Online education, known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school. Traditionally, Online Education usually involved correspondence materials wherein the student communicated with the school via mail.
Online education
Today, it usually requires online education. A distance learning plan can be entirely distance learning or a combination of traditional classroom instruction.
Massive open online courses (MOOCs), contribution large-scale interactive involvement, and open access through the World Wide Web or other network mechanization are recent educational modes in distance education. Many other terms (distributed learning, e-learning, m-learning, online learning, virtual classroom, etc.) are used roughly synonymously with distance education.
History of online education
One of the earliest attempts advertised was in 1728. The Boston bulletin for “Caleb Philipps, Teacher of the new technique of Short Hand” sought students who desired to learn through weekly send lessons.
Sir Isaac Pitman provided the first distance education course in the modern sense in the 1840s. He taught a shorthand structure by mailing texts duplicated into shorthand on the letter and receiving transcriptions from his students in return for rectification.
The element of student reaction was a crucial innovation in Pitman’s system. This scheme was made possible by the establishment of uniform postage rates across England in 1840.
This early beginning proved highly successful, and the Phonographic communication Society was founded three years later to establish these courses on a more ceremonial basis. The Society covered the way for the later formation of Sir Isaac Pitman Colleges over the country.
The first compatibility school in the United States was the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, established in 1873.
Effects of online education on encoding and decoding process
| Strongly agree | Agreed | Uncertain | Disagree | Strongly disagree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interaction | 148 | 83 | 12 | 12 | 8 |
| Body lang | 142 | 78 | 17 | 15 | 9 |
| Facial exp | 137 | 73 | 22 | 21 | 8 |
| Isolation | 128 | 57 | 37 | 26 | 11 |
| Noise | 109 | 80 | 42 | 15 | 15 |
| Internet connection | 109 | 85 | 44 | 12 | 9 |
| Generation loss | 105 | 76 | 36 | 27 | 16 |
| Distance | 119 | 76 | 29 | 29 | 10 |
University comparability courses
In 1958, the first university to offer online was the University of London. The background to this reorganization lay in the fact that the institution was nonclerical. Given the intense religious competitiveness at the time, there was an outcry against the “godless” university.
The issue soon boiled down to which organization had degree-granting powers and which institutions did not.
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic appeared in the closure of the vast majority of schools worldwide. Many schools moved to online learning through Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, D2L, and Edgenuity.
Online education during the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted contemporary learning for many students and teachers; where professors were no longer able to teach in real-time and could only change to asynchronous instruction, this significantly and negatively affected their coping by the transition and posed various legal issues, especially in terms of copyright.
Technologies
Internet technology has authorized many forms of distance learning through open instructional resources and facilities such as e-learning and MOOCs. Although the growth of the Internet blurs the boundaries, distance education technologies are divided into two modes of delivery: coincident learning and asynchronous learning.
In synchronous learning, all participants are “present” simultaneously in a virtual classroom, as in traditional classroom teaching. It requires a timetable. Web meeting, videoconferencing, educational television, instructive television are examples of coincident technology, as are direct-broadcast satellite (DBS), live streaming, internet radio, telephone, and web-based VoIP.
Zoom meeting
Web meeting software helps to facilitate class meetings and usually contains additional interaction tools such as text chat, emoticons, polls, hand raising, etc. These tools also help asynchronous participation by students who can listen to recordings of synchronous sessions.
Mesmerizing environments (notably Second Life) have also enhanced participant presence in distance education courses. Another form of coincident learning using the classroom is robot proxies, including allowing sick students to attend classes.
Some universities have been using robot deputy to enable more engaging synchronous hybrid classes where both remote and in-person learners can be present and interact using telerobotic devices such as the Kubi Telepresence robot stand that looks and the Double Robot that roams around.
Virtual education
The general use of computers and the Internet have made distance learning more accessible and faster, and today online schools and virtual universities deliver complete curricula online.
The capacity of the Internet to support voice, video, text, and concentration teaching methods made earlier distinct forms of Video-conferencing, telephone, radio, television, and text-based education somewhat redundant. However, many of the techniques involved and lessons learned with earlier media are used in Internet delivery.
The University of Toronto offered the first completely online course for credit in 1984 through the Graduate School of Education. The subject was “Women and Computers in Education,” dealing with social-class issues and educational computing.
The first new and fully online educational university was established in 1994 as the Open University of Catalonia, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. In 1999 Jones International University was initiated as the first fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association in the US.
Paced and self-paced models
Most online education uses a paced format similar to traditional campus-based models in which learners start and complete a course simultaneously. Some institutions offer tutor-supported programs that allow for continuous enlistment, and the length of time to complete the course is set by the fresher’s time, skill, and dedication levels. Tutor-supported courses are almost always offered asynchronously. Each delivery technique offers advantages and disadvantages for students, teachers, and institutions.
