Online Classes.
Online classes is mode of instructional delivery through the use of the internet technology and other learning management systems tools which makes learning more engaging and interesting. It has provided access to education to millions of students and workers all over the world, beyond the walls of the traditional classroom setting. Online classes offer educational opportunities for full-time and part-time workers to pursue their academic and career goals conveniently. I am a full-time high school teacher in California who is currently benefiting from online classes that Walden University offers me. Walden and other online educational institutions offer educational opportunities to international students.
What did online classes rekindle or brings back from the past? It reminded me of the correspondence colleges and schools of the 1970s’ and 1980s’ in Nigeria where the same educational needs of the students were met through mail delivery of their study materials. The students are required to study their course packages, thereafter sit for their respective examination at designated test centers closest to their home. Some of these classes are preparatory classes in order to take state required examinations while others are certificated vocational courses. Some are local institutions while some others are foreign based. I quite well remember two of such institutions namely Rapid Results College, and Burnett College, London. One of my uncles in Nigeria used to brag of being a London trained building technician in the 1970s’, although he never travelled to London before he passed away.
According to Dr. David Thornburg in his 2014 Laureate Education video on Rhymes of History, “So here we see this rhyme of history force meeting a very deep human need with a technology that, in fact, was a need that’s existed well into antiquity. And that makes rhymes of history very powerful for us to think about, as a force, as we look at emerging technologies.” So, the need has always been there for people to find ways of meeting their educational needs which the traditional school system cannot offer. Full online classes are a new way, or rhyme of history, of meeting the needs of these classes of students which the internet and other learning management software has made possible at a greater global level.
Reference
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014h). David Thornburg: Rhymes of history [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2014j). David Thornburg: Six forces that drive emerging
technologies [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
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