Activity 7.2 (ESSAY)

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

Distance courses provide an amazing opportunity to learn for a lot of people who cannot attend a real classroom or that have trouble with schedules. The fact that nowadays we can actually learn without being in a traditional class is amazing and scary at the same time, because with this modality of learning the student gets a lot of freedom, but at the same time a lot of responsibilities.

  As everything, distance education has good and bad things. On the advantages we have that the student is in charge of his own learning. He can organize himself, the time when he wants to study and for how long, he has the freedom of deciding which topics need more attention and focus on them. The student gains autonomy and can develop a greater sense of responsibility towards his own learning.

  Moreover, another advantage in distance education is that there might be a lot more resources and ways to get information. The internet has the answers to almost anything and technology provides a huge range of ways to do things, so with the correct use of both the teacher can provide different materials to support the class, as much as the learner can produce a variety of outcomes besides the written text, this way the course in general can be more dynamic and interesting for everyone involved.

  Also, the feedback in these courses is more personal. When the feedback is given correctly, the student feels that the teacher is actually involved and interested in his development; the information that the student receives is only about his performance so he can have a better sense of whether he is doing well or not. Plus, the student does not feel that exposed in case he has a bad grade. However, feedback can be a disadvantage too, because it takes more time for the teacher and most of the time it is not given correctly, which discourages the student to work for the class.

  On the other hand, one of the biggest disadvantages in distance learning is that the student can feel isolated. Since the learner is not in constant contact with the other people on the class, he might feel lonely throughout the course, which can discourage him from participating. The teacher can prevent this from occurring by making the learners work in groups and organizing cooperative work, but sometimes it is the physical interaction what the student is lacking of and there is not much to do there.

  Another disadvantage is that as much as technology is very useful it can be curse too. Distance courses rely in technology almost entirely and sometimes it fails, maybe some students have the latest model of computer or the best internet connection, but some others may not and it can be very problematic in certain situations—like in video conferences or working with heavy software. Even though the learner should have been prepared with an acceptable device for a class of such nature, there is still the possibility of something going wrong without being anyone’s fault—like the platform crashing.

  Talking about my own experience, it has been a little hard to get used to this type of learning. I am a person that prefers to be in a classroom because somehow I tend to understand things better if I am in contact with my classmates, also I have had not so pleasant experiences with distance courses, where the teacher was absent most of the time and the feedback would be given only at the end of the whole course, which definitely put me down.

  I think that the key to have a good distance course is communication. If we are in constant communication with our students and encourage the learners to share opinions and interact with each other, the experience can be better for everyone; people can learn from one another and create a good environment to participate in class. Also, constant feedback is really important because that way the learner can keep track of his work. And finally, to vary activities and offer different options for each activity is the best way to avoid monotony and keep the learner interested in the course.

  As said before, distance courses are very helpful, but they can only work with the full commitment of both the learner and the teacher. As a student, one needs to embrace the responsibility of doing what it takes to reach the goals for the class, and as teachers we must be prepared to accomplish the student’s expectations.

Activity 6.1

Evaluation in Distance Courses

Distance courses offer a whole different way of learning and carry out many benefits for the student who cannot attend an actual class; nonetheless, it has difficulties too. For the learner, it can be somewhat difficult to adapt to the new way of studying, and for the teacher, it can be quite complicated to deal with some sort of things, like the evaluation of the student’s progress in the class.

Since the teacher is not in direct contact with the learner, s/he must find other ways to see if the student is completing the established goals for the course. Also, in order to evaluate the students, the teacher should have material to evaluate; thus, using different types of exercises (like quizzes or questionnaires) throughout the course where the learners show what they have been learning can be very helpful.

In my opinion, the constant evaluation is the most relevant in distance courses but, unfortunately, the most neglected too. As a former distance learner, I prefer to know my progress as I work in the class, because it not only tells me what do I need to fix to improve, but also, it gives me a sense that the teacher is committed with the course too. That is why the teacher should give constant feedback to the learners about their progress.

When it comes to this everyday-type of evaluation, a way to do it in a face-to-face class is by the teacher addressing the learner to talk about her/his results; however, in a distance course the teacher may not be able to do so as easily, so s/he might have to get an appointment with the learner to have a chat or just send an email to tell the student how s/he is doing.

Finally, I would say that the feedback we give our learners is really important but it is also important to be able to grade our students with such information. As teachers, we need to organize our course and be aware of what we need to evaluate and the activities we will use to do it, according to the modality of the class, in order to have a better representation of the students progress, whether they are learning or not, and even spot what can be improved in the course for future classes.

Bibliography

Willis, B. (1994). Distance Education Strategies and Tools. Unated States: Educational Technology Publications.

Activity 5.2

Which materials are optimal for a distance course?

I think that the examples are very good, but the last three are the ones that might work better in a distance class, mainly because they are more interactive than the first two. Also, in the PDF documents there is no way that the learner knows if heanswered right, unless they send the exercise to the teacher and s/he corrects it.

