Online learning is the fastest growing segment in the educational marketplace (Conhaim, 2003). As the number of online courses increases and distance learning programs grow in popularity, questions of quality and comparability of online courses with traditional methods naturally arise (Schulman & Sims, 1999). While online learning is the fastest growing educational segment, partly in thanks to on-campus students who choose to take courses online, there are still debates about not only the quality of the course content, but the quality of the technology used as well. According to Bowman (2003), in “the history of higher education, online classes are relatively new, and it is yet to be determined how to take full advantage of the technology” (p. 73).
The importance of a student’s involvement in learning is well documented and well known. It is easy to sum up research related to active learning by simply saying, “students who participate in the learning process learn more than those who do not” (Weaver & Qi, 2005, p. 570). Active learning seeks to create a learner-centered environment and engage students as active participants in their education. The opposite of this is passive learning, which is thought of as the traditional way of teaching where the professor is a subject matter expert whose role is to convey the knowledge to an audience of students (Barr & Tagg, 1995). While the success of active learning is well documented, some instructors may find it difficult to fully engage students as active learners in the classroom. Active learning requires student participation, which is easier for some students than it is for others. Larkin and Pines (2003) found theF common practice of calling on students to promote active learning in the classroom resulted in a “clear and unmistakable pattern of avoidance behavior as reported by both male and female students” because many students seek ways to avoid the psychologically unpleasant situation of providing the wrong answer and looking foolish. Larkin and Pines (2003) argue that if a student’s emotional and cognitive resources become directed towards avoiding the immediate threat of being called on, then arguably the practice of calling on students may reduce active learning, which was the intended goal of calling on the student in the first place. Fortunately, educational technologies are able to assist in this challenge.
Online learning is the fastest growing segment in the educational marketplace (Conhaim, 2003). As the number of online courses increases and distance learning programs grow in popularity, questions of quality and comparability of online courses with traditional methods naturally arise (Schulman & Sims, 1999). While online learning is the fastest growing educational segment, partly in thanks to on-campus students who choose to take courses online, there are still debates about not only the quality of the course content, but the quality of the technology used as well. According to Bowman (2003), in “the history of higher education, online classes are relatively new, and it is yet to be determined how to take full advantage of the technology” (p. 73). Traditional face-to-face courses, which may have been proven successful in terms of evaluations and outcomes assessments, are increasingly being converted to online courses. A study by Smith, Ferguson, and Caris (2000) concluded: “Contrary to intuition, current Web-based online college courses are not an alienating, mass-produced product. They are a laborintensive, highly text-based, intellectually challenging forum which elicits deeper thinking on the part of the students” (p. 67). Converting a traditional classroom course that is intellectually challenging and that elicits deeper thinking into an online course that can do the same can be a harrowing task. The process of converting a face-to-face course into an online course without compromising the course’s integrity and quality is a difficult burden to overcome. The burden of the conversion process can be eased, however, through the use of course maps.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.