The Benefits of Developing your Employees

The benefits of developing your employees

View more presentations from Elizabeth Vanderburg

Personal Development Plan

Ensuring my personal development in the workplace has always been important to me. In order to ensure my skills are up to date, I enjoy my work, have a challenge and increase my skills, personal development is key. Currently, I am completing a Master’s to increase my skills, add education and eventually change roles. My employer currently has a tuition reimbursement plan that is helping me achieve this. Currently, we also have performance appraisals yearly to ensure we know our targets, understand expectations and strive to meet these goals. These are both very effective for employee development however, I think we need others.

At my organization unless you change roles it is rare to have job javascript:void(0)enlargement. This means we tend to continue in our usual roles with the same responsibilities and expectations in our set roles. If we want to have any job enlargement we need to ask for additional projects or really express what other areas we are looking to learn and expand on. Currently, I am trying to ‘job enlarge’ by asking for additional project to train other staff (Noe, R. A, 2010). . I would really like to pursue a career in Training and Development in the future so gaining experience in my current role in this field would be beneficial and exciting.

At the moment we do not have a mentoring program at work. I think this type of initiate would be an excellent one for helping to push employees into new areas (Noe, R. A, 2010). Also, it would build relationships further within our organization which is always a positive. I would like to be mentored by our Director of Training and Development as I believe he has a lot he could teach me. If he does not agree to this then I will reach out to one of my previous co-workers to help me.

Personal development is an area that we all must take an interesting in to ensure our roles keep us challenged; we enjoy our work and expand our skills. These two additional development initiatives would really ensure everyone at my organization has options for development.

References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

The Future of Education

The future of training and educational development is headed down a technology driven path.  This means that the traditional lecture settings that we once were accustom to “on-campus” and in person will be a method of the past.  The future of education is we will communicate virtually with our instructors through online means or possibly watch their lectures through interactive media.  I did not expect technology would shape education this quickly but it seems the future is driving us to be online, read our textbooks on our mobiles or Electronic book readers, communicate online and graduate without ever having to set foot on a campus.  This link to YouTube addresses how quickly the world is changing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPO_HGafBsE . I think since this video was published back in 2009 it is already out of date which shows again how quickly technology and technology usage is changing us.

For the last two years I have been completing my Master’s online which has meant interaction throughout my program has been completely online with classmates and faculty.  I think throughout this time I have picked up the phone 3 times and on two occasions the call was made through Skype.  This method of education will continue to rise as more and more people decide to study online as it is more flexible and convenient.  

Prior to my online studies I had never used interactive videos to learn course materials.  However, throughout my online Master’s program we have constantly reviewed media files to get a better understanding of course content.  This method is also the future of training and education as materials going online will mean students are watching their lecturers online or will use interactive videos to understand materials. 

The other major learning tool has shifted to mobile phones.  Students can review materials on their phone, participate, research, email and even complete some of their classroom tasks on their smart phones (Noe, R. A, 2010).  As we have all seen a shift in personal phone usage I do not see this changing.  Computers and phones will continue to be put together and made more portable for student usage and for learning purposes.

Although it seems all learning materials are being placed online; there are definitely some fields and areas that cannot simply be learned online.  Blended learning which combines face-to-face instruction and online learning is also an important learning format (Noe, R. A, 2010).  .  For instance, those in medical or psychology fields must complete practicum and a certain amount of face to face interaction with patients or complete case studies to fully understand their future profession.  I do not believe these fields can change to completely online learning.  The future of these areas will most likely be the same unless the requirements change.

References

“Education and the Future of Technology.” (7 April 2009).  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPO_HGafBsE

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Needs Assessment

The company I selected is from my Canadian roots – Mountain Equipment Co-Op (www.mec.ca). I learned about this organization when I was doing my Undergraduate Degree in Business. We studied this organization because they had become a large Not-for-Profit organization but had begun when four University friends realized there were no climbing equipment stores in Canada and they needed to cross to the United States in order to purchase such equipment. They decided they would run the organization as a consumer co-operative with an unlimited number of equal membership shares. This allowed each consumer to have a share and a say in the organization. Not only do they sell equipment but “we want MEC and our members to set examples that inspire other organizations and individuals towards environmental, social, and economic sustainability. In short, we want to leave the world better than we found it (http://www.mec.ca).” This organization truly cares about its people, the footprint it leaves behind and the social benefits that a co-operative can have when its not driven by profit but helping the world. Initially the organization was run by volunteers until the business grew and expanded. MEC has grown into a company that not only specializes in climbing equipment but also sells outdoor gear for camping, paddling, cycling, trekking, travelling and sports clothing. Currently, they have grown to 15 stores across Canada and MEC this year’s celebrate their fortieth year in business with 261 Million in annual sales and 3.3 Million members. There members still have a say in the cooperative and receiving annual

