Is
Online Learning for Everybody?
Greg Kearsley
For the first two or three decades of online learning, it was difficult to convince most people (students, teachers, or administrators) that it was a legitimate form of education. There was a lot of resistance to the concept of online learning because it was different in many ways from traditional classroom instruction. This is a bit ironic since I don’t know anyone who ever had anything good to say about classroom instruction – but that is what everyone is used to.
Now, online learning has become respectable and common-place. In fact, it is being pushed heavily by corporations, universities, and the computer industry (see Bibliography for recent books on the topic). It is seen by students and employees as a more flexible and convenient way to take classes; administrators believe it will allow them to deliver courses more cost-effectively; and teachers figure they better start teaching online or be left without a job. Whether any of this is true or not doesn’t matter – online learning is “hot” and everybody wants to be a part of it.
But online learning isn’t for everybody, for lots of different reasons.
While online learning appeals to almost all students due to the flexibility and convenience it offers, not all students are suited to online learning. Completing an online course requires a lot of self-discipline and initiative. You have to make yourself sign on regularly and spend hours sitting in front of a computer. And you have to develop a study schedule and stick to it. Students who lack these abilities, are not likely to do well in online courses. Furthermore, some students simply don't enjoy learning online – they like the classroom experience.
Easy and convenient access to a computer and internet connection is an essential condition for taking an online course. Some employees and families share a computer and it is difficult for a given individual to get enough time on the machine to do their coursework. Many individuals have access to a computer at work, but they are simply too busy with their job to spend sufficient time studying. And in houses where there is only one phone line, it is often difficult to dedicate it to an internet connection. Of course, this all assumes that the student can afford a computer and internet connection in the first place (see cultural considerations below).
There is also the issue of computer literacy. Taking an online course requires a basic understanding of computers, including use of applications like word processing and spreadsheets, as well as how the internet works. Many students don't have this basic level of literacy and are not comfortable using computers. Furthermore, in many courses, advanced skills are needed (e.g., file handling, using a conferencing tool, creating web documents) which requires an even higher level of computer literacy. Since many online programs and courses don't provide any computer orientation, students without some computer experience and familiarity are not prepared and often overwhelmed from the start.
For those students who have the necessary self-discipline and study skills, access to a computer and internet, and are comfortable using computers, online courses are great. But for students who do not meet these conditions, they are not fun and may be very frustrating.
Many of the conditions just discussed for students also apply to those who teach online courses. Online teachers have to spend a lot of time sitting in front of their computer reading and responding to student messages. Individuals who do like to do this, aren't likely to make good online instructors. Its true that there are forms of online teaching that involve mainly real-time presentations (i.e., through the use of web conferencing tools), but even there a lot of time needs to be spent on the computer preparing those events.
Access to a computer and internet connection is even more important for the teacher since they do need to spend so much time online. And, a high level of computer literacy is needed by most online instructors – much more so than for students. An online instructor has to spend a lot of time troubleshooting student and system problems and they really need to understand the particular computer tools and delivery system being used.
Above all, an online instructor needs to enjoy using technology to teach. Plus, they need to have a teaching style and personality that fits online teaching. Online teaching is much more reflective and demanding than most forms of traditional classroom instruction. You have to be willing to spend a lot of time interacting with students and explaining details of the subject over and over.
Given these conditions, it should be realized that not every teacher is a candidate for online teaching. In fact, many teachers who are excellent at classroom teaching will not make good online teachers. So it’s a bad idea for any institution or organization to insist that all its instructors teach online.
For administrators and managers, online courses and programs look very attractive. They don't require classroom or other on-site facilities. No travel (or parking) is required. You can reach out to students anywhere in the country or the world. And, you can theoretically pack as many students as you want into the same online class with no additional costs.
Like most things that are too good to be true, online courses don’t quite live up to these ideal conditions. It is true that no classroom or on-site facilities are needed. But you need a lot of computer facilities and support staff to run an online program. It is possible to purchase these capabilities from a vendor (i.e., outsourcing), in which case you don't need to have your own facilities or staff, but somebody has to provide them. It is true that no travel is needed, unless you decide that you want/need to have some face-to-face sessions as part of your program (see next section) – in which case you have both travel and online courses to deal with. You can enroll students or employees from anywhere in the world – but you have to be sure that your courses are suitable in terms of language and culture for an international audience. And, you have to figure out how to market to the entire world – no small or cheap undertaking.
