What is unique about the teacher and student experience in an online course compared to face-to-face?

How can technology be leveraged to enhance the on-line learning experience?

The on-line platform emphasizes collaborative learning with the teacher, where student must be active to learn. In-person instruction emphasizes hierarchy, where the student may be more passive. Obviously, both methods have both collaborative and hierarchical learning, but the on-line platform encourages this. For example, in in-person instruction, the student takes the action to attend class or acquire material, but it is more passive than having to take action to engage for even minimal material.

Specific characteristics of on-line learning, include:

- Peer interaction. In the on-line setting, students are engaging with the computer. Discussions forums and groups should be encouraged.

- Instructor interaction. In the on-line setting, students are engaging at their pace and will, therefore, have support needs and questions at different times. Response time by instructors should be prompt and expectations set so students know when to expect a response.

- Information on-demand. In the on-line setting, material is more readily available and can easily be stored, so there is often a wider range and more resources accessible. References and information needs to be easily retrievable and organized when the class is set-up. The use of multiple access points/links in lessons that require the material is an approach.

- Acknowledgement and encouragement. In the classroom setting, there is an instructor acknowledgement opportunity when the student walks in. In the on-line setting, instructors need to add encouragements to responses to have a connection. Use of videos and audios can also be utilized.

- Monitoring. In the on-line setting, who is doing the work is not verifiable. In classroom instruction, the instructor can see the student who is taking the exam, for example. This is a continuing challenging in the on-line platform.