In order to conduct a needs assessment for MEC it would be the Board of Directors that would need to vote to allow this assessment to take place. The Board is made of elected volunteers that serve terms of a minimum of three years. During the organizational analysis I would ask managers of various stories what they feel the pressure points are in their store. I realize this means it is possible there are different issues in each but I would be looking for similarities in what their training needs are. The questions I would ask would be do you feel there are any outstanding issues with the employees and their consumers? What can be done better? Is there a need for additional training to sort out these issues? These questions would definitely lead to others to get to the bottom of any issues that were mentioned. I would ask to see their training documents for new hires and handling issues. I would be interested to find out how long their employees tend to work for them and what think about their training and any needs they have.

The techniques I would employ for my needs assessment would be questionnaires and interviews. I realize both of these are time consuming and can be difficult to get the results required however, in order to take a sampling from various stores across Canada this would be easiest. I believe questionnaires would give me the data needed to show me what the employees and management find the need to be (Noe, R. A, 2010). Based on these results I would then decide to interview additional sources in the organization for further details and information if required. This week I learned a lot about the needs assessment process and how important it is. It really sets the groundwork for your training plan and ensures you will help the organization as needed. I look forward to reviewing the information again in order to conduct a real needs analysis for a client or my organization.

References

Mountain Equipment Co-Op. Retrieved 2011 from http://www.mec.ca/AST/Navigation/MEC_Global/AboutMEC.jsp

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Elevator Speech on Why Training is Important

My Elevator Speech



I’m here to tell you that training is important and can drastically help you to motivate, retain and empower your employees.

You may be asking yourself why should I continue to train my employees? Given the current economies of the world why bother when nobody is leaving my organization anyway?

Main reason is you have attracted some amazing people to your workplace however, when the economy picks up they will change roles if they are not feeling as though you are allowing them to grow in their role.

Training means your employees will stay current with new technologies.

Employees want to feel that you are investing in them and helping them to grow their talents. If you train and allow them to better themselves they are more likely to stay in your organization and you will spend less money having to rehire and retrain new people to take their role. You can then spend your time helping your employees and ensuring they are performing as necessary.

If your employees are happy then your clients will be happier as they will receive better service and thus you will be happy. Training your employees will go full circle in ensuring everyone in your business is left feeling motivated and happy with the business they are doing.

E Vanderburg

Scope Creep?

During my Master’s degree we had to complete a group project online. This meant any communication took place solely on Skype calls and email. However, this also meant it was difficult to track down group members and ensure they were completing their assigned tasks and work. The project was to create a module that would teach the student how to use software or learn a specific task. Our group chose for a student to learn basic techniques for using Adobe software. The original plan was we were going to teach them five basic skills but this was changed to three as we had issues with our group members, time and thus caused our scope creep. Our project manager at the time did her best to keep track of the poor performing group members by emailing them and asking them when we could receive their sections. However, because of timezone differences and uncertainty about the delivery of these pieces the project manager had to continuously follow up with these people. After three weeks of two group members barely communicating and not completing their assigned work, they were removed from the group. The team could not continue with these poor performers as time was being wasted working about them completing their work and the focus needed to be on the task at hand.

If I had been the project manager I would have followed up with them soon and then cut them out of the group sooner. It wasn’t until a deadline was not completed that we realized they had not done their section. The Project Manager should have followed up with them before the deadline to determine what was happening. It took three weeks to have these group members taken out of the group which meant at least two deadlines being missed or changed because of them. This threw off the rest of the group and caused them to scramble to do extra work. At the best of times group work is extremely difficult however, when you are dealing with team members you have never met before, different time zones and limited communication it can be a very frustrating situation. I definitely prefer the ability to have face-to-face meetings with group members and thus prevent scope creep.

