Webinar: What Can Online Learning Do For Students?
Part of the OLC Accelerate 2023 Best-in-Track webinar series
Location
Online
Date & Time
February 13, 2024, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Description
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, online education was viewed by some as an “alternative” to a traditional face-to-face (F2F) college experience (Mitchell & Geva-May, 2009) – a way for students to access education who might not be able to otherwise. Online learning was therefore viewed by some as a viable but perhaps lower quality educational option (Allen & Seaman, 2006; Mitchell & Geva-May, 2009). With the sharp pivot to remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities for online learning continue to evolve and attitudes towards online education may be shifting. Beyond being viewed as an “alternative” pathway, online education may offer students benefits that can, in some ways, exceed traditional learning environments.
This webinar will reveal the preliminary results of a qualitative study where online instructors with varying levels of experience in teaching online were asked to respond to the question, “How does online learning provide specific benefits to students that traditional classrooms don’t?”
Key messages:
- Describe select benefits of online learning as identified by faculty with a range of online teaching experience
- Describe ways in which the perceptions of these benefits vary based on online teaching experience
- Discuss at least two ways these preliminary findings can be applied to online education through student support, faculty development, and/or course design
Join this session for an insightful presentation and discussion highlighting the preliminary results of this analysis, which yielded several major themes in the benefits of online learning (e.g., flexibility, diversity, and course design) and practical implications for students, faculty, and instructional designers. There will also be time reserved for attendees for an open Q&A.
