I didn't start with online versus traditional in getting you to understand the online environment. Instead, I wanted you to think about online - what does it feel like, how do you navigate? what senses does it touch? how can you make the online environment work for you and your students?

Ok, you're basically a traditional instructor who is now thinking about online but doesn't really know if it will be as effective as f2f. Whether online instruction is as effective as traditional face-to-face instruction has been an ongoing source of discussion but is becoming less and less an important one because online education is here to stay. In 2001, Dr. Thomas Russell's"The No Significant Difference Phenomenon: A Comparative Research Annotated Bibliography on Technology for Distance Education" was published by the IDECC ((The International Distance Education Certification Center). It is a comprehensive research bibliography of 355 research reports, summaries and papers that document no significant difference (NSD) in student outcomes based on the mode of education delivery (face to face or at a distance. WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) maintains a website on NSD and continues to update it with relevant research.

The following study examines this question and conclude that online instruction is as effective as instruction-led, if not more so. This 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” *Read the NY Times article reacting to it.

Advantages and Disadvantages of both
The following two articles briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online vs. face-to-face instruction.

The Difference in Online vs. Face-to-Face Teaching
E-Learning versus Traditional Classroom

How does one transition from face-to-face to online teaching? The following article gives some quick, practical suggestions:

How do I Move from Face-to-Face Teaching to Online?

But, a more research based approach to converting a traditional course to online includes three steps: Vision and Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation:

The Conversion of Traditional Course Material to the Online Learning Format.

This is a somewhat shortened version of the well-used ADDIE Instructional Design model. Instructional design is a systematic process which requires defining what is to be learned, planning an intervention that will allow that learning to occur, measuring learning to determine if objectives were met, and refining the intervention until objectives are met. This generic model (Gibbons, 1981; Hannum & Hansen, 1989) is known as the ADDIE model.

A - Analyze by defining the problem and determine possible solutions. This includes needs analysis of your learners, instructional strategy and materials analysis, task analysis and so on.

D - Design uses the outputs from Analysis to define the information from which the instruction will be developed. Here is where you would create your objectives and test items, sequencing of instruction, choice of appropriate delivery format.

D - Develop by writing, producing and editing the instructional materials including rich-media, simulations, collaborations, etc.

I - Implement by putting the instructional plan into motion. It is the actual delivery of the instruction. You are guiding the students through learning activities and assessments and are provided with feedback on their performance.

E - Evaluate by asking if students achieve the desired outcomes? What revisions are necessary to improve the learning process? You can conduct formative evaluation (ongoing during the other phases) or summative which occurs after instruction has taken place and assesses the overall effectiveness of the instruction. Assessment is generally taken at a lower level to determine student learning, whereas evaluation places an overall value on the effectiveness and efficiency of the instructional materials and experience.

*Read more about ADDIE here.

Finally, these myths are old, but they still are provocative and many are enduring. Read them over. Do you still feel like some of them are true? How would you respond to them?

Bernard Poole’s Myths of Online Learning

Technology solves everything. Does it? Why or why not?
The Replacement Theory means that everything we do now will be obsolete within a short time frame. This means you, as a teacher, will be replaced by online learning. Is this true? Why or why not?
Online Learning is a faceless environment. Is it really? Why or why not?
Workshops for teaching technology to faculty are the answer to everything. Do you think this is true? Do you think that you will learn the technology and be able to use it, teach with it appropriately and develop effective online courses from a workshop? What else might you, as faculty, need to "be all that you can be" in the online environment?
The myth of information wealth; more information means better data. Is this always true? How can we learn to discriminate and help our students to do so as well?

Read Bernard's answers at http://itforum.coe.uga.edu/paper62/paper62.htm

Keep going to Day Three's Readings and Assignments...