The Art of Communicating Effectively

As we have probably all realized our interpretations of various messages changes based on the median being used to deliver that message. Often times in email messages tone can be misinterpreted or misread which then makes the reader think the writer is being rude, demanding or possibly unprofessional. Also, depending on the author’s or readers backgrounds, education, technical experience and culture can also dictate how a message is expressed or interpreted. In my previous role I was supporting online Master’s students from all over the world. Often times I would have to be extremely clear and conscious of the language I was using in my email correspondences with them. I could not assume all of them understood something I was implying or assume they understood what I required of them. It was always best to lay out clearly any points or items that I wanted them to understand.

In watching the Media “The Art of Effective Communication”, I was surprised that my opinion of the message did not change all that much. Going in the order of reviewing the email to voicemail to a face-to-face message the tone, content and my understanding of the message remained the same. I found the author of these messages to have excellent tone in their email and they did not come across as confrontation and remained professional in their email communication. The communication that best conveyed their true meaning was the face to face message as you could easily see her tone, expressions, body language and need for the report to be delivered.

Depending on where your project team is I think it is best to have face-to-face meetings. This allows everyone to express themselves fully and for the complete team to witness what is being said. This way if there is something that everyone does not quite understand they can get clarification on the spot as oppose to waiting on an email response or even following through the situation with their own interpretation and possibly getting it wrong.

Learning from a project "Post-Mortem"

One of the most difficult projects I have faced was a group project completed online with classmates from my Online University program. Having not met these group members it was difficult to know their strengths, weaknesses, trust their capabilities and we were in few different time zones. The most difficult aspect of the project was our varying schedules because of time zone conflicts. It made it extremely difficult to plan group meetings, check in with each other and review issues with one another. One eventually made the project successful was three of the six group members taking over and completing the project. This made the project less stressful ensured it would be completed with the quality of work expected from our University.

The processes that we included were developed by our project manager. We had strict deadlines and specific requirements organized for each group members. The project member helped to ensure everyone understood their tasks and deadlines. This process ensured we remained on track as we had issues with group members in the beginning not contributing to the group and completing their work. So, the project manager ensured we reworked the plan in order to ensure we would remain on track and still produce quality work.

It was difficult to really learn or prevent some of the issues that arose in this group project as it was with members that were online and that I did not know. What I did learn is that some group members really pulled through and were willing to go the extra mile to fix the issues from the other group members. It was a great feeling to be working with these people as they produced quality work and worked extremely hard to make up the difference from those that did not complete their work.

Perceptions of Online Learning

Online learning is the future of education, training and knowledge transfer. I realize this is a pretty bold statement however, I believe distance learning will continue to grow in the next 5-10 and even 10-20 years. With the use of computers, the internet and mobile phones increasing all over the world we definitely see how education and knowledge will continue to be passed through these means. As Dr. Siemens states this week in our Media program, there is growing acceptance of online learning. This is being fueled by increased online communication, new communications technologies and growing comfort with online discourse. (Siemens G, 2011)

I envision more campus Universities will have blended learning applications so that students have an online portal for discussion and to submit assignments. The same will apply for high school students the online requirements I believe will continue to grow so students are able to do more work online. Kids today growing up not knowing live without computers and the internet so learning online will be easy for them as they will be using computers from day one that they are able to click the on button. On a workplace training level, distance learning will become the norm. I believe more and more companies will outsource their training requirements to instructional designers so that training can be completed at a worker’s desk or at home. This will make it easier for the organization as it will be less logistics and more cost effective.

Currently, the field of instructional design is still unknown as many people have never heard of it or know what it involves. I believe when more people understand and know about instructional design than, the understanding and perceptions of distance learning will change. When more people understand the process and those individuals involve I believe that will help to clear up the stigmas and stereotypes that some people, some companies and some countries have about distance learning. On a personal level as an instructional designer I hope to improve societal perceptions with ensuring what I create and develop will be of excellent quality. With the internet it is very easy for someone to look up your work and see the quality you create. So I will ensure that that work I am developing makes me happy to put my name on.

