Tag Archives: online learning

Guest post*: Online learning issues we have yet to resolve

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Online learning, or e-learning, is becoming an increasingly popular way to earn a degree.

The convenience of learning from one’s home computer, not to mention saving money on transportation, room and board, etc., is attracting an ever-larger number of students each year. Adult learners, who are often tied to familial and employment obligations, find this an excellent way to obtain a degree. Continue reading →

Guest post*: How to stay focused when working online

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Independent learning is a challenging task. You don’t have the physical presence of your peers, or your tutor present to answer questions and keep you focused. The motivation for study comes entirely from you, which can be tricky when your bed is just sooo cosy at 8am and you really don’t fancy dragging yourself to your desk to start the online tutorial. Even once you’ve made it to your computer, staying on task can be tricky, especially with the temptation of everything the internet holds. So, here are some handy tips to keep you focused when working independently online. Continue reading →

“Online lectures suck.” But that’s not the problem.

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“Online lectures suck”. Who said that, and why?

The comment was made by a Stanford student concerning his experience with the Coursera course CS229a: Applied Machine Learning. Ben Rudolph is an on-campus, fee-paying ($50,000 p.a.) student who took the online class as part of his studies. It’s thus not surprising that he wouldn’t be particularly enthralled by having to watch a series of short videos rather than attend lectures and mix with his peers. Continue reading →

Online learning sites you haven’t heard of … maybe

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Now here’s a catchy title: ’15 Free Learning Sites You Haven’t Heard of Yet’. Not only enticing, but also challenging – someone thinks they know something we don’t know. And we’re meant to be familiar online learning, so surely we’ve heard of most of them already?

That’s the way I felt anyway, as I satiated my curiosity by clicking the link provided by Sophia Coppolla from Onlinecollege.org in a recent email. How did I ‘score’? Two out of 15: Alison and University of the People, both good sites. Continue reading →

Someone please have a word with Sebastian Thrun!

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“I haven’t seen a single study showing that online learning is as good as other learning.” (Quote from ‘Universities reshaping education on the web‘ in The Age – original in The New York Times)  This knuckleheaded claim was apparently made (apologies if the quote was wrong) by a leader in the current wave of online learning technologies, one Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University. That it was made at all is surprising, but to have been uttered by ‘a master of MOOCs’ is astonishing. Continue reading →

Guest post*: The ongoing global advance of online learning

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Since the days of Europe’s first universities, higher education has tended to be elitist and exclusive. While there were always exceptions provided to the remarkably bright and talented, by and large universities educated the children of the wealthy. Continue reading →

A report on online learning

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I’m frustrated! A couple of weeks ago I noticed Terry Anderson’s blog on the newly-released US Government report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. Somewhat curious, I decided to take a squiz at it, but found that the link didn’t work. Continue reading →