UNIT 1
1.4 Trends

Trends

Trend - Increase in the number of online courses

Instructors

Futurists predict increasing demand for online learning. A growing number of instructors, once they successfully experience this media are converts. They enthusiastically endorse online education because through first hand experience they realize the erroneous myth that the intimacy of the traditional classroom is missing in the online environment. The fact is that intimacy is created through critical discussion and thoughtful dialogue with a majority of the students in the cyberclassroom and surpasses interactions in traditional classrooms where approximately twenty percent of the students contribute orally.

Trend - Increase in self-directed learning experiences

Students - Non-linear Learning

Some students report that they like the non-linear approach of hypertext as they read their lessons. They like this self-directed approach to learning. They feel that they have more control over the learning environment and it allows them to fill in voids in their understanding on an issue. But, students also report that they sometimes feel frustration if their "branching" leads them to unrelated topics and they spend too much time off the focus of the lesson. They indeed have learned a great deal, but in regards to lesson content accountability, students find that they are spending more time on unrelated topics than in the linear traditional textbook approach.

Trend - Increase in meeting the variety of learning styles

The multimedia capabilities through the Internet are currently available to students with high-end computers, but advances in the technologies that deliver graphics, video, and audio are addressing the access issue. Cable modems and the evolving web television concept should soon allow increased access to multimedia capabilities without costly equipment. In the not too distance future, the majority of students will be able to access the complimentary array of sensory images using nontext media. Therefore, students with strong auditory learning tendencies will enable sound to hear the text read to them. Those students that like visual demonstrations can use the video images. For students that do not have typing skills or for students with dyslexia, they will be able to dictate their papers and reports and the computer will do the "typing." Retention seems to be increased if more than one sense is involved, so online learning through advancements in technology will soon have increased access to multimedia capabilities. It is interesting to note that there will continue to be a need for text based communication because even from any writer's viewpoint, using speech recognition software is preferable because it is quicker to speak than type; but from the reader's viewpoint, unless they are dyslexic, it is quicker to read than to listen.