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What is Distance Learning really like?
Honore Bray
Illinois courses are offered by live chat and lecture. The instructor lectures to the
students through audio and the students reply with live chat. When you present a
project, you send slides for the class to look at while you present the audio through
the phone in your office or home. The LIS technicians call you and you go live.
Nobody knows if you are in your jammies or formal dress, drinking coffee, eating chips or whatever. It takes so much pressure off the presentation, but you really need to be prepared ahead of time so the class has all the materials they need to follow along.
Judy Brown McKenna
Blackboard or online learning requires the learner to communicate effectively in writing. The professors set up a discussion board and submit questions that the students discuss on a daily, weekly, or biweekly basis. There are assigned readings that the students discuss, and a “watercooler” for asking questions about assignments.
Thanks to emoticons, such as LOL!, IMHO, ;-), :-D one can express herself quite easily and the banter between classmates and professors can get fun and funny, as well as providing a means for clear communication.
It is easy to learn the requirements for the class by reading the online discussions and the syllabus. If that doesn’t work, my professors also have office hours, so I have spoken with them on the phone as well. Many professors require group projects, which help for feeling more connected to the class. My professors and colleagues have been very helpful.
My assignments have involved preparing PowerPoint presentations, writing papers, or submitting digital photos that I then submit via a Digital Dropbox. It’s similar to sending an email with an attachment.
Lauren McMullen
I have really learned how to use technology, all kinds of it. In a distance education program a student becomes particularly adept at file structure and management. Since I am working in a library while completing the program, my new technological expertise is immediately helpful to library patrons. My experience using so many web-based information resources is directly helpful providing reference services to patrons, too. Both of these things are especially valuable for our library, since information literacy has been identified as a primary service response in our strategic plan.
For a shy person like myself, the online experience has been helpful for me to learn to “speak up”; I participate more freely in online discussions than I probably would in a real classroom, and I learn more in doing so.
Fred Noel
Overall, the distance learning program at UNT has been a very positive experience for me. I feel this kind of learning format works well for someone who has time restrictions and works a full-time job. Online learning provides enough time control flexibility that I am able to accomplish time consuming tasks and assignments within the set time limits. In a more traditional classroom setting structure it might be more difficult to accomplish tasks.
Kathy Mora
Although I am comfortable with the online environment and interacting with classmates in that manner, meeting them and the instructors in Minneapolis was invaluable. We were able to spend four days together, which included both instruction and socializing.
I have taken online classes in the past in which I never met my instructor or classmates face-to-face and it can lend a feeling of isolation to the course. I believe that meeting everyone adds an important element to the course, serving to connect everyone and hopefully building relationships that continue after graduate school.
