Through reading Topic 2 resources, I noticed that both distributed learning and open learning involve e-learning. In “25 years of ED technology”, Martin Weller pointed out that the golden age of e-learning began in 1999, because that stage belongs to the period when e-learning is separated from the experimental process and enters the public vision. I noticed that he mentioned the cost of e-learning, which is very concerned by both students and capitalists in today’s society. This problem involves students’ tuition fees, capitalists’ profits and other problems. I think the cost directly affects the development progress of e-learning. I linked this issue to the changes in tuition fees in higher education institutions during the pandemic. At first, it was thought that studying at home would reduce the overall tuition fee, but the reality did not. I think there are two main reasons. The first is that e-learning requires high research and development costs, such as: the research and development costs of brightspace. The second point is that e-learning needs some different websites to maintain the teaching quality, such as: zoom. In general, although e-learning reduces a series of lower costs, such as: commuting cost and venue cost, it is still has higher fixed costs than traditional offline teaching. It only changed the allocation of resources, but did not reduce the input of resources. I think in the period when e-learning is not necessary, school can reduce the online courses with low demand of students to ensure the balance of payments.
In reading ‘Teaching Online : A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice’, I found a new word: massively open online courses (MOOCS). This kind of course is more inclusive than traditional online courses because anyone with enough technical tools can choose to take these courses. They open these courses to people who don’t need credits. I think the advantage is some courses are free, but compared with traditional online courses, this kind of course has a large number of students in one class. I think this course can be used as a way to enrich the traditional online courses in our university. For example: My major is economic, and I can go to take some MOOCs courses which about economics to learn some knowledge outside the traditional online courses. This way can enrich my professional knowledge. I think this is very useful because it plays the role of preview, review and accumulating experience for future work. From another perspective, if I am a teacher, I think opening the MOOCS course will enrich my teaching experience because the network has too many serendipities. There are more students in MOOCS which means that both students and I will get more diversified feedback. It will help to enrich my teaching methods.
References:
Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874 (pp. 76-108)
Weller, M.(2020). 25 Years of Ed Tech. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771993050.01
Hi Yuqing,
Thanks for the post. I appreciate you analyzing remote teaching during COVID through an economic lens. As you mention, there are definite savings in terms of heating/cooling and maintaining the venues (e.g., classrooms), but there are costs associated with the online tools. I am not sure if they balance out, but it is right to recognize that online courses aren’t offered on free infrastructure.
Your comments on MOOCs reflect that positive aspirations many had for them. I am not sure how much of that came to fruition. Reality is that most learners don’t complete MOOCs and those that do have little interaction with others. Can you think of structures that may improve these issues?
Ryan