The experience I have had with teaching in several online schools and on-ground programs leads me to believe that, generally speaking, online students actually put more hours in per week at their craft. I say this because they spend more time in communication in online forums, writing and research.
The big disadvantage I see is that even though they spend a lot of time doing the above activities, the social aspect of an education, the give and take of classroom banter and the relentless challenging of ideas that characterize a good education cannot be replicated fully in an online forum. Often students are more interested in meeting the posting requirement for a given class or assignment than they really are in a deep and thorough discussion on an idea.
Adult student success depends as much on this aspect of an education as it does on writing and submitting papers. Until the modality of discussion forums changes to make a more immediate banter and feedback possible, this lack of interaction is going to concern me as an educator. By no means is online education lacking in value (and for many students it is the only way back to school), but it does have its limitations and issues like any other mode of learning.
John Brady has taught at Marian College, Indiana Institute of Technolgy, Ivy Tech State College and several large online Universities. He is the owner of http://www.adultstudentsuccess.com a site dedicated to helping adult students succeed and http://www.mlmwebhelp.com a free site dedicated to improving web visibility for mlm and small business companies
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