Our course project this module really made me realize how likely it is that organizations will continue to train their employees using distance learning and online training tools as this is more cost effective and easier to organize for an organization. When I discussed this module with anyone many people were fascinated with the idea of our corporate training going online. At the moment whenever someone asks me what I am studying or what my project work is I always have something positive to say and am essentially educating the person on instructional design. I am a positive force as I am informing anyone I speak to about my program and what it involves. It definitely will have a snowball effect as anybody I have informed about the field of instructional design could then pass the information to others.

However, with knowing the positives of Instructional Design I also see the skeptics and negatives opinions out there about distance learning. As an advocate for instructional design I also can see how many are completely ignorant to the process, to what a good distance learning program is and thus who are the ‘good’ distance educators out there. Unfortunately, there are definitely many countries and organizations that still do not accept online learning as they do not see it as a real program. They feel that online programs are fake or do not compare to a traditional classroom learning experiences. I am hoping what Dr. Siemens said will hold true that the more we interact and connect with those all over the world, the more there will be an acceptance of distance education. (Siemens, George, 2011) I believe as long as governments recognize the credibility of an Online learning program than the public will feel confident and accept it.

Converting your classroom to the online world

In this week's assignment for my online classroom we were tasked with a case study. A trainer has decided his student's are not participating enough in his classroom and wants to change his training sessions to blended learning of some in class and some online training. In order to adapt his training session there will be many things that need to be considered. I created a document to help him begin to think of the areas he will need to develop, adapt and change in order to move some of his training content online.

Converting Your Classroom to the Online World

There are many factors to consider when adapting some of your training to a distance learning program. This guide will help you to review the areas needed to get your program online.

Pre-Planning

Before you can have an online training program there are some things you need to consider and plan.
•What online classroom platform will you be using?
•Are there more costs involved to purchase this or other technologies?
•Investigate the technology skills of your learners as you may need to consider creating new training documents on how to use their new online environment
•How much of the content will go online?
•Will you need an instructional designer to help you set up and design your online classroom?
•Set up a timeline to determine if you have enough time to organize these factors before the training begins.
•Have a backup plan if your technology goes down so students are aware what they need to do. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•What will be the break-down of grading and the requirements of your training program?
•Consider reviewing and changing your syllabus as a guide to help you plan the curriculum.

Content

The online environment is different from a traditional classroom so your classroom materials will need to be adapted and changed for the online world.
•To ensure your students remain engaged it is a good idea to review your current content and add in visuals. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These visuals could include multimedia videos, tables, or charts.
•To ensure the students are engaging in their online classroom and participating you need to ask problem solving questions, create experience driven activities and have a group project. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and pull examples from their own experiences.
•Also, “time constraints for class delivery, lack of eye contact, visualization of the materials, and planning for interaction require a reconsideration of classroom dynamics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). These will ensure the students are able to collaborate and remain engaged.
•Will you be changing how you grade your students?
•How much of the class time will be spent online vs. in the classroom?

Instructor’s role

As an online instructor there are aspects of your role that will need to adapt and change as you need to ensure students are participating. “Learners who are engaged in learning are actively participating in their own understanding of the content. The ‘kiss of death’ for any distance course is the lack of student participation.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).
•It is your responsibility as an instructor to determine if students are participating enough or if they need to be pushed to engage more with their classmates.
•The key to online learning is your discussion board. It will be where students are posting their assignments, discussing issues or ideas with each other and really showing their knowledge.
•As an instructor you will need to set up hours and times when you will be login to review the student’s work and posting to the discussion board.
•Students will be engaged in their online learning experience if they feel their instructor is challenging their learning experience and helping them to learn as much as possible.

Technology

In order to prepare for online learning there are a few technical questions you will need to ask yourself.
•Will the students need training for the online environment?
•Do the students need to purchase anything or have computer requirements?
•What happens if your technology goes down?
•If you are going to have an online database for your resources you need to ensure students know how to organize access.
•All technology including the online classroom will need to be tested to ensure it is functioning and there are no issues with content.

Resources

•Will students need access to any online resources?
•Do any of your resources need to be scanned or added into your database?
•Have you added in any new media or visuals?

