Final essay

Advantages and disadvantages from distance education

It is true that even though in a traditional classroom one can be an outstanding student, on a distance course this may represent a real challenge. For instance, it is important to know some the advantages and disadvantages involved on taking a distance course, mainly to benefit from the advantages and why not, to learn from the disadvantages and take them in a positive way to be able to overcome them, to make the most valuable experience when taking a distance course. 

First of all, one of the advantages from taking a distance course, would be that it encourages students’ autonomy, and autonomy leads to responsible, independent students, capable to build their own path over knowledge. However, although distance education enhances autonomy and it can be seen as an advantage, it can be also a disadvantage, specially if students are not prepared to face responsibility, or if we have younger students who are not used to the distance education system. In my experience, when I first took a distance course, it opened the door to a whole new world of possibilities. Of course at the beginning i struggled, specially with being autonomous. Sometimes I felt discouraged, some other times I felt pretty positive, specially when I felt like I was actually building my own knowledge. 

The second aspect to analyze would be the ability for the student to discover new strengths and weaknesses regarding learning styles. It is vital for a student to discover and learn things about himself, and without a doubt distance course offer the advantage to have the chance to discover or in some cases, rediscover oneself. Not only in the educational field but sometimes in a personal way. Since it helps us to realize, as mentioned before,  how independent, autonomous and responsible se are. And if one learn how to deal with all this information, one may lead it in a positive way and improve their life in other aspects, such as family, work or even socially. Nowadays, with technology taking over our daily lives, one have many possibilities to work or study from home, therefore it is important to know our weaknesses in order to improve and turn them into strengths, and distance education gives the change to discover and work all those aspects. In the other hand, this can be also taken as a disadvantage. Yes, it is true that technology is taking over our daily lives, it is true that many of us have at least one electronic device at home, call it smartphone, tablet, computer, etc. However, as a matter of fact, not all of us know how to use them correctly, leading to frustrated students, who do not know how to use technology correctly in order to perform their best at distance class. Here, even though they are discovering a weakness they might fell towards failure and not do a thing with what they just discovered, choosing failure instead of success.  Teachers might also have to face with students who know they need to improve their autonomy, but as they don’t feel motivated enough, they might stay in their comfort zone, instead of taking the risk to try being independent, autonomous and responsible. And since it is a distance course, the teacher might not be able to help since communication is being null and one can not help someone if they do not ask for help. Regarding this topic from being able to discover ourselves and using that information to improve ourselves. I have been able to have distance courses in which I have had the chance to improve some aspects about my learning ways. For example, this semester I realized that it is okay to ask for help and that even though we are responsible and autonomous there would be always a moment or a certain occasion in which we might need some help. So I learned to communicate and let people know what is going on with me. So I decided to communicate more with teachers and classmates, and I think it helped me a lot this semester. 

The third aspect that it is important to mention is that distance education gives the chance to study from home, allowing you to do some other duties such as work, family or any other activity. Definitely one of the major advantages from distance education is precisely that since one does not have to be in a classroom, one can schedule the time to manage all activities from class, and even take care of may other activities without having to sacrifice family time. It is absolutely amazing to have complete control of your time, being able to prioritize aspects of our life and execute all those activities at the time of our convenience. In the other hand, this can be seem as a disadvantage as well, if one is not ready to take such responsibility, or if they are not use to that kind of responsibility/autonomy, it would result as a failure. Even though distance education has been on for a while now, not a lot of people really knows how it really work. Most people think that because it is distance, it means i don’t have to worry about it. Being used to have the teacher in front of you reminding you the due dates of a project/activity and then out of the sudden switching into distance course might give a breeze of freedom to the students, but now that they do not have that figure reminding them about their responsibilities, they might forget about them and eventually flunk the subject because they failed to accomplish all activities throughout the course. Once again, in my personal experience, it happened to me on my very first distance course, on the first activity. Then I realized it was a free time to go have breakfast with my friends, it was a time that i had for completing my tasks for the course. But once i understood that, everything was way easier and I was able to complete the course successfully.  

In conclusion, distance education has many aspects that can be seen as advantages or disadvantages, depending on one’s perspective and willingness to succeed. It is important to have in mind that distance education focuses in personal skills, therefore we have to give the best of ourselves in everything we do, and that was something positive I learned from this course. I am glad to know that even though there are many disadvantages, maybe some of them i can change them, some other i can not, but it is my decision if I take them in a positive way and learn to do something to turn them positive to help my career and success. After all, no mater if it is traditional or distance education, the responsibility of success lays on us, so it is better to face all those disadvantages and find the positive things to benefit ourselves and make the most valuable experience when taking a distance course. 

Doodley, L.D. (2003)
Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. 

Porter. (2004). 

Developing an Online Curriculum. 

Evaluating a Distance Course

Evaluating a distance course can be as hard and difficult or as simple and easy as we, distance teachers, manage the course. For this, is important to take into consideration the use of appropriate tools to assess the course, to provide with the necessary feedback and to provide with accurate and meaningful information to guide our students to a whole new experience with distance courses and to help ourselves throughout the course in a smoothly and convenient way. 

First of all, it is necessary to use the appropriate tools to assess our class. Because when using the right tools we will have control of what we will assess. For example, by using rubrics to assess, this will help us to keep track of all the activities that we are assessing as well as more detailed way of each aspect that we will be considering on our assessing making the assessing easy and fair, since we are assessing all of  our students with one criteria. By using the portfolio, we will help students to value their work and also they will learn to be more organized to keep a track of all of their activities trough the course, and at the end of the course they will be able to actually see the progress they are making. Which on a distance course is a perfect chance to show students proof that they are improving on their skills and knowledge. 

Second of all, by providing the necessary feedback we will help students to improve in aspects that they might need some extra push. Feedback is a very important aspect when comes to evaluate a course, since students will be able to get information about their impureness or their weaknesses, so they can either keep up with the good work or pay more attention to certain aspects of their learning so they could change their ways on time, so at the end of the course they will be able to actually overcome their weaknesses. It is also important for distance teachers to encourage peer feedback among fellow classmates, improving with this their autonomous skills, facilitating with informal assessing because students will be interacting with each other enriching participation, meaningful interaction and enhancing team work.

Finally, providing accurate and meaningful information, such as outlines, the curriculum of the course, along with a detailed list of all the activities that the student will need to achieve through the course, is a helpful way to assess a class, since by providing information will help students to become more autonomous or at least they will be aware of all the activities and goals they need to achieve in order to pass the course. Giving with this, once again, the chance to informally assess distance students. Since being away from a classroom makes it difficult to assess informally, since we are not checking closely what the students are actually doing to get all their activities done. 

In conclusion, by using the correct assessing tools, providing and encouraging feedback and providing accurate information will help us to evaluate distance students in an easier way. It is important to keep in mind that aside from all the above mentioned, good organization is an ally to maintain the course smooth and easy when it comes to evaluation.