E-learning is not just sending homework online. Amazing as it may seem, some teachers equate e-learning with the act of sending homework online.
The recent shift to online education, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, has found many teachers bare-handed with regard to the appropriate strategies to facilitate learning on a virtual environment. The case is that some teachers, rather than moving their class activities to an online system, have only resorted to a traditional online medium (such as standard SMS messaging, WhatsApp and/or email) to send homework or assignments that we won’t ever know who ends up doing them.
E-learning is not just sending class assignments online or over the mobile network. In a physical classroom or learning context, a typical course includes a series of activities such as presentations, debates, workshops, assessments, homework, field/library research, discussion groups, and so on. An e-learning course doesn’t have to be different, just that all these activities are carried out remotely by conveniently using a learning management system (LMS).
There is no reason not to use a learning management system nowadays; many of them are free!
Rather than sending assignments online, teachers should guarantee real online education through a learning management system or digital platform that includes most of the following aspects:
- A log on area: while students take their classes in traditional settings by showing up in their classrooms, in the case of e-learning or online education, students log into a system to start their classes virtually. This way, they have access to all the activities that form part of a regular syllabus and, at the same time, teachers are able to remotely monitor the attendance and work or each student.
- A dashboard: once logged into the learning management system, students will typically find a dashboard with links to the course syllabus, classes, teacher-student contact information, grades and/or assessment, forums, chats and more.
- Instruction on class development: once into a particular class, students should find clear instructions about the development of the activities that form part of each class. This includes those activities (presentations, discussions, interview, role-play, demonstration, etc.) that students should conduct synchronously or asynchronously. That is, teachers should specify the activities that require live participation or attendance at a fixed time and those that require participation and development whenever each individual student finds an appropriate moment during a time span.
- Assessment tools: rather than sending isolated assignments through an online media, teachers should make sure they handle online assessment through a learning management system that allows the incorporation of software tools to generate multiple ways of assessment. One advantage of counting on a wide variety of assessment tools and methods is the fact that teachers are able to grasp a greater appreciation of their students’ learning processes. For further insight into this topic, check out Colman’s 9 Ways to Assess Student Learning Online.
- Interactivity: just because students are not physically present, online education doesn’t have to lack interactivity. There are multiple ways of creating interactivity, thus giving rise to a rich learning environment. Most learning management systems have their own interactivity tools to provide students with opportunities to participate actively in their classes. Canvas has, for instance, interactivity tools such as Discussions, Group Spaces, Collaborations, and Conferences. Of course, the most popular platforms have wonderful interactivity tools too.
It is important to bear in mind that online education is the process of delivering education to learners who are not physically on site. Online education is not just to deliver an assignment online and get it back through the same channel. By so doing, teachers detach from their role of educators and become mere designers and graders of assignments. Instead, teachers should conduct real online education (including teaching, interactivity and good assessment practice), which is only possible through a learning management system: either created by themselves or gotten someplace else.
My recommendation to those teachers who are still text messaging course assignments on WhatsApp, regular SMS or email, is to start taking online education more seriously. WhatsApp, SMS and emails are, of course, valid communication media channels as long as they are appropriately used within or in compliance with a learning management system.
Treat online education the way it is and stop designing and dispatching homework!
Written by Jose Vallejo
