This course changes my opinion about online class. I used to think online courses are lack of communication because I cannot meet my professors and classmates face to face. Compared with lectures, it is difficult for teachers and students to communicate at the same time and space. However, in this online course, I communicate even more than lectures. We have the opportunities the view our peers’ works and get comments and suggestions from them. In order to ensure the efficiency and quality of teaching and learning, an interactive learning environment is more important for online courses.
Online learning has become a big trend. There are also a lot of online learning materials come out. We should consider whether it is helpful for learners to learn when we create these learning materials. No matter which kind of media was used in the educational area, media richness is an important impact that should be taken into consideration. In the real life, people always prefer seeking the simplest media first, and then choose the more complex or richer media when the simple media cannot fully achieve the learning goals. However, the richness of the media needs to be taken into consideration when choosing a medium or technology. Open learning is difficult to avoid privacy protection, and sometimes the browsers can help us block some websites from interfering. ORE, a great resource for open learning, provides students with many cheap and even free materials.（Mays, E. (Ed.)，2017）
Reference:
Mays, E. (Ed.). (2017). A guide to making open textbooks with students. Rebus Community.
Gilliard, C., & Culik, H. (2016, May 24). Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy. Common Sense Education.
zhaohantan
Hi Fenghua,
I have similar feelings with you that this online course has renewed my impression on online courses. Same as you, I also regarded online courses were not as effective as traditional closed learning environment, since students could not communicate with professors or classmates face to face. However, after learning the concepts of opening and distributed learning, I get to know that group work and peer reviews can be done effective with multimedia tools. For example, when we uploaded our discussion 1, we can check with peers’ opinions and compare with ours. In the group assignments, professors can also give immediate feedback to students and list the items that they need to improve. Then, group mates can express their ideas and discuss together how to make the assignment better.
rbanow
Thanks for the post! I understand what you’ve written and appreciate that you have connected it to your experiences. I am wondering if you could connect it more to the concepts in the readings. I see the connections at the end but they are fairly vague, especially for an open audience. Can you explain what you mean by “open learning is difficult to avoid privacy protection”?
Thanks!
mengzhu
I can relate to your point of view. Online courses make me feel more relaxed and more interactive with my classmates than face-to-face classes. I think an effective open classroom is one that should allow students to learn and communicate on their own to maximize learning outcomes.
Oliver
Hey Weng,
Thanks for the post!
I liked your last sentence about online education and privacy. I wrote about a similar issue in my topic 3 discussion. I like your suggestion on Ore and how it’s a great resources with free textbooks and education. Do you personally use it?
I also agree on how online education has changed my mind as well, especially similar to yours on how you talked about peers’ work and getting comments from them. I felt that during our pod project. Overall nice post I enjoyed reading it.
jasonjc28
Hi
I agree with your idea about mind changing on online learning. I had a quite same thoughts with yours. Students can communicate with others at the same time and everyone can involve in this discussion. No matter students are shy or outgoing, they can easily communicate with others online. For the privacy protection, I would say we can not only use proper browser but also use some software to help us protect our privacy.