Critical Humanism and Online Learning

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-78
Author(s):  
Arturo Rodriguez ◽  
Matthew David Smith ◽  
Kevin Russel Magill
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Discussion Boards ◽  
Online Delivery

This chapter is an attempt to personalize online education. Across the writing, the authors use discussion boards, a means of inquiry, to offer students a space where shared experiences might foster deeper connections to subject matter. The concern for learning is how to design instruction to encourage critical learning opportunities in online environments for all students. A departure from traditional online delivery of instruction, they considered how to plan teaching to support student critical thinking in the expression of their ideas. Throughout this chapter, they discuss how critical theory/pedagogy informed practice in promoting self-awareness and critical consciousness among students.

The Power of the Human Face in Online Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Education Courses

The modern student exists in a highly technical and digitally driven educational world. Online delivery of courses and interactions, with the primary purpose of enhancing learning, and access to learning opportunities is becoming almost mainstream. Yet, despite the broad availability of online education courses and systems, the completion rates and levels of student satisfaction with online courses remains comparatively low. Studies have indicated that online students are seeking personal engagement to drive their learning. This project looked at the importance of having a human face at the heart of the online course materials to help develop a more personal level of engagement. The project, carried out between 2016 and 2018, involved a randomized control trial of 84 students, and compared two sets of course materials, for a common course topic, one with human face-based resources, and one without. The results clearly showed a significant increase in student engagement with the human face-based resources, but the learning outcomes, for those who completed, were not significantly different between the two groups.

scholarly journals Equality of Learning Opportunity via Individual Fairness in Personalized Recommendations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Marras ◽  
Ludovico Boratto ◽  
Guilherme Ramos ◽  
Gianni Fenu
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Recommender Systems ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Post Processing ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Content Recommendation ◽  
Traditional Institutions

AbstractOnline education platforms play an increasingly important role in mediating the success of individuals’ careers. Therefore, while building overlying content recommendation services, it becomes essential to guarantee that learners are provided with equal recommended learning opportunities, according to the platform principles, context, and pedagogy. Though the importance of ensuring equality of learning opportunities has been well investigated in traditional institutions, how this equality can be operationalized in online learning ecosystems through recommender systems is still under-explored. In this paper, we shape a blueprint of the decisions and processes to be considered in the context of equality of recommended learning opportunities, based on principles that need to be empirically-validated (no evaluation with live learners has been performed). To this end, we first provide a formalization of educational principles that model recommendations’ learning properties, and a novel fairness metric that combines them to monitor the equality of recommended learning opportunities among learners. Then, we envision a scenario wherein an educational platform should be arranged in such a way that the generated recommendations meet each principle to a certain degree for all learners, constrained to their individual preferences. Under this view, we explore the learning opportunities provided by recommender systems in a course platform, uncovering systematic inequalities. To reduce this effect, we propose a novel post-processing approach that balances personalization and equality of recommended opportunities. Experiments show that our approach leads to higher equality, with a negligible loss in personalization. This paper provides a theoretical foundation for future studies of learners’ preferences and limits concerning the equality of recommended learning opportunities.

scholarly journals The Human Factor: The Promise & Limits of Online Education

Daedalus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-254
Author(s):  
Sandy Baum ◽  
Michael McPherson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Socioeconomic Gaps ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Quality Learning

The idea that online learning might revolutionize higher education, lowering the cost of high-quality learning opportunities for students with limited access to traditional higher education, follows similar hopes for earlier technologies, including radio and television. If such a revolution is to come, it is still far from a reality. Strong evidence indicates that students with weak academic backgrounds and other risk factors struggle most in fully online courses, creating larger socioeconomic gaps in outcomes than those in traditional classroom environments. The central problem appears to be the lack of adequate personal interaction between students and instructors, as well as among students. Hybrid learning models do not exhibit the same problems and there is potential for online learning to develop strategies for overcoming these difficulties. Meanwhile, narrowing gaps in educational opportunities and outcomes requires considerable skilled human interaction.

scholarly journals U.S.S. Online Education: Navigating The High Seas Of Large Classes

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane LeMaster
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Large Classes ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Unexpected Consequence

Higher education has incorporated technology to the point of having 100% web-based degree programs composed of classes of geographically dispersed students taught by faculty from different universities that are also geographically dispersed.  This kind of flexibility for learning opportunities is well on its way to being a standard option in education.  But there are trade-offs and there are problems not yet solved.  Increasing numbers of students create difficulties in managing interactions and challenges the quality and rigor that is possible in delivering the course.   This paper presents a redesign option to manage the increasing enrollments in an online graduate level management class.   As an unexpected consequence of redesign, the level of critical thinking of the students increased.

