Guide to Online Learning
Yorkville University strives to make all of its programs accessible to non-traditional students: students who, for a variety of reasons, are pursuing education later in life. Many of our students have work or family obligations that make studying during the day difficult or impossible.
Our students live in rural areas, sometimes a great distance from the nearest university. Others are busy urban professionals who live close to a number of universities but cannot afford to leave their day-job to go back to school and study towards a degree.
One of the ways in which we make our programs accessible is through online learning. Our online programs are typically delivered using the asynchronous learning networks (ALN). Asynchronous learning networks refer to online learning networks (or online classrooms) that do not require students to be online at the same time. These learning forums are led by experienced instructors and involve a tremendous amount of communication between students and faculty and students and students.
The best of these programs usually involve a small cohort of students who stick together throughout the entire program. Although the pedagogy in asynchronous learning networks does not typically have a real-time requirement, the courses are not open-ended. There is a start and a finish to each course, and the communication and interaction is structured and is typically divided into week-long discussions or group assignments based on readings.
The goal is for students from across the country, and throughout the world, to be able to engage in thoughtful “discussions” online regardless of how their day unfolds.
A typical day for a student in an asynchronous online course might look like this:
| 4:30 | pick up children from daycare |
| 5:00-8:00 | cook dinner, help kids with homework |
| 8:00-8:30 | put kids to bed |
| 8:30-10:00 | read required readings, post responses to questions in online classroom, read other students responses and comment |
| 10:00 | sign off and turn in |
A typical week for a student in an asynchronous online course might look like this:
| Sunday | reading in advance of weekly discussions |
| Monday | posting responses in collaborative environment online |
| Tuesday | take kids to dance class, or to the hockey rink, no time for school |
| Wednesday | visit with friends, log in to continue discussion, join online discussion, work on written assignment, start next week’s readings |
| Thursday | Yoga class, return home to put the kids to bed, log on for discussions and to work on group assignment. Continue to work on written assignment. |
| Friday | arrange a meeting with professor online for Saturday morning. Take the night off with kids. |
| Saturday | meet with professor online and continue to work on written assignment. Log on for one last posting and comment on the weekly discussions. Spend the rest of the day with kids. |
The beauty of asynchronous learning networks is not only that they make education more accessible to adults and are more suited to their busy lives, but also that the ALN approach to teaching and learning works well for adults. Typically adults prefer a more collaborative approach to learning and learn better in an environment that allows them to link what they are learning to their experiences.
Asynchronous learning networks are, by their nature, collaborative and allow adults to engage learning in a way that is effective for their stage of development.
This may be why asynchronous learning networks demonstrate such high success rates and are proven to be as effective as or more effective than face to face classroom experiences among adult learners.
To learn more about asynchronous learning networks, please read A Brief Learners’ Guide to Online Community by Dianne Conrad.
You can also visit the links below to explore more about the world of online learning.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_learning
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_learning
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning
- http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?topic=172#Pedagogical_elements
- http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/view/index.asp
- http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=34