The idea that online courses can have an almost infinite number of students is probably the biggest myth of all. In fact, most online courses need to have a small class size – no more than 15-20 for a given instructor due to the usual high level of interaction that occurs. You can put more students in an online class, but it won't be possible for the instructor to provide a satisfactory level of feedback to students and they will get frustrated with the course. When students don't get enough feedback in an online course, they tend to drop out, producing completion rates of less than 50%. If you want to run an online course with large enrollments, you have to divide it into sections of 15-20 students, each with its own instructor or well-qualified teaching assistant. And the course will have to be managed to ensure that it runs smoothly.
Which brings us to the other complication for administrators – online courses and programs need good management. Given the fact that everyone is interacting remotely, the inevitable technology problems, and there are many people/things to coordinate, a lot of time is required to manage online courses and programs. Many administrators assume that once they have set up the courses, their work is done. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Not every subject or job task can be taught easily or effectively via online courses. Actually, many more things can be taught online than most people would assume, but not necessarily well or inexpensively. Hands-on skills are the best illustration of this point. Normally, you would not expect to teach welding or neurosurgery via an online course. But online courses have been developed for both of these subjects. To teach motor skills in an online course, you have to use simulations with appropriately designed input devices (think of specialized versions of video game joystick controllers). Design and development of simulations is an expensive and lengthy process – but it does produce very good training results. The U.S. military uses simulations extensively to train pilots, soldiers and sailors how to operate or maintain sophisticated and dangerous weapons systems. In situations where the consequences of poor or inadequate training are catastrophic, its worth the time and money to develop simulations. Unfortunately, this does not apply to most academic or corporate training applications, so in practical terms, hands-on skills need to learned in traditional classrooms or labs (but see Shank, 1997, for more arguments on this issue).
Another kind of subject area that would not seem a very good candidate for online learning are so-called "soft skills" such as leadership, communication, customer relations, supervision, etc. These kinds of skills represent the bulk of most management and business training conducted in corporations. At the heart of these skills are human interaction and modeling of behavior. As a consequence, you would expect they would be learned best in a traditional classroom setting with a "live" instructor and lots of role playing. However, well designed and delivered online courses can involve a lot of interaction and contact among the participants, so this essential component is not lacking. But many of the skills depend upon the nuances of voice, body language, and group dynamics which are difficult to capture in an online course. Still, this a very popular category of online courses and some of them are relatively effective.
What seems to work well as an online course is any academic subject. To the extent that the main elements of academic courses involve learning concepts and principles, engaging in discussions and debates, writing papers or reports, or solving problems, this all works well online. For courses in sciences, mathematics and engineering, additional software tools (e.g., Mathematica, MatLab) may be needed. Courses that involve a lot of visuals (e.g., art history, biology, medicine) are likely to make use of CD-ROMs to provide materials. Apart from courses that involve hands-on skills as discussed above, there is no academic course that can’t be designed and delivered in online format – if the faculty member is interested in doing so.
But online courses have to be well designed, otherwise they will be ineffective. Poorly designed courses have high drop-out and low completion rates. So, saying that a course can be designed for a given subject or task, doesn't mean that any course will work. Since most courses are developed by instructors with little experience in online teaching or the design of online courses, they are often not very well designed. This gives the impression that certain subjects are not well suited to online delivery.
Not every organization or institution is a good candidate for online courses. Given that it takes a lot of computer resources, willing and suitable faculty, and administrators who understand the realities, not every company or school is going to have all the necessary ingredients. And if the organizational/institutional culture is not technology-oriented, then online courses are not likely to be successful since employees, members or students will lack the computer literacy and comfort levels needed to make it work.
