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.
