Communication Technology and Education

Communication Technology and Education

Chapter 2: ICT in Online Learning

 Introduction

            Advancement of technology undeniably makes our lives easier and improves our living hood. Advancement of communication technology in education not only benefited us, but also provides a platform for individuals, groups and organizations in making flexible learning experiences.

       What is actually online learning? Online learning is basically any learning experiences or environment that rely upon the Internet or World Wide Web as the primary mode of communication or presentation (Appana, 2008). It is also known as learning activity, which supported by communication technology such as computers.

       Technology has become the key to a new world of education and thus online learning has become a popular way of gaining knowledge. Over the past decades, the online programmes and courses have grown tremendously. Students found that they prefer online courses to the traditional classroom, saying that they learnt more and spent more time on these classes and found that these classes to be more difficult but yet of higher quality than traditional class (Keengwe & Kidd, 2010).

Benefits of Online Learning

        Online Learning benefited both learners and instructors. For learners, there are no time zones, location and distance issues in online learning. Learners can access to the online materials anytime. Learners can use Internet to access up-to-date and relevant learning material as well. Also, online learning allows real time interaction between learners and instructors. Through this, it enhances learners-to-instructors and also learners-to-learners communication by using discussion boards, chats and emails (Kubala, 1998). Adding of elements in the course able to motivate the learners to participate in the discussion and project. For example, learners become more daring and confrontational in expressing their ideas during a discussion.

        Next, online learning also benefited the instructors. For instructors, tutoring can be done anytime and anywhere. Online learning enables the instructors to update the learning materials anytime and the learners may see the changes immediately. By accessing to the materials on Internet, it is easier for the instructors to direct them with appropriate information based on their needs in order to achieve their learning outcomes.

       Besides, online learning also encouraging contacts between instructor and learner. It created an environment for interaction and communication. Using email and discussion to create an online community makes the students feel welcomed, comfortable and safe where their learning progress is being monitored and evaluated (Grant & Thornton, 2007). Dialogue and discussion also enables students to participate actively, which promotes expanded learning and foster critical thinking skills. Furthermore, students are able to response actively as they can gain immediate feedbacks from the instructors. Also, online discussion and forum is the best way to connect with the students and instructors as well as gaining information and feedbacks regarding to their course assignments.

        Moreover, online learning provides 24 hours 7 days (24/7) accessibility of course materials to the students. Some student works best in the morning, afternoon, evening or even night. Thus, scheduling homework and group project can be difficult sometimes depending on students’ jobs, course and personal responsibilities. With the existence of online learning, students no longer worry about accessing course materials. Students are able to complete their assignment at their most productive time. Other than that, continual access to course materials also able to avoid the frustration such as “library was closed” or “miss the handout during lecture class”.

Challenges of Online Learning

            Besides benefits, online learning has its disadvantages as well. It is time consuming for the instructors to be well prepared even before the semester starts since it is more time consuming as compared to the traditional classroom. Besides getting material before the semester start, instructors also need to understand the importance of knowing and learning the technology and feel comfortable with it (Li & Irby, 2008). As an example, instructors need to be exposed to the knowledge of online teaching such as how to post the learning material, how to conduct a live discussion, how to record and edit the e-lecture class and so on. Thus, instructor has to make efforts in learning the new technology as well as focusing on preparing sufficient learning material for the online courses.

            Other than that, time required to download applications also matter with the online learning process. Slow or longer downloading time may affect the progress of online learning especially for those who are cannot wait patiently. If the Internet is slow enough, it will affect the satisfaction of online learning even though the instructors is capable and able to deliver the online presentation well. Larger file of sounds, image and videos consume more time to download if the Internet connection is not stable or weak.

            In addition, students’ assessment and feedback also will be limited through online learning. Although Internet serve as a wonderful means in getting all kinds of information back and forth to your audience, but it also makes it harder to access some types of student feedback and information. As compare to traditional classroom, you may observe students’ learning behavior from time to time, but using online learning, it limits the students’ assessment. Instructors might not know the learning satisfaction from a student completely since Instructors might only interact with the students through a small screen. For example, body language and the facial expression of a student in providing feedback or during online presentation might be limited.

Conclusion

            In a nutshell, online learning is no longer a new thing in this fast growing cyber world. Online learning is definitely a good platform in gaining knowledge, especially for those who are part-timer workers or parents who wish to improve themselves. Online Learning not only brings advantages to us but it also brings disadvantages to us. Therefore, we as the younger generations has to equipped ourselves with the latest technology so that we are able to catch up and not to be eliminated from the society. Since there is advancement in communication technology, why not we fully utilize it to maximize our satisfaction and get benefits from it ?

References

Appana, S. (2008). A Review of Benefits and Limitations of Online Learning in the Context of Student, the Instructor, and Tenured Faculty. International Journal on ELearning,7(1), 5-22.

Li, C. S., & Irby, B. (2008). An Overview of Online Education: Attractiveness, Benefits, Challenges, Concerns and Recommendations, College Student Journal,42(2),449-458.

Grant, M. R., & Thornton, H. R. (2007). Best Practices in Undergraduate Adult Centered Online Learning:Mechanisms for Course Design and Delivery. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(4).

Keengwe, J. & Kidd, T. T. (2010). Towards Best Practices in Online Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching,6(2),533.

Kubala, T. (1998). Addressing Student Needs: Teaching and Learning on the Internet. The Online Journal. Retrived from http://www.thejournal.com.