Lesson 11-Response to readings: Learning about Open Learning

I just read Ester Shein's article "One Stop Shopping With Learning Management Systems and found particularly interesting the link to the Gwinnett County Online Campus (GCOC). Of course, I've been living my own "open learning" adventure since January but hadn't thought much about other contexts where such an opportunity might be helpful. While it seemed quite natural to be participating in such a program at a post secondary level, I hadn't considered the use of such technology to provide learning alternatives to high school students. There would be many situations where a high school student might wish to catch up or to get ahead and would find such an online option very desirable. I can also imagine that students who have health or other concerns would benefit greatly from LMS. The sophistication and flexibility of LMS is worlds away from what is now provided with traditional correspondence courses. Coincidentally, my son decided to take a correspondence course beginning this September. In our district, this was the only option provided outside the walls of the classroom. He made the decision to take Planning 10 via correspondence so that he could free up his schedule to take English 11 in his Grade 10 year. Unfortunately, he ended up really struggling to complete the course and "made it out alive" only with intervention by me and a high school counselor. As I compare my experiences using Vista to his using a much more traditional and limited model, I can understand why he found the learning process so challenging. His experience also really taught me that online learning definitely doesn't work for everyone. I can see that you would have to be a very independent, organized and self-motivated worker to optimize your learning...something that many 15 year old boys are not. This said, I can't help but wonder how much more positive the experience would have been for Zach had he been in an LMS environment. Here are a number of advantages I feel LMS has over "old school" correspondance.

More personalized contact: Zach had virtually no contact with his "teacher". When e-mails were sent for clarification, response would come but often a week after the fact. Also, there was no opportunity to connect with other learners for collaboration or discussion. With LMS there is personalized contact potentially through podcasts, video and even the possibility for a "virtual class". Relationship building and collaboration with other learners can occur through chat rooms, discussions forums or wikis. This would go long way to reduce the feelings of isolation and disconnect, which can be demotivating for anyone, but particularly for an adolescent, and enrich the learning experience.

More immediate feedback: One of the biggest frustrations for Zach was the lagtime between the time he handed in an assignment and the feedback he received from his instructor. This occured in part because his assignments were handed in to his school in hard copy format and had to be hand delivered to the office of his teacher. Pick up only happened once a week. It was only at this point that assignments could be marked according to their "position" in the pile, which sometimes took weeks.

No hard copy required!: At one point, Zach handed in one unit's worth of assignments (probably about 9 or 10 chapters.) These assignments somehow were lost in transit and he was asked to redo them...this was the straw that broke the camel's back for him! With LMS, there are no hard copy assignments. In addition, there are helpful tools to organize assignments and resources.

Many opportunities to be engaged: Planning 10 by correspondence was chapter after chapter of read and response type assignments. There is so much excellent and interesting content in Planning 10 and this could be presented in so many engaging ways within an LMS system. Connecting with "experts" through blogs, video, podcasts, virtual classroom environments, discussion forums with "classmates" and experts and many more possibilities.

Although an LMS would not have guaranteed success for my son, it would have made his first online learning experience so much richer and more relevant both to his life and his learning style. I hope our school district and others jump on this technological bandwagon very soon and I hope Zach gives it another shot...someday.