Higher education as well as K-12 is moving increasingly online and educators need to quickly learn how to effectively teach in this new digital environment. Students tend to be less satisfied with completely online courses when compared to traditional courses and fully online courses also experience higher attrition rates. In 2001, Hara and Kling conducted a study of online courses and found that feelings of isolation were an important stress factor for online students. Continue reading “Online Learning and Building a Sense of Community”
A short history of online learning
Through the Mail
Distance learning is not a new concept in the field of education. Distance learning began in 1873, when Anna Eliot Ticknor, daughter of a Harvard professor, founded the Society to Encourage Studies at Home. This was one of America’s first correspondence schools, it was a distance learning school conducted through the mail. The school was targeted at the education of women and provided six disciplines to study; English, History, Science, French, German, and Art. Once accepted into the program, educators mailed syllabi to the students, who were then responsible for submitting assignments through the mail.