Claims for online teaching: separating the real from the virtual

The predominantly text-based interactions allow students to ‘focus on the meaning of the message rather than the physical cues such as race, gender, age, physical appearance, or dress of the sender, thereby reducing some of the discriminatory cues of face-to-face communication’ {Harasim, Hiltz, et al. 1998}.

However, the concentration on the written word can be a problem for some students from non-English speaking backgrounds (Chester & Gwynne, 1998).

“The online classroom is always open”{Harasim, Hiltz, et al. 1998 #B50}

In addition to international students online learning has benefits for the part-time student in full-time employment. Students in this situation typically cite time as a major constraint. They often report that the flexibility in time, pace and location offered by online learning assists in successfully combining work and study (Naidu, 1997).

Due to the rapid rate of technological and social change (Harasim et al., 1998), as well as increasing career mobility, lifelong learning may not only be a desire, but a necessity (Collis, 1998). Online teaching may have a significant role to play in this context. The ability of a computer to tailor information especially when linked to the use of ‘intelligent agents’ also has potential for the delivery of ‘just-in-time’ workplace learning.

Full-time, domestic students can also benefit from greater flexibility. An increasing number are including one or two online subjects as part of their course load to make it easier to attend to part-time work or other commitments.

All students can benefit from the additional resources available on the Internet. However, as there are no gatekeepers and anyone is able to publish anything, there is a need to teach students how to be critical and discriminating users of these resources (Kjollerstrom & Martensson, 1999).

A number of administrators view the use of technology in education as an opportunity to lower delivery costs (Porter & Foster, 1998; Sawers & Alexander, 1998). Some reduction of delivery costs may be realised by shifting costs, such as hardware, connection and printing, from the university to the student (Bennett et al., 1999). However, at least in the short term, there are likely to be increased costs given the professional and material development required. In addition, many online courses duplicate existing modes of delivery in order to provide equity of access (Bennett et al., 1999).

Another area where potential cost savings may be viewed is in replacing some, if not all, of the human teaching with technology. The question of whether computers can replace teachers will be discussed separately.

Opinion on this issue is still very much divided. Typical statements include –