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Reading: The Online EnvironmentThis reading is excerpted and edited from "Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (https://www.coursera.org/course/basicwriting) " by Mt. San Jacinto College

(http://msjc.edu) , licensed under a Creative Commons A ttribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/deed.en_US) .

What types of online classes exist?

There are many types of online learning environments available in the college level experience. We have identified five types of online courses. However, as you read, there

could be others developing out there in the world. Its a fast moving concept.

Traditional Undergraduate Level Online Courses: Fully online courses of this type usually have a great deal of instructor to student interaction and follow the course

content of the face-to-face counterpart for those courses at the college or university in which they are being offered. They are generally not self-paced, which means that

you follow along with the entire class within a week or a designated time period, doing activities together with other members of the class. The instructor is fully involved

with the activities and keeps in close contact with each student. They are also limited in size, with most being under 50 students.

Traditional Graduate Level Online Courses: In graduate school, online courses require the student to be much more self-directed. The assumption is that the student has

matured in his or her ability to do the required work to complete a given course. The classes usually are not self-paced, but there is more interaction among the students

with the instructor in a facilitation role.

Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC): The type of course you are in now is called a MOOC. The interaction with the instructor is limited by the numbers of students in the

course. The instructor mainly participates through designing the course and offering its content. The instructor will also participate in some of the discussion activities and is

usually assisted by peer tutors or teaching assistants. Much of the course is conducted with technology providing the evaluation through machine graded tests and

assignments as well as the use of peer graded work (that means students learn to grade each other). These courses may or may not be self-paced based on the content

and the design and usually have hundreds or thousands of students from all over the world.

Hybrid (sometimes called Blended) Distance Education Courses:These courses usually occur in the traditional college setting and are partially online courses. That

means that the students are required to attend face-to-face meetings as part of the course design as well as participate in online activities. No matter what type of course,

online classes are more difficult for some students, but for others they are easier depending on learning style, computer skills, internet access, personality, motivation, andtime commitments.

Flipped Classes: These are courses that take place in face-to-face classrooms in many colleges and universities. They implement online content and activities as a major

component of the course delivery. Instructors determine what content for the course can best be done by students on their own (watching video lectures, reading, doing

tutorials, etc.) and what parts of the course the students usually need help with (writing essays, solving problems, creating projects, etc.). Students complete the work on

their own online before coming to class to work with the instructor on the components that are best done with instructor assistance.

Many fully online courses require the students to go to a specific place to do testing. Usually, the site for testing is the college campus or an alternative site agreed to by the

instructor and the individual student. (This class has no proctored testing.) Student integrity is very important in distance education programs because the college has to be sure

that their courses meet requirements of governmental agencies.

The Difference Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning

Most online classes operate in what is called an "asynchronous" mode. This means that the course participants, including the instructor(s), are not in the course at the same

time. They may not even be online in the same time zone, as is the case in this class! Because of this, there are communication tools that allow for people to post information

at one time and then come back and give feedback (reply) at another time. Blogs, wikis and discussion forums are typical types of asynchronous communication in online

classes.

"Synchronous" activities may also take place in an online class but are usually optional. The course participants would be communicating in the online arena at the same time.

Examples of synchronous activities are using web conferencing tools such as Google Hangouts, Blackboard Collaborate, WebEx and others. Fully online classes rarely have

mandated synchronous activities, but you should carefully check the class syllabus or schedule of any online course that you take to make sure that you are not required to go

to a location at a specific time.

Being a Student in Fully Online Courses

Not every student can effectively take advantage of the freedom and responsibility associated with learning within an online environment. Many students find learning easier in a

classroom environment with face-to-face encouragement, immediate instructional feedback and personal interactions. However, for many, learning online fits well and provides a

valuable alternative. Compared to a standard classroom situation in which everyone is in the same room, at the same time, doing the same work, the online classroom has less

face-to-face contact and less immediate access to your instructor. Interaction with your fellow students usually occurs through electronic (asynchronous, not real time)

communication instead of face-to-face conversation. In contrast to on-ground classrooms, many online students are surprised to find that they get to know their fellow students

better in an online class due to the increased level of student-to-student interaction.

What kind of work can you expect to do in an online class?

Online courses do not have class work and homework. Since all of the work you do in an online class is done at home, or at least not in a classroom setting, there is no

distinction made between the two types of work. Instead, there are content activities, interactive activities, and evaluative activities that help you learn the content. Some of the

activities are quizzes and assignments that help the instructor evaluate whether you really have learned the content. Other types of activities require you to communicate with

students in your class and with the instructor by means of discussion forums (as in this class), blog tools, web conferencing (like Google Hangouts and Blackboard Collaborate),

wikis, and other types of communication tools.

Examples of work in an online class:

Content Activities: Viewing videos listening to audio recordings reading informational documents, PowerPoint presentations, textbooks, library resources, etc.

Interactive Activities: Participating in discussion forums attending real-time (also known as synchronous) sessions where you get to speak with the instructor and/or fellow

students via a webcam and microphone sending email and other communication activities

Evaluative Activities: Completing assignments quizzes and tests and written, video or audio projects, individually or as part of a team

http://msjc.edu/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/deed.en_UShttp://msjc.edu/https://www.coursera.org/course/basicwriting

7/26/2019 The Online Environment_ Introduction to Online Learning

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, . . .

lecture is both a content activity and an interactive activity. When the video stops and asks you to test your understanding of what you just saw, it becomes an interactive

activity as an invideo quiz. The in-video quizzes exist to give you the opportunity to test your own knowledge immediately after viewing the content of the video.

Discussion Forums

An online discussion is similar to a voice mail or an email conversation with a few important dif ferences: An online discussion can involve a number of participants, such as a

team of students or an entire class. All messages stay posted in the discussion board for participants to read at any time. A discussion can last for a week or longer. You will

find online discussions as rigorous as any face-to-face classroom discussion. The purpose of a discussion is dialogue as a means of learning.

Suggestions for students participating in an online discussion:

Use appropriate "netiquette (http://blogs.lsc.edu/expectations/netiquette-guidelines/) ." Be respectful and appropriate language in your responses.

You are expected to respond to each other.An online discussion resembles a classroom discussion in its entire rigor.

All messages posted are public. In an in-class discussion, you share ideas with all class members. In an online discussion, you can expect that everyone in the class willread your messages.

Use a person's name when you reply to a message. Using a person's name in a reply helps to keep the class oriented. This practice helps maintain a clearer sense of

who is speaking and who is being spoken to. As the class begins to associate names with tone and ideas, we come to know each other better.

Change the subject line when you introduce a new topic. The value of this tip will become apparent as the number of messages grows.

http://blogs.lsc.edu/expectations/netiquette-guidelines/