Mar 20

Written by: shines-2
3/20/2010 12:29 AM 

Are the needs of an online learner really any different from a F2F learner? I'm not sure they are. Do most classrooms teachers know and understand the needs of the students in their classroom? When I hear, "They (the students) won't do their work!" I wonder if the teacher understands the students' needs. According to reading from an online staff development course I'm taking, students need:
1. Relationships
2. Cooperation
3. Active learning
4. Timely feedback
5. Time on task
6. High expectations
7. Celebration of diversity of talents

Isn't that what face to face students need? The last time I checked, face-to-face students also needed all those things.
So what's the difference?
I believe that the real difference is the challenge of how to provide those things in the online course. There are so many ways to provide them in face-to-face classes or online courses and it takes real effort to provide them in both situations. There is such an emphasis on providing them in online courses and perhaps it is the challenge of proving that online courses are effective that make online instructors more likely to provide them in their courses than a F2F teacher to provide them.

Please don't get me wrong. I know there are wonderful teachers in the classrooms of America who genuinely care about the needs of their students and who go above and beyond to reach them. I also know that there are teachers out there who go about the business of teaching and forget about the business of LEARNING. They forget about the needs of their students and forget about making their classrooms relevant and rich learning environments that are interesting and fun.