Online Learning: What is our role?

Friday 4 – December 7, 2012

We are currently deep in the throes of exploring/discussing/debating the merits of online learning and how it could possibly enhance the experience for our students at Loomis Chaffee. There can be no doubt that the landscape in education is changing; and as a result, we may have to change how we do things in order to remain relevant and be able to compete in an increasingly competitive market. In this edition of the Friday 4, I will share a few of the interesting items I have come across this week that are related to the online education world.

  • The first item is a news piece from the Inside Higher Ed site reporting that Wellesley College is now partnering with edX, the MIT/Harvard entity, to put some of their coursework online as a MOOC. Wellesley joins Wesleyan as the second small liberal arts college to join the growing online education world. Thanks to my Head of School (@SCulbertLC) for passing along the article.
  • An older article “The Myths of Online Learning” from Forbes magazine came across my Twitter stream this past week. That is one of the nice things about Twitter, if you miss something the first time, don’t worry, it will come around again if it is at all valuable.
  • A second item for the week is another article that appeared on the Inside Higher Ed site “Conflicted: Faculty and Online Education, 2012.” The article gives an overview of a recent study that focuses on attitudes and practices related to all aspects of online education – including views on the quality of learning outcomes, issues of institutional support, and institutional rewards. You can read the entire report here.
  • A great resource for those looking to read up on the topic of online learning is the Sloan Consortium website. According to their website” “The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) helps learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.” A great place to start on their site is the eLearn Magazine.

Regardless of your feelings about online learning, I encourage you to check out a few of this week’s links and take some time to think about how online learning might be able to enhance the experience for the students at your school. My initial reaction was probably not very different from many – “No way, not at my school. What we do is special and can not be replicated online.” After a great deal of reading on the topic and MANY discussions with colleagues in person and online, I have come to a very different place in my thinking. I will save my personal thoughts on the subject for a future post.

I welcome thoughts, comments or reactions. Enjoy!

 

2 thoughts on “Online Learning: What is our role?

  1. I teach at an independent girls school in Nashville, TN. Three years ago, we formed a consortium with 3 other indy girls schools and started the Online School for Girls (www.onlineschoolforgirls.org). This online school offers courses none of our schools could offer on their own, giving girls access to learning opportunities we never dreamed of three years ago. The school is open to any girl around the world. Check it out!

    • I am familiar with OSG and actually included it in a presentation I did today for our Head’s Council as we explore our options in the online world. I met Brad, the Director of OSG, at the TABS conference in DC last week and have been impressed with the OSG and its program. Keep it up!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *