Advanced Research Writing Essay

The subject of on-line instruction. specifically associating to learning composing in a distant acquisition environment was covered by Professor Kate Kiefer. Kiefer is a Professor and Writing Integration Coordinator at Colorado State University. She has a PH. D in rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University and has written legion published articles. including three text editions. In the book “Brave New Classrooms” . Professor Kiefer writes a chapter titled. “Do Students Lose More Than They Gain In Online Classrooms? ” Professor Kiefer tackles the hard inquiries of merely how much are pupils acquiring out of online authorship categories. What is the end of an on-line pupil? Kiefer clearly has an issue with distance instruction and voices her sentiment of its lower status to a schoolroom environment. Her legion averments of distance larning pupils non acquiring the complete instruction experience must be taken for what it is. an instructor’s point of position and non a student’s. On-line instruction is going more prevailing every twenty-four hours. because non everyone has the clip or support to acquire to and from a college campus.

This method should be embraced by teachers and non talked down on. merely because there is no other option for so many. Professor Kiefer wholeheartedly states in her article. that she believes taking an online composing category is inferior to a traditional structured schoolroom environment. She states that she is non in the bulk on this issue. but she speaks of the many troubles that face a pupil and instructor online. One of Professor Kiefer’s most inexorable points against on-line authorship categories is the true deficiency of interaction a pupil can hold. She negotiations of how so many online schoolrooms have pupils who do non take part and make merely what is needed to go through the category. Kiefer suggests that online categories are frequently full of pupils who are looking to look into a box and acquire that following cheque grade. which will take them to complete line and a grade. She besides states how non holding peer to peer interaction robs the on-line pupil of so much valuable instruction. In a authorship category it is polar she states to hold your fellow pupils peer reexamine your work and non merely hold the instructor looking at your assignment.

She covers the issue of how universities are seeking to add more and more pupils online. because when it all boils down to it. money is what they are after. Professor Kiefer goes over a few thoughts of how to do an online composing category better. such as necessitating engagement in treatments. but finally she feels that on-line direction in authorship categories. leave the pupil short of what a instructor would wish them to larn in a category. Professor Kiefer is really inexorable on the loss of personal interaction in online authorship categories and how it diminishes the importance of personal interaction. which to some extent is really true. In a recent article published by the “Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks” . documenting over 125 traditional face to face categories. it found “very strong support for the being of a community of enquiry that is shared within each category section” . ( Fernandes. Oct 2013 )

While It may be about impossible to capture the same type of equal to peer interaction in a distance larning class compared to a traditional schoolroom. the survey does non take into history that many on-line pupils have a web of support they are able to resile thoughts off of. While the diary survey names student networking as a failing to online schoolrooms. it does non truly advert the fact that many physical schoolroom environments have pupils that do non desire to take part. Professor Kiefer besides addresses the high dropout rate of on-line pupils. This makes me inquire if the dropout rate is due to non-flexibility within the school offering the categories of if it is pupils merely non taking it earnestly. A recent survey published in “Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks” by the Dean of Online Education at Dallas Baptist University noted that “their university offers 34 online grade plans and Dallas Baptist University has maintained a 92 % class completion rate” ( Shelton. Oct 2009 ) .

I would hold liked to hold seen professor Kiefer give the criterion dropout rate of traditional schoolroom pupils at a university. It is really possible that on-line instruction is still in such an germinating province. that there are many different factors taking to a high dropout rate. Many schools have non decently trained their module in right covering with on-line instruction. while some of it is decidedly the day-to-day lives of on-line pupils that get it in the manner. Professor Kiefer makes many valid points on her subjects. nevertheless the grounds she gives sing why pupils take online classs. are the exact grounds they must go on. Peoples with occupations and forty hr work hebdomad can’t take clip out to drive to the university every twenty-four hours.

Online categories have been traveling for a figure of old ages now. but it is still in its babyhood compared to classroom direction. There are still so many thoughts created each twenty-four hours that can do this acquisition environment better. Professor Kiefer makes a good statement sing the negative impacts of online authorship categories. but the ground we have on-line categories to get down with are why they can’t halt. The ends of on-line pupils are the same as other pupils. they want to break their lives and farther educate themselves. That line of life can non be taken off. because there are uncertainties about its effectivity. It is up to everyone to maintain doing paces and bettering the experience of on-line instruction.

Bibliography

Fernandes. B. R. ( Oct 2013 ) . Measuring the Community in Online Classes. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 17 ( 3 ) . pp 115-136. Kiefer. K. ( 2007 ) . Do Students Lose More than They Gain in Online Writing Classes? In Brave New Classrooms. ( Vol. 37. pp. 141-151 ) . New York. New york: Peter Lang USA. Shelton. K. ( Oct 2009 ) . Does Strong Faculty Support Equal Consistent Course Completion? : It Has for Dallas Baptist University. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 13 ( 3 ) . pp 63-66.