Education is an important component to personal and
professional growth. Education has moved online and creates a strong platform
to reach a wider group of people from a more diverse background. Perera-Diltz
& Moe, J. (2014) discusses the use of formative and substantive assessments
in online learning platforms and how these contribute to learning. For online
professors they can use their knowledge to encourage development in
geographically dispersed individuals and groups.
All knowledge is constructed from previous knowledge
and this continues to grow and develop over time as more complex information is
added to existing frameworks that create even stronger and wider reaching
frameworks. Construction comes from teacher-led learning (Frieire, 2000),
collaborative construction between student and teacher (Collins, et. al, 1989),
or situated learning framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
Teachers can either lead information by pushing
knowledge and retention or they can foster learning through the understandings of
the student. Most learning doesn’t happen in isolation and often impacts a
wider group of people that benefit from that learning. Group learning is common
in classes as well as in society and requires challenging assumptions and
reconstructing knowledge on a higher platform.
Students come to the online course with as many
needs as traditional students. They desire the flexibility to continue on with
the daily needs and responsibilities of their lives while furthering their educational
and career choices. Improvements in online communication tools afford a greater
level of student interaction to foster higher levels of social and personal
knowledge construction.
Assessment of that learning is an important part of understanding
how much people are learning. Assessments generally come in formative or
summative types. Formative types include quizzes, tasks, and other types of
course tools that ensure the student is building the necessary blocks that will
lead to higher forms of learning. Summative assessments ensure that higher and
more complex concepts have been discovered.
Think of how we learn something new each day but
need to find a stronger and wider framework to understand how this information
fits within a wider world. Formative assessments are often based in the
process of learning the individual parts to the greater conception. Beams and
foundation to a finished house so to speak. The summative assessment tries to
ensure that the house was actually built and how well that house was built.
Online learning has been found to have widespread
adoption within the U.S. but also offers a version of learning that can apply
around the globe (Leppisaari, et. al., 2011). The authors found that online
learning has many benefits for a wide variety of people and will continue to develop
overtime becoming a primary source of educating people. The advantages of
virtual communication being that quality education is not limited to the
brick-n-mortar locations of the past but now can reach to anyone with a computer or cell phone.
Collins, A., et. al. (1989).
Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and
mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction:
Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453–494). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Freire, P. (1970/2000). Pedagogy
of the oppressed. (30th Anniversary). (Trans. M. B. Ramos). New York, NY: Continuum.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E.
(1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge
England, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leppisaari, I., et. al. (2011).
International e-benchmarking: Flexible peer development
of authentic learning principles
in higher education. Educational Media International, 48(3), 179–191. DOI:10.1080/09523987.2011.607321
Perera-Diltz, D. & Moe, J. (2014). Formative and
summative assessment in online education. Journal
of Research in Innovative Teaching, 7 (1).
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