Imagine you walk into an on-campus classroom. You take a seat in one of the neatly arranged desks facing the board. While you wait for the instructor to arrive, you chat with other students.
Once the instructor arrives, they begin to teach you content using a lecture. Sometimes the instructor calls on students to answer questions. But most of the time, you are a recipient, not a participant, in the learning process.
Sometimes the instructor covers material too quickly for you to fully grasp it. And other times the instructor is moving too slowly to keep your attention. Your learning experience is limited to the time, space, and speed of that classroom.
This is the traditional face-to-face model of school. Now imagine that you enter your own personal classroom at any time, day or night, that works with your schedule. While no one else is physically present in that space with you, you see your...
computer or mobile device and know that you can connect with classmates and your instructor with just a few mouse clicks, keystrokes, or taps of a button using online tools like discussion boards, email, or video chat. You can move through the class content at the pace that works for you. Instead of feeling the pressure to instantly understand everything the professor shares during a lesson, You know that you have the opportunity to review multimedia lesson materials as many times as you would like.
Instead of being put on the spot to answer questions in class, you can take your time to think through and more fully form responses to questions before you post them on a discussion board. All of the learning materials and information you need to be successful in the course are available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the entire course. This is online learning.