There is also an issue of whether online learning is really needed or not. In most circumstances, the anytime, anyplace flexibility offered by online courses is a big benefit to employees or students. But there are situations where getting together at a given time and place is not a problem. For example, students who attend a local community college after work may find classroom instruction more convenient than having to go home to sign on to a computer to learn. Or employees in a company may always be in the same building and travel for training is not an issue.
Finally, there is the consideration that some employees and students may want to travel for training or educational offerings. It is common for training sessions to be held in desirable geographical locations (anyone not want to go to San Francisco?) and the opportunity to attend the training is a "perk". And many college students want to be as far away from home as they can manage – in a campus setting. While these factors may not fit a rational "cost-benefits" model, they are often very important considerations in how and why people choose training/educational options – and not conducive to online learning.
Online learning is an element of a technological society, as typified by highly developed western nations. It prepares employees and students for a culture where they will have extensive interaction with computers, using them for work and recreation. But this is not representative of less developed countries (even though they seem to aspire to it).
And even within western nations, there are groups who do not embrace technology wholeheartedly (e.g., Amish, native Americans) on moral or philosophical grounds. It does not seem good to insist on a form of learning that is so ideologically rooted, unless the learners embrace that ideology too.
A much worse aspect of the culture gap is the so-called Digital Divide. It has been well documented how computers are easily available to the "haves" (i.e., middle to upper class urban/suburban) and not so available to the "have nots" (i.e., poor rural/inner city individuals). This introduces a social strata to online learning which is highly undesirable. In theory, this cultural gap can be obliterated once computers and internet access becomes as cheap as televisions or radios, but that hasn't happened yet.
And its worth considering the double-edged sword of online learning for disabled individuals. On one hand, online courses enable individuals with disabilities to learn much more easily – they do not have to travel to take classes, and there are many forms of assistive devices that compensate for specific disabilities. On the other hand, newer online courses that involve graphics and multimedia components are extremely frustrating and unusable to handicapped individuals. So we have a situation where online courses could be a great boon to a large segment of the population, but also can disenfranchise them too.
So the point has been made that online courses are not for all students, teachers, administrators, institutions/organizations, subjects, and cultures. As obvious as this may seem, it is not always grasped by many who get involved with online education. Let me illustrate with a few examples:
Continuing medical education for health care professionals. This would sound like an ideal application for online training – the audience is highly self-motivated and use technology all the time in their work. But, they are very busy individuals with little control over their schedules and they spend relatively little (if any) time sitting at a computer. They are not good candidates for online learning.
Sales Training. Sales people have to know a lot about the products or services they sell and you would think that would be a natural opportunity for online learning. But sales people don't like to spend a lot of time sitting at a computer (their job is to meet customers and sell them things) and they are more comfortable learning what they need to know from other people. Unless what they sell happens to be computer-related.
Any subject in K-12 schools. Online learning has not been very successful in the K-12 domain despite enormous efforts to make it so. Would you really expect a culture so based upon physical presence and space to embrace any form of distance learning? And very few schools have enough computers and internet connections to make them easily available to every student and teacher. (On the other hand, online learning works great for home schooling.)
Wine Appreciation. This is not as silly as it seems since there are some great web sites devoted to wine on the internet that you can learn a lot from. But in the end you have to actually taste the wine and that, like many aspects of the world, does not lend itself to online learning.
I'm sure that over time, more students, teachers, administrators, institutions/organizations, subjects, and cultures, will become amenable to online education. But for the present, its important to think critically about whether it makes sense to offer a certain course or program in online form and not to assume that it will work for everybody.
Kearsley, G. (1999) Online Education: Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace. Wadsworth.
Khan, B. (2000). Web-based Training. Educational Technology Publications.
Ko, Susan & Rossen, S. (2000) Teaching Online: A Practical Guide. Houghton Mifflin.
Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (1999) Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace. Jossey-Bass.
Rosenberg, M. (2000). E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. McGraw-Hill.
Schank, R. (1997) Virtual Learning. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Schweizer, H. (1999) Designing and Teaching an On-Line Course. Allyn & Bacon.
William Horton (2000). Designing Web-Based Training. Wiley.
White, K. & Weight, B. (1999) The Online Teaching Guide. Allyn & Bacon.