Preparing your Student’s

Currently, your students have not been communicating effectively in person. It is important that you make them aware of what their new requirements will be if they are in an online environment. Here are some steps to prepare your student’s for this change.
•It is possible to have students that have not been in school for at least 10 years and there last experience in school did not use the internet let alone a computer. This means many could have limited computer skills and have never navigated an online classroom.
•As a new distance learner your student might be a little intimidated as they are not use to navigating and learn in an online classroom. It will take some time for them to figure out where everything is and really ensure that you are not missing any important information.
•“Just as the instructor must take responsibility for learning about students, learners in the distance learning education classroom must assume ownership in their learning experiences (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009).”
•It will be important to encourage your student to participate online but set minimum login and discussion board posting requirements. It will be an incentive to participate if they receive lower grades for not participating enough.
•Ensure you communicate what your expectations are for your students.
•Allow the student’s to communicate with one another by encouraging them to post their details or have assignments that create discussion with their classmates.



REFERENCES

Piskurich, Dr. George. "Facilitating Online Learning" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

The Impact of Open Sources.

My previous education and work experiences were not in the education sector so, this means I am completely new to the new educational tools, instructional design and new learning initiatives available online. I was unaware of the open sources courses available on the internet. It is amazing how the internet has expanded our abilities to learn from anywhere in the world. I reviewed Roman Architecture an open course from Yale University (http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture).

This course is available on campus but was adapted in 2009 for their open courses catalogue. The lectures were all recorded from on campus lessons so all 23 lessons of audio; video and course materials are available online. This course is taught by Diana E.E. Kleiner who has included many of her own photographs to help with the learning experiences. To adapt this course to distance learning the content has been organized carefully on the Yale website. All course materials are laid out nicely and organized well. As a student it is easy to navigate the website so you can easily find your materials and understand the requirements of the course.

Instruction for a distance learning course requires a different approach and requirements from the instructor to ensure students understand the material being presented. “The instructor is viewed as the facilitator of learning by guiding, rather than directing, the students, thus modeling a student-centred approach. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). This course offered by Yale has limited instruction as the course is only online and it does not seem like the student can contact the instructor. If the student has any technical issues there is a help button they can use however, they are given no contact details for the instructor. This course really is designed for a student to learn this material independently and complete the work as required. If they have any questions they need to direct them to their study groups as nobody at Yale is available to assist.

The course designer did their best to maximize active learning for the learning. However, I am uncertain how they really planned out this course. It really was organized so that students can review material that has been put online for them. It does not really feel like a course as it is organized for a very independent learning experience for the students. The students have all the same information that an on-campus student would receive for this class however, they do not receive any feedback or assistance from their instructor. The clear difference is a distance learning student would not get the same interaction with students and the instructor as if you were in the class. The course designer did not include many ways for students to interact with each other. The distance learning student has the opportunity to join an online study group for the class using OpenStudy. This allows students to interact and ask questions about the course material however, this is not mandatory. Given the material that is being presented it would have been more favorable if there was an instructor available to answer questions as this would really help the learning experience. However, students have all the right materials and information to enjoy the information presented. If they want to have an interactive class than this definitely is not the platform or class for them.


References

Kleiner, Diana E.E. (2010). Yale University. Open Yale Courses. “Roman Architecture” Retrieved on February 6, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/history-of-art/roman-architecture.

Piskurich, Dr. George. "Planning and Designing Online Courses" Laureate Online Education, 2011. Retrieved from Distance Learning module

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Selecting Distance Learning Technologies.

The beauty of distance education is it can be tailored for specific topics, learning styles and learners. Meaning, depending on the subject matter different distance learning technologies can be used in order to ensure the information is being absorbed by the learner. This week my school assignment is to explain which distance learning technologies I would consider using for a biodiesel manufacturing plant that needs safety training modules for all of their staff. Immediately, what came to mind is having MyMedia or a video program within the training module for the learners. I believe for safety training it is important to give visuals that show the most effective and safest ways to complete a task. This would also allow for visual and auditory learners to understand the material as the video would have audio commentary and real life examples. The one thing I would keep in mind is to ensure the videos delivery the material effectively but do not come across as condescending or talking down to learner.

