Tom+Lange

Hello. My name is Tom Lange. For the past 5 years I have been involved with online education, primarily as a user. Through attending [|Minnesota State University, Mankato] I have become extensively familiar with the [|Desire2Learn] (d2L) platform. Aside from being a student, I am also a father of children who are students themselves. They have, over the years, been involved with various forms of online learning as well. This being the case, I have come across a plethora of online learning environments from elementary and secondary schools, to classes available for the workplace, to general (and sometimes fun) education experiences that can only be found online.

 Why do I enjoy online classes? There are a lot of reasons as to why I prefer online learning. Some of them are due to necessity, but not all by any means. There  **//is//**   a bit of a disconnect between instructor and student in the online environment, but I think in many cases this is a boon when the instructor is dedicated to the subject. To be honest, the online classes fill up quick, and though I DO see a certain student drop-out rate within the ranks of some of the classes during the semester, I think the numbers are comparable to those you'd see in any intensive 3 to 4 credit course.   One of my main reasons for preferring online right now in my life is the high cost of gas I would go through in a 35-40 mile commute when I'm already making such a commute to work in the opposite direction daily. The cost would be entirely prohibitive. Another reason is that of the time taken away from my kids who need me around - when I'm home working on my studies this works out fine, whereas were I at the University I obviously wouldn't be so accessible to them.   I've noticed that when in  **//any//**   online environment - from a social website to college discussion and chat rooms - the individual feels freer to communicate due specifically to the disconnect. In the case of the classroom, this works out great - how many times have we sat in a classroom with the instructor beating his or her brains out to get the students involved in a discussion or give ANY indication that they know what's being discussed or even care? In an online environment discussions and chats can be made mandatory right off the bat, forcing the students into academic discourse. As with any class, some students will choose not to participate as actively, and this is clearly noticed by the instructors; however, the cream will rise to the top, and I posit that there are much more students taking advantage of the opportunity to speak and write freely in the environment that the online classes provide.   The dedication of the instructor is extremely important in rating the success of the class. Some think the environment has the potential to be too soft and try to compensate by making it more rigorous than the average 3-4 credit class, while others are not so familiar with the medium (or platform tools) and so make their classes a little soft, though closer to the requirements often seen in courses of equal credits. I have had many instructors whose dedication to the class has made the experience extremely worthwhile and memorable whether through the understanding of the medium of the internet classroom or through sheer educational perseverance and involvement; they take their classes seriously and push their students to truly learn.   As I've seen in my own experience and in watching and being involved with my daughters who went to high school via the internet,  **ANY**   class can be taught online whether it be math, science, history, or english. At first, the proficiency of online learning appears to reside most strongly within the more writing intensive classes like social studies, history, or english - this is not necessarily the case! If the heads of the various departments within the sciences and maths would take advantage of the opportunity and look for themselves   <span style="font-family: Microsoft Sans Serif,sans-serif;"> at how these classes could be presented and use the technology they would see that it works hand in hand with their disciplines on a day to day basis out of academia and in the working world. There are accredited online schools popping up left and right every year in Minnesota alone - especially catering to rural areas. Many universities within Minnesota support a rather rigorous online class variety, as do those universities in other states. It would really be dropping the ball were it to be otherwise. This is our future.