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.