The textbook used in my course outlines some effective steps for implementing online technologies. Step 1 is to access available instructional technologies. This means to understand the lowest common technologies that the learner will require for the course. Step 2 is to determine the learning outcomes. For my instruction for the biodiesel manufacturing plant this will be outlined by them as they have specific requirements for their learners. Step 3 ‘identify learning experiences and match each to the most appropriate available technology.” In this case I felt MyMedia or a similar technology to show the learner the information in a video format would be best. Step 4 “Preparing the learning experiences for online delivery” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). In this case this would mean organizing the material into topics and sections for the learner. This would allow the learner to see all details step by step and keep them engaged in the material. The other key detail for this training is to ensure the employee can demonstrate the learning objectives. In order to ensure they absorbed the material the learner would have an online quiz to complete and also need to demonstrate what they have learned with their Manager. This would be discusses with the organization to determine if they had the time and resources to conduct this test with each employee. If they could not than an instructor would be provided to review things with each learner.

To ensure my opinion of video programs in an online classroom are effective I researched my online library and the internet to determine if there were other situations where videos have been effective for the learner. I came across an excellent article The Comparative Instructional Effectiveness of Print-based and Video-Based Instructional Materials for Teaching Practical Skills at a Distance. This article reviews both sides and finds “video is useful to show practical and real life activities and that video can be used to capture hazardous and costly experiments for presentation and for repeated use.” (Donkor, 2010). Another source of interest was an article about Selecting Media for Distance Education (Ely, 2003). This article gave excellent tips on how to ensure you select the proper media source for your online classroom. Based on these sources and my own experiences with Media in the classroom, I feel including video for health and safety material will be the best plan for this organization.

Resources

Donkor, Francis. (2010) The Comparative Instructional Effectiveness of Print-Based and Video-Based Instructional Materials for Teaching Practical Skills at a Distance. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Volume 11, Number 1.

Ely, Donald P (2003). Selecting Media for Distance Education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. Retrieved on 23 January 2010 from http://www.ericdigests.org/2005-2/media.html

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Distance Learning - Mind Map.

Hi all,

Here is the link to my Mind Map that I created to explain my definition of Distance Learning.

Mind Map

Distance Learning -Is It The Future of Education?

In my opinion distance learning is learning that takes place in your own environment and for the most part is an independent learning experience than with a typical on campus or in classroom learning experiences. Before starting this program with Walden, I looked at distance learning differently as my only experience of distance learning was with a correspondence course when I was trying to make up a University credit. This was not an effective learning experience for me as it was self-taught and self-paced so I really struggled to enjoy the material and learn the requirements. At that time online learning was rare so my course consisted of reviewing a textbook, answering questions and a final written exam. It’s been almost five years since I took that class and we have come a long way with how we view distance education.

This week I began a module on distance learning. This week I learned many definitions for how distance learning can be defined. The common threat among these was that distance education means a separation of student and teacher. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). As an instructional designer this is definitely something that must be a realized in order to ensure directions, material and information is presented so the learner can complete their learning experience without immediately requiring an instructor. I did not learn too many new things this week about distance learning because I have been a distance learner for over a year now and work for an online university. These experiences have shaped my opinion and current definition on distance learning.

Before working and studying for an Online University I did not realize how distance learning brings people from all over the world together and allows us to connect collectively to broaden our learning experiences. I had more of an impression that online learners shared experiences but I did not really realize the impact of an international online classroom can shape your experience.

In my current role our whole business is built around distance learning. I work for an online University and currently am helping to review online classrooms before they launch and monitor online classrooms once they have gone “live”. Being a distance learning student while working for the same industry has given me excellent perspective for both roles. For my job I understand the quality we need to ensure we deliver for a student and as a student I know what quality should be available to me and what is possible in my learning environment. The one difference is in my work our University has more of an international demographic so this changes the design and capabilities of our online classroom as we need to ensure as many students as possible have the required components to be an online student.

It will be interesting to see where distance education is five years from now as already the online education environment is quite different from where I imagined education to go. In the Media program this week Dr Michael Simonson said he felt that education will grow significantly but will not replace traditional schools. (Laureate Online Education, 2010). I think he is wrong in some ways as for many their education will not be in a tradition school system. I believe more and more people are home schooling their children and online learning platforms help to ensure their children are learning the right curriculum. Also, I think many cannot afford to be a full-time student so they will be able to study online while still working. I believe there will be a rise in students completing their post-secondary education online.

References

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

“Distance Education: The Next Generation” Laureate Online Education, 2010.