Online studying may be a platform where student independence can be practiced to the fullest. And this makes online schooling to be popularly known as a system where you can study at your own pace and in which discipline and time management are very important virtue that you need to have in order to succeed.
But as technologies in online education are continuously evolving, the technologies that are now being used by accredited online universities pave way to defeat the virtual barrier between the online students and their professors or instructors. It is now possible for online students to study with the close monitoring of their professors through the development of group forums and web conferencing tools.
And after I read this case study from Michelle Everson who is teaching introductory and intermediate statistics courses at the University of Minnesota, I realized that being a professor who teaches online classes is not an easy job. That teaching online requires continuous research and improvement. The case of Michelle Everson as an online professor is worth knowing because she is very diligence and responsible as an educator.
She takes her students’ comments and feedbacks as valuable tool for the improvement of her teaching methodology. And she too admitted that there are some aspects of online schooling that allows the professor to get a close overview of how students understand the particular lesson or topic. This is made possible with the availability of written records of every group discussion from start to finish. She also said that one main advantage of using online discussion groups is that the instructor can witness the full evolution of a group’s discussion.
How I wish that all professors who teach online classes are like her who teaches with commitment and diligence. And for me, this is also the same reason why it is better to enroll in an online university who are founded or affiliated in a campus-based university because these are the institutions that really put effort to create coursework and lectures that are designed for online classes.