Kaplan and Haenlein classify online education into four categories according to “Time dependency” and “Number of participants”:
1. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses):
MOOCs is an open-access online course that allows for unlimited (massive) contribution;
2. SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses):
SPOCs is an online course that only offers a limited number of places and therefore calls for some form of formal enrollment;
3. SMOCs (Synchronous Massive Online Courses):
SMOCs is an open-access online course that allows for unlimited contribution but requires students to be “present” at the same time ;
4. SSOCs (Synchronous Private Online Courses):
SSOCs is an online course that only offers many places and indispensable students to be “present” simultaneously.
Benefits of online learning
Online learning can expand access to education and instruction for both the general populace and businesses since its pliable scheduling structure lessens the effects of the many time constraints imposed by personal authorities and commitments.
Devolving some activities off-site alleviates institutional capacity limitation emerging from the traditional demand on institutional buildings and infrastructure. Moreover, there is the potential for increased access to more experts in the field and other students from diverse geographical, cultural, social, economic, and experiential backgrounds.
As the population becomes more complexed in lifelong learning beyond the average schooling age, institutions can benefit economically
, and adult learning business courses may be particularly lucrative.
Online education programs can act as a catalyst for institutional innovation and are as effective as face-to-face learning programs, especially if the trainer is knowledgeable and skilled.
Online education can also provide a broader method of communication within the realm of education. With the many tools and programs, those technological advancements offer, communication increases distance education amongst students, professors, and classmates.
Online learning may also offer a final opportunity for adolescents that are no longer allowed in the general education population due to behavior confusion. Alternatively, these students with no other learning opportunities may pursue their education from their homes and earn their degrees, offering them another chance to be an integral part of SocietySociety.
Online learning offers individuals a unique opportunity to benefit from the best universities’ currently available expertise and resources. Furthermore, the online environment facilitates pedagogical innovation, such as new program structures and formats.
Criticism for online learning
Barriers to adequate online education include:
Domestic distractions and unreliable technology
Students’ program costs
Adequate connection with teachers and support services
A need for more tolerable
Some students try to participate in distance education without proper training with the tools needed to succeed. Students must be provided with training chances on each tool used throughout the program.
There may also be institutional challenges. Online learning is new enough to be a challenge to support these programs in a traditional brick-and-mortar academic learning environment.
Moreover, it may be more difficult for the trainer to organize and plan an online learning program, mainly since many are new programs and their directional needs differ from traditional ones.
Educational technology
The modern use of online educational technology is called e-learning. It facilitates distant learning and independent learning by the extensive use of information and communications technology (ICT), replacing traditional content delivery with postal correspondence.
Instruction can be synchronous and online communication in an interactive learning environment or virtual communities instead of a physical classroom. “The focus is moved to the education transaction in the form of a virtual section of learners sustainable across time.”
Online credentials for learning
Online credentials for learning are digital credentials offered in traditional paper goods for a skill or educational achievement. Directly linked to the hurried development of internet transmission technologies, digital badges, electronic passports, and massive open online courses (MOOCs) have a direct bearing on our understanding of learning, recognition, and levels as they pose a direct challenge the status quo. It is helpful to distinguish between three forms of online credentials: Test-based credentials, online badges, and online certificates.
Summary
Online education is a form of education where students use their home computers through the internet. Often online convocation and course programs, some of which are conducted using digital technologies, are presented via the online learning portal of the host university.
Frequently Asked questions
People usually ask many questions about Online Education. A few of them are discussed below:
1. Why is online education important?
Online education authorizes the teacher and the student to set their own learning pace, and there’s the added extensibility of setting a schedule that fits everyone’s agenda. Studying online teaches you vital time management skills, which makes finding an excellent work-study balance easier.
2. Is online education good or bad?
With distance learning, students can learn at their own pace, and they don’t have to go along with the rest of the class. It helps them understand concepts they have difficulty with and move forward with concepts they grasp faster than the rest.
3. How successful is online education?
If you’re considering an online degree or are taking at least a few for-credit online courses, there’s good news. According to a recent MIT study, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are just as practical as traditionally taught in a classroom or a lecture hall.
4. What is an example of online education?
Examples of online learning platforms. For instance, some of the better-known online learning platforms include Coursera, which offers courses, certificates, and degrees from different companies and universities, and Udemy, which touts over 100,000 courses and 24 million students.
5. Why is online learning boring?
In a lot of cases, it’s because the learning experience is passive. It’s the same reason why so many lectures are boring. If all you absorb the material without interacting with it on an operational level, it’s going to bore you to tears.
Conclusion
Online education enables the teacher and the student to set their own learning pace. There’s the added extensibility of setting a schedule that fits everyone’s schedule. In conclusion, using an online educative platform allows for a more outstanding balance of work and studies, so there’s no need to give anything up.