WHY ON-LINE? WHY DISTANCE LEARNING?
- Recent research shows students learning (scoring on measures) 20% higher on average when taking a course by distance learning than when taking the same course in a classroom.
- The any time, any place feature of on-line courses means you adapt course time to your schedule and learning preferences (frequency of breaks, music, food, etc.)
- People doing on-line courses end up paying closer attention.
- Shy students benefit from discussion board interaction contrasted to the pressures and limited “air time” of the classroom.
- Course resources continue to be available on-line, long after the course is over.
- Voices of many authors and viewpoints are given, choices of many web links are offered. These voices and choices make learning more “mind-compatible.”
- The classroom structure and teachers create bottlenecks in the interaction of learners with ideas and information. Classroom teachers limit voice and choice to a degree that most schooling is mind-numbing. On-line learning is far more mind-friendly.
- You get to experience an innovative style of learning that may well be part of the educational mix for all learners in the future.
- You get to match the work you do closer to the job you perform or will perform.
- Past students have viewed the advantages as far greater than the disadvantage of missing the give-and-take of class discussion.
- Students having difficulty with self-discipline (procrastination) who wish they were “made to” come to a computer room to work on-line get to confront what it is in themselves that makes them so outer-oriented in personal will.