplugs are Susan’s salvation. Say thank you Not to sound like an awards show on TV, but there are a lot of people you may need to thank: Your family, for freeing up your time and resources Your instructor, for their patience Your employer, for supporting your learning journey Your peers, for their encouragement and camaraderie We owe a lot to the many people who have worked with us through countless online courses. It’s nice to be remembered, so, as you reach a point in your own online adventure, say thanks.

Article / Updated 04-06-2021

Despite the growing popularity of online courses, a number of myths related to online learning persist. People don’t know what to make of studying and learning online. In this article, we bust ten of the most common myths about online education. Online learning is anytime/anywhere Asynchronous courses have no set meeting times, and you should be able to complete your assignments whenever it’s convenient for you. In theory, as long as you have a decent internet connection, you can access course materials and submit assignments at any time. That said, learners sometimes fall into a trap with this statement because they fail to recognize that even an asynchronous course maintains a schedule. Your instructor expects you to turn in work by the stated deadlines. For example, you may be required to respond to a question on Wednesday and then read and respond to posts submitted by your peers by Sunday. Though you can decide what time of day to submit your posts, if you don’t follow the class schedule, you’ll probably find yourself losing ground in the grading scheme. The other area in which this statement becomes problematic is the “anywhere” part. In theory, you should be able to travel and do your work as long as you have a decent internet connection. However, our experience is that online education and vacations do not mix! If you must take a two-week vacation in the midst of an eight-week course, consider rescheduling one or the other. Even if your hotel has free internet, do you seriously want to stop playing on the beach to come inside and do homework? The reality is that you probably won’t. Online courses come in two flavors: synchronous and asynchronous. In a synchronous (real-time) course, you meet at a prescribed time using web conferencing software. In an asynchronous course, you have no set time to meet, but you do have deadlines. You should know which of these two course types you’re taking before you run into problems. Also, remember that a lot of workplace learning has shifted to an online format. Webinars abound! In some cases you can watch a recording after the fact, but find out first whether it’s an option. If your company schedules the annual security compliance training at 10 a.m., plan to be there! Only kids take online courses Check the statistics for some of the larger online programs and you’ll find that the average online learner is middle-aged. The convenience of studying while balancing work and family attracts slightly older students to online courses. Younger, traditional-age college students are also online, but they’re more likely to be blending web-based and traditional courses at a land-based college (or they were forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic). The notion that young kids know how to use computers to their advantage and slightly older students do not is an erroneous assumption. Don’t overlook the computer skills of working professionals. Few of us complete the workday without email, shared projects, and collaboration. These are the same skills needed in online learning! An online course is a helpful way to learn how to use your computer This statement may be true if you’re enrolled in a personal development course on using a computer. However, taking an online course to learn how to use your computer is a bad idea. People who do this spend so much time focusing on learning to use their computer that they waste money by not learning anything about the content area of the course. Why pay $300 for a geology course and not learn about rocks? Additionally, the instructor may not have the time or patience to walk you through every little course related task. Even if you have 24/7 technical support, their job is to help you with software related to your course, not tell you how to use your computer. In fairness to the other students and your instructor, learn how to use your computer well before you enroll in an online course. Contact your local two-year college or continuing education department to see what kinds of basic computer courses they offer. Chances are good that they have an introductory course that would be perfect for you! You must be a computer geek to take an online course You do need to understand the basics of how your computer works as well as how to find files (see the preceding section), but you don’t need to be a full-fledged geek to survive in an online course! Here’s a short list of skills you should have before you enroll. You should be able to: Turn on your computer and start a web browser (the software that connects to the internet) Navigate the web, including opening links in new tabs or windows Create a folder on your hard drive to store course related information and know how to locate that information for later access Open and answer email with and without attachments Download and install applications and application plugins Figure out some basic audio and camera settings if you’re enrolled in a course that is synchronous and requires these tools Online learning is easier than face-to-face classes Some people assume that online learning is easier than the traditional method, where you show up to a class with an instructor in front, but we don’t know what easier means. To some people, it means less work, but guess what? In an accredited educational program, the amount of work expected of a student is the same whether the course is delivered in a traditional classroom or online. Here’s an example: If you attend a course offered once a week in a regular classroom, the instructor may lecture or guide activities for three hours and expect you to work on your own, completing readings or assignments for another six hours, resulting in a total of nine hours of active involvement in learning. The same course transferred online may deliver the lecture or activities by way of technology tools, but the assignments and the outcomes are the same. And, most importantly, you’re expected to be engaged for approximately nine