Reflection
According
to Schmit & Gallegos, “distance delivery is, and will continue to have an
impact on education in the years to come”. In the future distance learning will
be widely accepted a lot more than it is in the present time. In the job market
now, when employers see your degree was obtained online they tend to be a
little skeptic about hiring you but I believe as time goes on those issues will
not be a factor.
Times
definitely have changed from having to rearrange your schedule in order to accommodate
going to school full time and putting your job on hold or cutting work hours
just to meet the demands of being a full time student. Situations such as that
will slowly become a thing of the past within the next 5, 10 to 20 years.
People will still have the opportunities to have their educational needs met
but will have the advantage of being able to maintain their busy lifestyles
(work, family and school) and have access to their courses anytime, anywhere. As
pointed out by Dr. Siemens pointed out, students find that online learning is “a
preferable medium of learning” (Siemens, G. because students will develop a
sense of comfort and naturally take to the environment. How can you as an
instructional designer be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of
distance learning?
Ways
I can contribute to improving societal perceptions of distance learning is by
first designing an online learning experience that will ease doubts, fears, and
frustrations about online courses being too difficult. When students get the
perception that distance learning is hard, it makes them lose their drive and motivation
to participate in course (s).
The
next thing I would consider in my design would be taking the constructivist
approach. The course should be “relevant, interactive, project-based and
collaborative, while providing learners with some choice or control over their
learning”(Jeep-Kim, K. & Bonk C.J., 2012).
I
could definitely be a positive force for
continuous improvement in the field of distance education because I can use the experience
gained through this degree program and provide suggestions and ideas on what
would make the online learning experience more effective for the learners that
come after me. As an instructional designer, you have to put yourself in the
mindset of the learner and think of how you would want to be taught the
content. Once you have obtained that, apply the concept to your design.
References
Jeep-Kim, K. & Bonk C.J., (2012)
The future of online teaching and learning in higher
Education. Retrieved from: .http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/TheFutureofOnlineTeachingandLe/157426
Schmidt,
E., & Gallegos, A. (2001). Distance learning: Issues and concerns of
distance learners. Journal of Industrial Technology, 17(3). Retrieved
from http://atmae.org/jit/Articles/schmidt041801.pdf