PPEL – “Online educators come out of your caves!”, by Mark Welch

Welch, M. (2009).  Online educators come out of your caves!. Available at http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=127-1. Accessed on 29-12-2009

This is a very easy to read article with lot’s of sense of humor as well. Mark Welch touches 2 interesting topics:

1. The fact that online educators like to socialize and network, although they need to be on the other side of the screen due to their profession. The author enthusiastically asks online educators to meet and attend more conferences together.

2. Asks the following questions to teachers that are not totally convinced about online education and still very pompous about “old school-schooling”:

• Do you have your syllabus (course guide) online?
• Can students turn in their assignments online?
• Can students check their grades online?
• Can students access library services and student services online?

If they do all of this then, these teachers are actually using the functionalities and advantages of online education to prepare and motivate their students.

PPEL – 10 ways to become successful online students

Cindy Wolfe (2009). 10 Ways to Ensure Distance Learning Success, available at http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=62-1. Accessed on 29-12-2009.

In this article the author mentions the need of online students taking an active role in their learning process. According to Cindy Wolfe there are 10 ways of ensuring success in distance learning courses:

1. Read the course guide and use it as a roadmap

2. Turn in all assignments complete and on time

3. Pay attention to newly available contents and resources. Follow them carefully week by week

4. Search for one new idea in every class session, assignment and reading. “I suggest writing down what you discover in a notebook and referring back to it each time you start a new learning session. Use what you learn today as a building block for what you learn tomorrow.”

5. Support and encourage fellow classmates

6. Contribute to discussions

7. Stay organised

8. Never procrastinate. “Start future assignments early and build them day by day”.

9. Consider how your experience fits into the discussion

10. Set long term goals.

I really think that these 10 ways described by cindy in her article work as advice as well. I am an online student and I identify myself with all of these. It is really important that we stay organised and follow all the activities and new posts by the colleagues and the teachers every day. Otherwise we get lost.

We need support from colleagues and teachers because with the amount of messages and deadlines we sometimes get a bit desperate but in the end, if we follow these 10 steps, everything works out ok.