Uses of learning classes


Online learning is education that takes place over the Internet. It is often referred to as “e-learning” among other terms. However, online learning is just one type of “distance learning” - the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in a traditional classroom. Distance learning has a long history and there are several types available today, including:

• Correspondence Courses: conducted through regular mail with little interaction.

•  Telecourses: where content is delivered via radio or television broadcast.

• CD-ROM Courses: where the student interacts with static computer content.

• Online Learning: Internet-based courses offered synchronously and/or asynchronously.

• Mobile Learning: by means of devices such as cellular phones, PDAs and digital audio players (iPods, MP3 players).


By far the most popular approach today is online learning. According to the Sloan Consortium, online enrollments continue to grow at rates faster than for the broader student population and institutes of higher education expect the rate of growth to continue increasing. Some of the key findings:

• Over 1.9 million students were studying online in the fall of 2003.

• Schools expect the number of online students to grow to over 2.6 million by the fall of 2004.

• Schools expect online enrollment growth to accelerate — the expected average growth rate for online students for 2004 is 24.8%, up from 19.8% in 2003.

• The majority of all schools (53.6%) agree that online education is critical to their long-term strategy.

 A majority of academic leaders believe that online learning quality is already equal to or superior to face-to-face instruction. (The “no significant difference” phenomenon.)
In years past, instructors had to create their “virtual classrooms” from scratch which was difficult and often led to poor results. Today, an entire industry has emerged to do this for us. Course Management System (CMS) software is utilized by just about all colleges today. CMS allow instructors to design and deliver their courses within a flexible framework that includes a number of different tools to enable learning and communication to occur.

Popular for-profit CMS include:

• Blackboard (www.blackboard.com)

• WebCT (www.webct.com)
• eCollege (www.ecollege.com)

Low cost alternative and open source CMS include:

• ETUDES-NG (http://etudesproject.org)
• Moodle (http://moodle.org)
• Angel (http://angellearning.com)

Any of these CMS offer functionality which allows instructors to deliver course content, enable communications, and conduct evaluations. The most common tools offered by CMS include:

Schedule                         For posting and viewing deadlines, events, etc.

Announcements             For posting current information to all students.

Syllabus                          For creating and posting the course syllabus.

Modules                          For publishing and viewing course content in sections.

Assignments                   For posting, submitting, and grading student work.

Discussion Board           For asynchronous discussions, group work, and collaboration.

Private Messages           For private communication between students and/or the instructor.

Chat                                For real-time, synchronous conversation in written form.

Tests & Quizzes              For authoring and administering exams, quizzes, surveys, etc.

Gradebook                      For posting and managing student grades. 

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