Week 13 Reflection

According to chapter 29 of “Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology” by Reiser and Dempsey focus on the important aspects of e-learning experiences being a future means for acquiring knowledge and on-hand approach to further learning. In that paper, I will state two critical points that made by the authors who speak to my experiences as an online learner or that speaks to ideas I have about how I would teach in an online environment and describe my thoughts related to them.

The first point that attracts my attention in this chapter is the authors' opinion about focusing should not be on the technology alone; which the authors mention “efforts must always center on efficiently achieving learning outcomes, arranging creative and robust design, working in the development and production teams and administrating workable learning support systems”. Although that technology should not be seen as an end rather an effective means, but it is still an important part to achieve the online learning goals or outcomes. However, I believe that should be a balance between full immersion in technology knowledge and re-purposing technology for the sake of the discipline to be studied or taught by means of the technology-based environment. I agree with the authors that educators should focus on defining clear methods to get the desired result, design appropriate environment for learners, and encourage learners to increase their production. Based on personal experience, I think that online learning has numbers of advantages for both students and instructors. For students, they can take online courses and even complete entire degrees while working, while in-between jobs, or while taking the time to raise a family. Second, even employees who want to complete a degree program, it doesn’t mean that they want to leave their current job and learning online. Third, disability students whom the most of the people need this technology because they have difficulties with commuting to a campus. So, the disabilities students can always “attend” by participating on discussion boards or in chat sessions, turn in their work on time, and watch lectures or read materials by online learning. Fifth, some students do not have enough cost of face-to-face learning, so the eLearning is the best solution for them. Let’s talk about the positive aspect for instructors, teaching online offers instructors more options for engaging in instructional activities because they can teach anywhere they have access to the Internet. Some examples include teaching from home or while traveling to a conference. The benefit for teachers is increasing the efficiency of educators in some rote tasks. Some tools in online teaching automate processes and save instructors time such as saving the time of taking quizzes and grading.

The another point that I interested in is OLAT (Online Learning and Training) is a useful Open Source LMS tool that supports online teaching and learning in the field of education. Both these tools are readily available and with a little bit of knowledge can be a value-add to educational institutions imparting Instructional Design techniques.