Frederick Gaetan sees an upside in order to online learning – it worked well for him. « Burlington Gazette – Local News, Politics, Local community

By Joseph A. Gaetan

December 9th, 2019

At the minute, the secondary school unions as well as the Ontario government are at loggerheads more than whether 4, 2 or zero online learning should be offered. Having skilled both traditional and e-learning direct I can attest to the fact that in both instances some courses are delivered much better than others.

Take your classes when you want – where you want and when you didn’t get it the first time years old can replay the class.

In my experience there is area for improvement on both fronts and never every subject is a candidate regarding e-learning. One of the criticisms I have learned about e-learning involves access to tutors, some thing I found to be both a problem plus an opportunity. On one hand not having instant access to some tutor can be frustrating, on the other hand, therefore, it can make you dig deeper for that solution. In education, as in living, some of the things that stick with us one of the most are the particular things we had in order to work the hardest to achieve. Easy and instant access to resources is not always the answer and it is not always the best form of education.

Say or think what you want regarding online learning, it has been here some time and it is here to stay, and, it’s increasing in leaps and bounds. For many individuals it is a game changer as it may function as the only way they can earn those people last few credits or a abilities that they otherwise would not be able to gain. For some it is a matter of price or a way to balance raising children while earning a living.

According towards the “Ontario Learn” website, in 1995 seven colleges put their minds together and started to offer on the web courses, today 24 Ontario schools offer high quality online education. The original 7 realized that by pooling resources, they might extend their reach by providing online courses and programs in order to students who would not otherwise get access to them.

“Athabasca University” (AU) is a Canadian Open University devoted to online distance education and is among four comprehensive academic and study universities within Alberta. Founded in 1970, it was the first Canadian college to specialize in distance education. Athabasca offers online undergraduate and graduate student programs and courses. AU acts over 38,000 students (over 7,900 full-load equivalents) while offering over 900 courses in more compared to 50 undergraduate and graduate applications in a range of arts, science plus professional disciplines.

If a person haven’t heard of a MOOC, a person aren’t alone. MOOCS or Enormous Open Online Courses have limitless participation and open access with the web. EDx is just one on the web MOOC platform that has about 14 million learners and is the second biggest MOOC provider in the world. The global MOOC market size was estimated to become $4 billion in 2018.

When I wanted to brush on my knowledge of social media marketing, I considered EDx and promptly found 10 offerings. One course from Birkenstock boston University not only met my needs yet allowed me, should I so wish, to earn a credit toward a Micro Masters. The program starts in April of 2020 and currently has 69,871 registrants.

So why all of the fuss and push back here in Ontario? Online learning is anything but brand new. Online learning may also be the only selection for some people who have different learning designs or disabilities. My granddaughter is within grade 10 so I sought the girl opinion on the topic. Her reaction; she prefers having a teacher before her. Good enough. Online learning is just not for everyone. Some students like the granddaughter prefer a live teacher, several may learn better, as I do, with online learning.

The current generation of high school learners are prodigious users of on the web technology. So why not offer them on the web learning as part of our high school programs? Failing to offer online learning within this day and age is a missed opportunity.

Athabasca University has been around since 1970 and Ontario Learn since 1995, and 2020 is just around the corner, therefore let’s get on with it, but still do it, and by that I mean involving the correct stakeholders be it parents, students, educators and the government in the process.

There is but one pool associated with taxpayer money, some of that swimming pool is dedicated to education, some of that will pool goes towards paying for facilities, some for books and products, some for school repairs plus maintenance, and some to teachers as well as other staff.

There are abilities and failings to online education. It does cost the particular governments less.

We have one main of the best and most expensive education techniques in the world. In order to continue to be the best we should find a way to make online learning section of that system and we can either direct the way, or we can sit back plus suffer the consequence of lagging as do Research in Motion (RIM) also known as Blackberry.

At the moment online college degrees is geared to post-secondary learning. I realize two pathways for primary plus secondary student e-learning. One has the federal government and other stakeholders working hand in hand to determine how to make e-learning part of Ontario’s education and learning future.

The other route is market based where the federal government with the help of e-learning experts such as EDx create a series K to 12 courses that are optional for those who might benefit the most. In the end this approach will simply work if there is value to users of the target market, “the student”.