English 202 Technical Writing (CRN 1166) Bill Nagle
Some points about distance learning
There are many modes of learning — from being thrown in a pool to learn how to swim, to secretly touching a hot stove unit (and thus learning that parents are actually right sometimes), to sitting in the grass with your grandfather learning how to graft fruit trees, and so on. . . . Those are just three of the modes I've experienced. :-)
But classroom learning (which might be classified as a necessary evil) is the one we’re most accustomed to. It involves a teacher transferring information to relatively passive students. It is primarily aural: it involves talking and listening. The teacher speaks in order to convey what is to be learned. The teacher also initiates the learning and controls the process, and is primarily responsible for the quality of the experience. The teacher and the students are in the same place at the same time, and usually limit themselves to the lesson as planned.
Distance learning is quite different. It’s mostly visual: it involves reading and writing. Most often it takes place whenever the students want it to take place. The learning is initiated by the students, who pursue information and elicit instruction on their own; they also have more control over their own process of learning. The online teacher is primarily a guide and resource rather than an information-giver. The learning is more self-directed, with students taking responsibility for the quality of their education.
Bottom line? If you are prepared to take responsibility for your own learning and to treat a teacher as something other than a repository of correct answers, then distance learning should be a refreshing change for you. It's education much more as it should be.
There are, of course, some potential bumps:• You may be held back a bit if your computer skills aren’t quite up to snuff. You don’t have to be an expert, but you do have to know basic word processing, emailing (including attachments), and Internet navigation.
• There may be frustration and delays if something goes wrong with your computer hardware or software: the emotional impact is often greater than the impact of time or money spent fixing the problem.
• If you’re a slow typist, it may take you a while to do the work. Of course, this will also be exactly the kind of practice you need to improve. (The same can be said for acquiring computer skills.)
• If you have poor time management skills, there can be significant problems. Since you are not tied to the structure of once- or twice-a-week classes, it's your responsibility to get work done on time.
• If you really don't like writing, an online writing course — where everything is done in writing — could present quite a psychological burden.
• You may have to learn to ask questions or report difficulties . . . much more than in a classroom. You can’t wrinkle your brow and hope that I will notice, or come up after class. If you stay silent, I may never guess what's going on.
• Not having the society of a classroom or the physical presence of a teacher may be a hardship for people who learn best in a social setting.
• There’s somewhat more work involved in distance learning than in classroom learning. Underestimating this would be a mistake. However, this kind of learning can be very rewarding, so I don't want to suggest that the work is a bigger problem than it is.
Having said all that, I think the positive points far outweigh the negative ones.
• The learning can take place in the morning, afternoon, evening or wee hours of the night — whatever time is best, or most convenient, for you.
• The learning can take place much more at your speed than at the rate it’s dished out by an instructor during a set class period. You will be able to “replay” difficult material, as opposed to hearing it just once in the classroom.
• You’ll have an enhanced sense of “owning” the subject matter since you will always interact directly with it rather than have it presented by the instructor.
• Distance learning is not as much about “filling you up” with knowledge as of helping you to organize information and skills that are already in place — or at least there for the taking.
• Ironically, you will probably interact more with me than with a normal classroom instructor because I'm free of the burden of presenting information and can afford to spend much more time individually with students.
• Since the materials (in both quantity and quality) available on the Internet often go far beyond what is available in the old-style classroom, you can learn at a higher plateau.
• Distance learning provides a cushion of time that allows your responses to be better constructed and more thoughtful than they might be in the immediate environment of the classroom.
• If you avail yourself of the Discussion feature of online learning, you'll have much more opportunity to ask questions and receive a variety of answers from both the instructor and your fellow students.
• As I've indicated, you will spend more time at distance learning, but it will be “quality” time, and the reward is likely to be greater. Also, aside from intangible rewards, grades are generally higher than in land-based courses.