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Temple University Center for Research
in Human Development and Education |
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Is an
Online Course Right for You?
It is also important for each individual to understand how
she will fare in any online course. "There are varying
figures bandied around about e-learning dropout rates. These
range from 86% (The Forrester Report, 2000) down to 35% (USA
Today) at best, with and average of around 50% of students
failing to complete online learning programs" (Wilkinson,
2002). It is therefore important to consider not only
aspects of the course, but also one's personal preferences
to determine whether a particular offering is appropriate.
Online courses vary in the degree to which they require
interaction among the participants and with the instructor,
from completely individualized, self-paced courses to
classes with online asynchronous collaboration to
synchronous online courses. A course may also require one or
more face-to-face meetings. A potential student should
evaluate her own learning characteristics when considering
an online course. A student who is successful in an online
course must exercise self-discipline, resourcefulness, and
independence (Yoder, 2001-2002).
The
opportunities for online professional development are
increasing and becoming more varied and extensive. As a
result, it is increasingly difficult to find and select an
appropriate course (Yoder, 2001-2002). It is critical to
make sure the goals of the course align with an individual's
professional development goals. These goals include not only
the subject area, but also the required technology skill
level and the targeted grade level. If the course attempts
to cover a broad area, such as K-12 language arts, is there
support for the teacher who only has experience at the 3-5
level? Are there opportunities to focus on the individual's
particular needs or unique goals?
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University of Delaware's Online Professional Development
Center
As an example of the range of course offerings for
technology integration in a specific content area, Table 2
compares two courses focusing on the language arts content
area. Although this table seems to present a clear
comparison, it was difficult and time consuming to find all
the pertinent information for each course. Most of the
findings required in-depth exploration of the provider
website and telephone inquiries that took several hours to
research.
The University of Delaware's Office of Educational
Technology has a preliminary site (www.oet.udel.edu/martec)
that provides guidance to teachers and administrators for
selecting online courses through a searchable database of
online courses focusing on technology skills and integration
as well as support materials to guide decision making.
Educators will be able to search for a variety of
characteristics such as content area, skill or experience
level, credit awarded, and cost. A direct link to
registration information for a specific course provider will
also be available.
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How Can
This Course Apply to Professional Development Requirements?
The paramount concern of most teachers is whether a course
counts towards her state's professional development
requirements. Even with the best information about a course,
the answer is not always evident. Some states are still
figuring out how to deal with online courses as an
alternative route for professional development. Most online
courses partner with one or more credit granting
institutions, such as a college or university, to be able to
offer some type of credit to the participants. These may be
graduate credits, continuing education credits (CEUs), or
graduate quarter units. Nonetheless, it is still at the
discretion of the individual state, district, or school
whether the credit will be accepted. Most states require a
teacher to submit a course approval form prior to
registration. In addition to gathering all the course
information, figuring out whether the course will count
based on the state's requirements becomes yet another burden
for the individual teacher.
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