Online learning is essentially using the computer to teach skills and
knowledge. Online learning includes internet-based learning, computer-based
learning, virtual classroom opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is
delivered via the internet or your local network, and can be self-paced or
instructor-led. One of the things we will learn about is our own role and the function of institutional
education in an online world. Teaching presence involves frequent
and effective interaction with the course instructor. Teaching presence as “the
design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the
realization of personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning
outcomes”. Online instruction is considered as the continuation of classroom teaching by other
means. But the trends and issues that interest me most in online instruction
are those that challenge the ideas about teaching and learning that we have
always taken for granted. Every time we teach an online course, we learn
something new and unsettling about ourselves. Our role is changing; so is that
of our students.
