Online Learning Resources for Adults
This is a list articles and resources about online learning for adults returning to college
The Digest
An online learning timeline
What is Online Learning?
To better understand what could be gained, one has to first define online learning.
The 5 big mistakes in virtual education
Slides explaining oline learning and the big mistakes in virtual education
Online Learning and Student Satisfaction
What are the foundations of student satisfaction or dissatisfaction with online courses? Why do online learners succeed and others fail or drop out? What kind of instructional designs, pedagogical practices and administrative standards contribute to the development of effective online courses with high retention rates and positive student learning outcomes?
Staying the Course: A Study in Online Student Satisfaction and Retention
The purpose of this study was to determine the variables significant for retention in online courses as asked by questions listed on an online course survey
Overloadjunct's Blog
Three weeks. That’s what it takes. About three weeks and the students weren’t asking where things were located. Three weeks and things were being submitted on time. Three weeks when frustration waned and technology competence set in. How does an instructor handle a three week lag in an eight week course?
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration,
Interaction in Online Courses: More is NOT Always Better
Predictors of Success for Adult Online Learners: A Review of the Literature
What are the predictors of adult students' success in online learning environments? Is there a difference in undergraduate versus graduate online learners and their motivations? Does age play a factor? Do the course's characteristics have an impact on performance and learner satisfaction? What are the implications of these findings for online instructors, and how could that affect their practices and approaches to retaining students in the future?
Online Learning” Isn’t Learning Online
Learning online is not about finishing the course requirements a few days early or answering the questions that the text or the teacher dictate. It’s about finding our own path through the material. As I asked in a comment on the post, do students practice inquiry in these settings? Are they able to ask their own questions? Are they assessed any differently? Do they create any new knowledge in the process and, if so, is that knowledge shared anywhere? Does their experience in the course replicate real life in any new way? Does it teach them how to learn on their own? To go deep?
Online Course Technology: The World at Your Fingertips
Imagine munching a chocolate bar and sipping a cappuccino, wearing your favorite old sweats, hair unkempt…while at the very same moment you, with your class, are drumming alongside the Ashanti tribe in Africa or celebrating the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland
Persistence of Women in Online Degree-Completion Programs
Strong motivation to complete degrees, engagement in the learning community, and appreciation for the convenience of an online degree-completion option facilitated persistence.
3. Leading the Way
Two-year associate’s institutions provide the largest share of online enrollments, with more online students at these institutions than all other types combined,” according to the study
Why Einstein Would Have Loved Online Education
So why do I suspect that the world’s most celebrated genius would have embraced online degrees? Simple. Online education offers unprecedented flexibility, independence, and opportunity to those questing for knowledge and advancement.
To Facilitate or to Teach
This post will be a series of thoughts about this tension, and some ideas on how I can better manage my attempts at online learning community facilitation.
The Online Learner: Characteristics and Pedagogical Implications
The emerging online learner can be described as someone who has a strong academic self-concept; is competent in the use of online learning technologies, particularly communication and collaborative technologies; understands, values, and engages in social interaction and collaborative learning; possesses strong interpersonal and communication skills; and is self-directed.
How Online Classes Function and the Technology that Fuels Them
Having due dates each week that had to be met for items such as attendance, participation, team projects, individual assignments, discussion questions, and weekly summaries to name a few. As a student at this school, I was required to post two responses per week in order to meet the attendance requirements and four times per week to meet the class participation requirements. Each week there were discussion questions that each student was required to answer on a specific day.
Endless Possibilites
The major difference is online discussions are in written form, and the on site discussions of course are verbal. There is a tendency for students in on site classes to not say anything at all, and let the more verbal students dominate the discussion. My impression is these people did not read the assignment, and simply were unable to contribute to the discussion. This doesn’t happen in online discussions, as there is a requirement for all to contribute to discussions; as well as a record of the participation
Myths about online classes
Series of prevalent myths about taking online courses, along with the facts concerning the myths.
Online courses and how they change the nature of class
This paper presents findings related to how the nature of class changes when asynchronous online courses are used rather than classrooms.
Where I Go My Online Classes Follow
My online classes were scheduled like traditional classes. There were due dates and timelines. Timelines were scheduled for initial posts and for responses to the posts of others. There was a similar format in most of the classes, read something assigned by the instructor, post a response to the reading, and then reply to posts by other students.
How Students Develop Online Learning Skills
Successful online students share their secrets for getting the most from online classes, focusing on time management, active participation, and practice
The Use of Asynchronous Discussion: Creating a Text of Talk
Asynchronous discussion allows students to read and respond "out-of-time." This form of online discussion, as experienced in a college literacy course, creates a text of talk that has the potential to be reflective given the freedom participants have in their response time. However, students often struggle with reflection.
Socialization in the Online Classroom
It is likely that learners everywhere are attracted to online courses for the much same reasons. The convenience and flexibility of not having a fixed, physical meeting space coupled with the ability to work from convenient locales often gives students the impression of distance learning as being pretty easy. One of the difficulties that learners have with online course comes in the area of adjusting to asynchronous interaction, if this is the communication mode of the class. A few of the qualities of asynchronous communication--the time lag between interactions, the frequent lack of clear norms of communication and the absence of visual/auditory conversation cues—created anxiety for many students
What is Online Learning?
We are at an interesting juxtaposition in the evolution of online learning. After a century of little real change in classroom teaching (college lecture halls of 2008 look little different from college lecture halls of 1908), we now have tools and capabilities to actually teach and learn in new ways. Economic, administrative and social pressures are pushing faculty to consider transitioning some or all of their courses online. Students are looking for the 24/7 access to learning that they experience in their social lives.
10 Reasons to Earn an Online Degree in a Troubled Economy
When the economy is in trouble, many professionals turn to online learning. Here are ten reasons why earning an online degree is a smart way to deal with a recession.
Online Students Share Tips for Success
A group of adult students who graduated from online graduate degree programs with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better, cited the following skills and techniques that helped them achieve success
Are You a Good Candidate for an Online Degree?
Not everyone is a good candidate for becoming an online student. In my opinion, online courses seem to be geared more towards students with a verbal learning style versus a visual one. Why? Well, namely because the study materials, classroom discussions, assignments, and interaction are all replaced by writing.
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