Weekly Reflection (Post 4, Week 4)

Grand Challenges facing online learning.

There are many challenges and social issues facing online education today. Dr. Thomas Reeves argues in his keynote video that there is not enough socially responsible research in the learning sciences. He notes that we spend too much time researching aspects such as smart phones, generative AI, technology, etc. Instead we should be focusing on looking at real pressing issues such as teacher burn out, students learning gaps caused by COVID-19 and under-educated students. If we look at these issues instead we will see online education flourish. 

I strongly agree with Dr. Thomas Reeves theory that online learning was severely underdeveloped when COVID-19 hit. The pandemic was sudden and didn’t leave much time for researchers and educators to properly learn how they could best execute online learning. Both students, teachers, and professors suffer with immense stress during this time trying to navigate new learning and teaching platforms. When I think back to my experience with online learning during COVID-19. I remember taking Grade 11 Pre-calculus. I was already having a tough time understanding the content but when it switched to online I began to struggle even more. Not understanding and missing concepts led me to struggle even greater in pre-calculus 12 and these gaps in gaps continued to affect me all the way to University math as well. 

Overall, I believe there are some gaps in online education. In the last few years there has been much progress in improving online education but there is still room for more work in the field. More learning research needs to be done to ensure students are receiving a proper education. Online learning has the power to be just as effective as in person learning if done properly.

References:

UVIC Classroom Recording. Grand Challenges Facing Online Learning. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OoTWCCrzc9XroWz2c5t7IN955-BQSMQd/view