hours total. Many online programs are accelerated, which has the potential of doubling your workload per course. For example, an on-campus course might take 16 weeks, whereas online, the same course covering the same amount of material may be only 8 to 12 weeks. We can’t see how that’s any easier. We will allow, however, that online learning can be much more convenient in that you can do the work when it suits your lifestyle and schedule — as long as you still meet required deadlines set forth by the instructor. Online courses are lower quality than face-to-face courses In the early days of online education, some courses were little more than technology-enhanced correspondence courses with hardly any accountability for how well the students learned. We’ve come a long way since then, and today’s online courses offer the same standards and outcomes as traditional courses. Research fails to reveal not only a statistically significant difference between online and traditional delivery methods but also that online courses are of lower quality. In fact, reputable institutions routinely review their courses using accepted standards of quality. Online programs are also beginning to participate in separate accreditation processes from agencies such as the United States Distance Learning Association. That said, when COVID-19 began disrupting colleges, universities, and training providers around the world, some moved their programs online without having the time or luxury to redesign them and train faculty. Admittedly, the result wasn’t good for the learner. Fairly quickly, quality standards were enacted and the situation is much improved. Look for an accredited program or institution. Online learning is always independent Though you may do a considerable amount of work independently, such as reading or writing assignments, most online courses require students to interact with each other in a manner that’s far from independent. This list describes two examples: In discussion forums, students read one another’s submissions and comment on or reply to them. This rich exchange of ideas extends everyone’s understanding of the concepts. This manner of learning is hardly independent! In fact, it can’t happen without participation from multiple voices, including the instructor’s. Group projects are carried out online, too. Often students collaborate with peers to create a final product. These situations may require even more time and commitment specific to communicating with others than traditional classroom projects. Taken directly from how people work in the 21st century (across distances and with others), teamwork rather than independence seems to rule in online courses. Online learning is less personal than traditional learning An amusing video on the internet from the mid-2010s shows a professor refusing to accept a late exam from a student. The student asks, “Do you know who I am?” to which the professor replies that he doesn’t. The student jams his paper into the middle of the stack of exams, smirks, and walks away. That’s impersonal! You can’t hide in an online course. Your instructor will get to know you and your ideas possibly better than they would have had you sat in a traditional classroom and said nothing. This is because the majority of online classes require participation — you can’t log in and lurk and not do the work. In fact, if you try to approach your course that way, at the very least you can expect to have a few intimate conversations with your instructor! There’s another explanation for why online education is not impersonal. Have you ever noticed that some people feel free to disclose information about themselves to strangers? Some instructors report similar occurrences with online students, indicating that learners are freer to share insights and personal details that support course concepts than they would if they had to face a classroom full of live people. Plus, anyone who has lived, worked, or attended school during the COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably seen their coworkers’ kids, teachers’ spouses, inadvertent bathroom shots or similar. You can’t say that’s not personal! You need a webcam for an online class Determining whether to install a webcam for an online class kind of depends. On one hand, no one needs to see you sitting in your pajamas at the computer. Though webcams have real advantages for communication, they’re rarely required in online courses. For starters, you only use a webcam if you have a synchronous component that accommodates video — for example, an office hour in a web conferencing tool. Even then, because webcams require greater bandwidth, instructors may ask you to turn them off. However, it doesn’t hurt to go ahead and purchase a webcam for those occasional synchronous sessions. In business settings, it’s nice to have the option to turn on the camera. There’s something reassuring about seeing the others in the room. Because laptops come supplied with this item as a standard feature, it’s rarely an issue. Then again, in business webinars, because the focus is on whatever topic the speaker is covering, it may be less important for you to be on camera. Most of the communication in an online course occurs on the discussion boards or via email. These aren’t communication tools that require a real-time connection or video. If classmates are curious about what you look like, a photo works just as well. Everyone cheats online There is no evidence of greater cheating online than in a face-to-face classroom. Unfortunately, too much cheating takes place everywhere! However, smart online instructors now design their courses to minimize the possibility of cheating and use tools to help detect plagiarism. Cheating online simply doesn’t pay, because the technology is on the instructor’s side, as described in these examples: Partial submissions: Instructors ask for major projects to be submitted in pieces showing earlier drafts and revisions. Or they ask for projects that are based on personal or professional circumstances, knowing that no one else can possibly write about your life the way you can. Software: Some institutions use sophisticated software that checks written submissions for plagiarism. One-on-one conversations: Some instructors have these chats with learners where they ask questions to see whether students can properly articulate course materials. A working definition of plagiarism is presenting someone else’s ideas as your own without giving proper citation.