Material

I decided to check listening comprehension in English through a quiz. In this type of material (made with HotPotatoe) there is the chance to link the exercise to the teacher's email so the student's results are sent directly to the teacher (I did not link this one though).

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EXERCISE

Activity 4.1

Here is our presentation about Udemy
You can visit the page by clicking HERE

Activity 3.2 (Essay)

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS REGARDING DISTANCE LEARNING

Distance learning is a very useful alternative of learning for many students. As  it offers a whole new way of acquiring and sharing knowledge it also helps to promote autonomous learning; however, as much as it can be helpful it can be difficult to deal with, mainly because we are facing a not-so-conventional way of taking/giving a course.

Usually the students that choose to take distance courses over face-to-face ones do it because it just seems like a better option for them. Students who have a job might prefer to take a distance class over a present class due to their work schedule. Also people who choose distance learning usually have a stronger motivation towards learning and can be more independent than the learners from the traditional learning.

As I mentioned before, there are some things that can be more difficult in distance courses compared to face-to face courses. One of those things is that the communication teacher-student can be somewhat hard because they do not really see each other in person, but clearly there are ways to ease that situation at least a little. For this issue, I think the best we can do is to use the different ways of communication we have through technology and internet, such as e-mail or skype. If we show interest in try to keep touch with our students, answer their questions and such, they will probably grow an interest in trying to keep communication with us too.

Moreover, the feedback might represent a problem too. If the students do not get the expected amount of feedback, they can get discouraged towards the class. As a learner we need reassurance of our knowledge and we obviously need to know if the effort we are making is enough or even taken into account. As teacher we should be aware of the previous and try our best to give the needed feedback at an appropriate time. We can do so by sending mails to our students with the necessary comments or using the school platform—if we have one, like UABC with Blackboard.

Another problem, also related to communication, could be the lack of cooperation between learners. It can be more problematic to try to make the learners collaborate with each other or even communicate with each other when, in most cases, they do not even know each other in real life. In this case, we can promote this communication through cooperative work, making them discuss topics in online forums, comment on each other’s work, etc.

Finally, I can just say that many of the problems related to distance courses have solutions. For me, a successful distance class is all about good communication, if we are informed about what our students are doing and how they are coping with the activities of the course we can have more accurate grades and give better feedback; meanwhile, the learners can also achieve a better understanding of the topics and a better experience overall if they get the chance to share their ideas with other people but themselves.

Activity 2.2

Nowadays, autonomy is one of the main characteristics every person should have, and education is now moving towards that. Distance learning can be a very useful way of becoming a more autonomous student because it obligates us as learners to be committed and directly involved with our learning process.

In the following presentation, I will address some of the factors that can lead a learner to achieve said autonomy.

Activity 2.1

Distance classes are a very helpful way to learn to some people, meanwhile for others can be quite stressful, and it has to do a lot with the type of intelligence each person has, and even the other experiences they have had in the past with courses in that modality. If the learner has an idea of his type of intelligence, he will have the chance to at least identify what he can do in order to learn more easily.

Also, according to what I read, anxiety is an important factor with distance learning. Since the learner does not have much face-to-face interaction with the teacher or other students, it can be a little unsettling that he has to do most of the work by himself, relaying only in what he understands of each task, and that for sure is stressful; however, it can be avoided if the teacher knows how to help the learner, mainly by being available to answer questions, and also by giving some workshops throughout the course in order to dissipate doubts.

Now, talking about my own experience with distance learning, I have to say that I actually prefer classroom attendance classes, which might be a bit odd considering my two types of intelligence are Linguistic (35) and Spatial-Visual (32), thus I should not have much trouble with the regular way in which distance classes are given—usually through activities that require reading and the use of online materials like videos—, but still, I would probably choose a class with face-to-face interaction, mainly because it represents for me a more direct way to get information.

Furthermore, I think that good self organizing can make a student’s experience with distance classes a lot easier. If the student organizes his time as if it were a presence class, it might be easier to perform for him in each task because that way he might have time to make the necessary investigation for said activity. Also, the student must know that in case he has doubts with the material or even the way he must do anything, he can get help from the teacher or even another student if he wants to, that even though they do not see each other every day, it does not mean they will not be in touch at all.

Solutions to help the students to complete a distance course:

• 1.       Variety of materials/activities. This one is more for the teacher than for the student, but I think it is a very important factor to consider. By offering different types of activities or materials to the students according to the different types of intelligence, we can assure that the task will be easier to complete and it will be less boring for the learners to do diverse activities at least once in a while.

• 2.       Organization. This applies for both the teacher and the learner. As I mentioned before, organization is very important because, as students we need to be aware of the deadlines for each activity as much as the time we have for them and how to arrange ourselves for it, and as teachers we must be alert to what our students are doing in order to make the necessary feedback. Thus, I would recommend getting an agenda, journal or, for those who can, a smartphone/tablet application (there are many where you can even set alarms to organize time better) in order to keep track of what we do and want to do.

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Here are my results of the multiple intelligences test, just in case you guys wanted to know: