Online Learning - online Education

ONLINE EDUCATION

Education is a lifelong journey affecting every human being wherever they may be whether in formal or informal setting. Traditional education usually involves observation, trial and error and apprenticeship. It then evolved into formal classroom setting where preschool, primary education, secondary education and higher education takes place.

According to Maeroff, Gene I. (2004), new ways are needed to deliver education outside the United States. The traditional approach for delivering education is limited and therefore insufficient. The challenge to provide education remains enormous in many parts of the world. The cost of building classrooms is enough in itself to restrict educational opportunities and leave less developed country with inadequate physical infrastructure for education. Furthermore, even if modest schools were built, there will be shortage of money for books, laboratories, supplies, and teachers. On top of financial obstacles, geographic locations of societies that are still mostly rural make it impossible to gather a critical mass of students in many places. The problems feed upon themselves. The lack of graduates of high school and postsecondary education institutions prevents development of teachers and professors for learning centers in many parts of the world.

The problem described above serves as a catalyst for the adoption of online learning as a very valuable tool to extend education to every corner of the world. However the some of the limitations that haunts the delivery of traditional education would also manifest itself in online learning method as will be discussed later. In Malaysian context Open University Malaysia is seen as the pioneer in delivering education online. It acts as the perfect example on how online education can benefit more people than the traditional approach.

Online learning allows a lot of independence to students, requiring them to have motivation and have more self-discipline than the usual classroom course demands. Some students quickly find themselves struggling to stay engaged in virtual learning due to unfamiliarity of the concept and sense of isolation, finally losing interest and becoming dropouts. Technology, when it goes haywire, compound the problem, creating disincentives that courses in classrooms can avoid. Computer problems can exasperate students and drive them away from courses.

1.2 IMPORTANT SKILLS

This academic report will discuss different skill sets that are required of an Online Learners specifically that of Open University Malaysia and generally of other online learners in the world compared to traditional learners. The paper will examine what the authors think are the three most important skills needed to navigate the online learning worlds which are: