We continued to discuss the nuances and details of online communication in educational settings. A point that made me ponder over my own perceptions of computer-mediated communication was when I got into a discussion with Natalia, Michael and Dan about the importance of healthy conflict, which is more naturally possible in face to face environments as opposed to online settings. I think back to some classes where direct conflict has either led to embarrassing moments or has led to the discussion being swayed in a direction different from the goal of the class, which led to discontentment and waste of the participants’ precious time. In online courses, it is easier to talk about various other things as the course is self-paced and those who are interested have the liberty to participate in the particular discussion at their own leisure, while the ‘keeners’ can choose to stick to the ‘business’.
Another question raised by this week’s readings was that of individual responsibility being required for online courses. At the first go, I found the article Student Role Adjustment in Online Communities of Inquiry: Model and Instrument Validation by Garrison et al., pretty informative with a deep reflection of how online learning can inspire way more cognitive learning. But after I read some of my fellow students’ viewpoints and looked over the reading again, I noticed how the author was leading the readers into believing that online courses were a notch above face to face courses. Jennifer brought my attention to the interesting fact that the author was a professor of a university that delivered courses only through online mode, which could be a cause for the bias.
Indeed, some issues in online courses need to be dealt with in order to make the learning useful for everyone – not just for keen writers or those familiar with (and comfortable with) online socialization. Even though I personally like online learning, yet the reality is that we live in a ‘real’ world, not ‘virtual’ and therefore the social etiquette is equally important to learn.
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