The Big Picture
Most people who've taken an online course will tell you that until you've taken one, you can't really know what it's like. And everybody makes the experience unique in some way. But to get some idea of how an online course led by an instructor functions, continuing reading. If you're interested in a self-paced course experience, which doesn't have an instructor, please click here.
Imagine on your first day of class, you enter an empty classroom. There's a large corkboard on one wall and across the room is a row of twenty or so lockers, each with a person's name on it. Each locker has sort of a mail-slot large enough to deposit notes or similar items.
On the corkboard is a friendly note to the class from your instructor along with a copy of her lecture. Your instructor invites you all to come back within the next few days and pin onto the board any questions or comments you have about the lecture, the class, or anything related to the class.
One of the lockers has your name on it and, sure enough, the combination you received earlier opens the lock. Inside is a welcoming note from your course manager with useful information like what textbooks you'll need and the names and phone numbers of the other students. You learn that other students, the instructor and the course manager each have their own locker and anything you put into a locker's slot will only be seen by that person. Messages you put up on the corkboard can be seen by anyone who comes into the room.
The note tells you that you're welcome to drop by any time you like, the classroom is never locked, and it's quite safe because strangers can't get in the building.
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Most communication in a course takes place publicly.
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In the days that follow, each time you visit the room you find more and more notes on the corkboard. You notice people pinning up replies to notes and other people pinning replies to those replies! Sometimes there are long chains of notes, virtual conversations that are often lively and spirited.
In your locker you find notes -- from your instructor commenting on an assignment you've turned in, from a classmate asking for your interpretation of a lecture point, and from your course manager who noticed you hadn't picked up the latest lecture and just wanted to check that everything was ok.
Sometimes, when you go to the room, you notice one or more fellow students are also there. That lets you chat live and "in-person." You even leave occasional notes for some or all of the class, inviting them to come to the room at a certain time for a discussion. It isn't long before you expectantly look forward to your visits to the classroom, eager to read the responses to your latest notes, see questions others have posted, pick up assignments and, in general, stay up to date with everybody.
By now, the personality of many of your classmates has shown through. You've begun to enjoy communicating with them not just as other students but as people. Some have posted photos of themselves on the board and you've talked to several on the phone so you know the faces and voices behind the notes. It amazes you that some of them come from so far away. It must cost them a fortune in gas money to drive all that way so often!
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There's no shortage of personal, one-to-one contact in an online course. Besides e-mail, class members can invite each other to meet in live "chats."
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Before you started the class your one worry was that your online class would be a dry, solitary experience -- a sort of electronic correspondence course. But now you realize you're actually more engaged with this class than almost any other "regular" class you've taken.
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