scholarly journals How Economics Faculty Can Survive (and Perhaps Thrive) in a Brave New Online World

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 155-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Discussion Boards ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Student Interactions ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Virtual Office ◽  
Games And Simulations ◽  
The University

The academy in which we toil is moving rapidly towards a greater role for online delivery of higher education, and both fans and skeptics offer strong reasons to believe this technological shock will have substantial disruptive effects on faculty. How can we as economic educators continue to provide sufficient value-added to justify our role in a world where much of what we now do is effectively being automated and commoditized? In this brave new online world, many successful and resilient faculty will add value (and differentiate their product) not by producing costly and elaborate multimedia lectures in which they become a superstar professor-celebrity, but rather through careful, clever, and innovative choices regarding both the adoption of the online content of other providers and the forms of online interactions they integrate into their course designs. Possible forms of faculty-to-student and student-to-student interactions run the digital gamut from discussion boards and electronic testing to peer assessments, games and simulations, and virtual office hours. This article explores basic descriptive and prescriptive questions economic educators and their administrators are likely to face as the online education tide rises. For example, how much does it cost to develop online content and how much time does it take? What are the key “ingredients” for a pedagogically sound online course? Throughout, I will draw on both the extant literature as well as my own experience at the University of California, Irvine, where the online evolution is advancing rapidly.

Online Education and Women’s Empowerment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabassum Amina
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Ubiquitous Learning ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Access To Knowledge

Formal and informal online learning spaces have evolved into important sources of knowledge that are accessible to many, require limited mobility, and provide ubiquitous learning opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has led to a major jump in the increase of online learning to make learning available, accessible, and possible to the diverse learner population globally. Reducing the gender divide in access to knowledge and information has been the goal of many initiatives, and understanding how access has evolved and improved women’s opportunities to learn and be empowered is key to analyze the changing society. Women are empowered when they have access to learning and access is enhanced through the use of formal and informal online learning spaces and programs. With the knowledge gained, women’s capability is boosted with informed choices, active roles in the workforce, advancement in academics, and increased participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. Online learning can encourage and motivate women to actively participate in social or cultural movements as well as modify their roles as childbearers, caregivers, and home managers. Women empowerment and gender equality has been the focus of research for decades, but with the rise and availability of ubiquitous learning possibilities, women empowerment through the utilization of online learning opportunities is becoming an area that has much need for understanding. In the past, women were more passive about their marginalized position in society. However, women in the 21st century are more aware and active, and are disrupting their marginalized status with their increased use of digital spaces and online learning possibilities. They explore different sources of knowledge and information and join in different online education opportunities for formal and informal learning. Women not only empower themselves with the exploration of online resources but also others when they teach online, actively share information on social media, and participate in online discussion forums.

Improving the Asynchronous Online Learning Environment Using Discussion Boards

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilene Ringler ◽  
◽  
Carol Schubert ◽  
Jack Deem ◽  
Jimmie Flores ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Online Learning Environment ◽  
Discussion Boards ◽  
Asynchronous Online Learning

Research on the Marketing Strategy of Online Education -- Taking New Oriental as an Example

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jialu Chen ◽  
Yingxiao Han ◽  
An Li
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Growth Trend ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Marketing Mode ◽  
Marketing Costs

In recent years, with the development of society and the progress of science and technology, online learning has penetrated into people's daily life, and people's demand for high-quality curriculum products is more and more strong. From a macro perspective, the continuous growth of national financial investment in education, the continuous upgrading of China's consumption structure, the development of 5G technology and the popularization of AI intelligence make online teaching less limited. The online education industry is showing an explosive growth trend. More and more online education institutions are listed for financing, and the market value is soaring. However, in 2019, except for GSX, the latest online learning platforms such as New Oriental, Speak English Fluently and Sunlands, have been in a state of loss. Most of these agencies seize the market by increasing advertising investment, but at the same time, they also bring huge marketing costs, which affect the financial performance of the company. With the enhancement of Matthew effect, large-scale educational institutions occupy a large market through free classes and low-price classes, while small and medium-sized institutions with weak capital strength are often unable to afford high sales costs, facing the risk of capital chain rupture. Taking new Oriental online as an example, this paper analyzes the problems existing in the marketing strategies of online education institutions. It also puts forward suggestions on four aspects, which are target market, differentiated value, marketing mix and marketing mode, so as to make sure that online education institutions can control marketing expenses and achieve profits by improving course quality, expanding marketing channels and implementing precise positioning.

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