An article of EDUCAUSE entitled “The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning” reflects online learning experiences during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The article begins with a definition of important terms around online learning and then explores the question of what effective online learning is. The article then reflects on Emergency Remote Teaching during COVID-19 and the ability to evaluate in typical ways familiar from media comparison studies, and concludes with some final thoughts about the temptation to equate Emergency Remote Teaching with online learning during these evaluations. One of my key findings of this article is the listing of the different variables that comprise online learning. Means et al. (2014) divide online learning into nine dimensions:
Online learning design options (moderating variables)
Modality
- Fully online
- Blended (over 50% online)
- Blended (25–50% online)
- Web-enabled F2F
Pacing
- Self-paced (open entry, open exit)
- Class-paced
- Class-paced with some self-paced
Student-Instructor Ratio
- < 35 to 1
- 36–99 to 1
- 100–999 to 1
- > 1,000 to 1
Pedagogy
- Expository
- Practice
- Exploratory
- Collaborative
Role of Online Assessments
- Determine if student is ready for new content
- Tell system how to support the student (adaptive instruction)
- Provide student or teacher with information about learning state
- Input to grade
- Identify students at risk of failure
Instructor Role Online
- Active instruction online
- Small presence online
- None
Student Role Online
- Listen or read
- Complete problems or answer questions
- Explore simulation and resources
- Collaborate with peers
Online Communication Synchrony
- Asynchronous only
- Synchronous only
- Some blend of both
Source of Feedback
- Automated
- Teacher
- Peers
Barbara Means, Marianne Bakia, and Robert Murphy, Learning Online: What Research Tells Us about Whether, When and How (New York: Routledge, 2014). ↩