Online Education Blog

Do you wish to be on-the-go with this fast paced modern world? If you say “yes”, then getting good education must be your greatest concern. Yes, only good education can bring you what you want in your life and you certainly cannot deny the impact of internet on it. The traditional way of learning with pen and paper has been turned into the mode of learning wit e-book and laptop and all these have been possible because of the internet. Certainly distance learning is changing the face of the traditional education and making the whole procedure of learning easier for the students.

From a speculation it has been notified that the students prefer the online education now-a-days, because of its too many facilities, like-

• Technical modernity

• Easy communication

• Study at ease

• Self-dependency

• Growth in a better speed

• Greater opportunities

• Bigger social network

• Advanced facilities to download study materials, making projects and submitting it through mail.

The year 2011 was a superb year in the advancement of distance learning. 46% present students have chosen online learning as their mode of higher education. However, the maximum rush went for opting online MBA. Yes, everybody is trying to be a part of these blooming business industries and what can be a better gateway pass to enter to the world of business, rather than an MBA degree?

An MBA degree gives the students facilities to learn well, have in-depth knowledge in the relevant field and grow better with superior network and enhanced technological skills.
The traditional way of learning MBA indulges students into certain commitments that trap them into bonds however, the students in the current world love freedom. In such circumstances, distance MBA is always a better option for them.

Ok, let us draw a brief comparison of distance learning and traditional learning.

Online education versus Traditional Classroom

• Online education is flexible; the students can mould it according to their convenience. Traditional learning is scheduled; the students have to maintain the structure properly.

• Online learning facilitates to stay at home and learn at ease. In traditional learning, the student needs to go to the university on a daily basis to learn.

• Distance education keeps the students closer to the technologies all the time and this gives them the opportunity to upgrade their technical skills. In traditional learning, students don’t get such a great opportunity.

• Distance learning says “earn while lean”. In traditional way of learning students cannot go for earning.

• Distance learning has no bonds for the students and they get to live at their freedom. In traditional learning the students grow up under the organizational culture, skills and disciplines.

Therefore, decide your conveniences, because your decision has the power to make you or break you.

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Author Bio: Robert Williams is a keen observer of the growth in the education sector and continues to research on distance learning thoroughly. As per his research distance MBA is the most tempting option for the students and in this content he has described the difference of online education and traditional education.

Sitting in a traditional classroom setting can be a very difficult task to do for a student with ADD/ADHD—they are easily distracted by lights and noises and can become disruptive in the classroom, resulting in punishment; they can experience bullying and ridicule because their peers are just too young and uneducated about the disorder to be understanding; and because they have a harder time grasping concepts, they can be held back-grade levels.
Maybe that’s why so many parents are now considering enrolling their students in online classes to better suit their child’s needs. It makes sense too—ADD/ADHD students can rewind pre-recorded lectures if they can’t grasp a concept the first time around; they can get up and move around if they can no longer sit still; and they can escape teasing from children. But there are still some additional things that online teachers can do to ensure that their ADD/ADHD is better accommodated and is given the same fair chance as non-ADD/ADHD online students. To learn how, continue reading below.
1. Simplify Instructions as Much as Possible—ADD/ADHD students typically do not receive “complicated” lectures or lesson plans very well. So do your absolute best to omit jargon and give instructions to assignments in the simplest form you can think of. Get straight to the point. Make sure you talk at an ideal pace too—not too fast or slow, both extremes can lose your student’s attention.
2. Use as Many Visual Aids as You Can—ADD/ADHD students have short attention spans and thus need a lot of variety to keep interested. Simply posting lecture notes can get really boring for any student, more so one that suffers with ADD/ADHD. So try to make slides interesting: incorporate illustrations and maybe even short YouTube videos that can explain the lesson plan more effectively when creating lecture slides. You may even consider highlighting or bolding important words or phrases to give the student visual cues that this information is exceptionally important and will most likely be on the exam. It may also be a good idea to use examples of things your student fancies to peek his or her interest—such as using a sports team or a musical group as a real-life example.
3. Present Assignments in “Parts”— ADD/ADHD students may feel overwhelmed if they are handed an extensive project/assignment which in-turn may prevent them from producing the material that is needed/expected of them. Instead, it may be best to offer the project/assignment in “segments” as opposed to just one “collective” project. This way, your student can avoid getting that overwhelmed-feeling and can still manage to turn-in the same quality material as the rest of your other students.
4. Give “Extended Deadlines.” Like mentioned before ADD/ADHD students have a difficult time getting into the swing of things, thus it might take him or her a little longer to complete assignments than other students. So consider giving the student an extended time to finish an assignment or give the assignment earlier than the rest to give him or her a head start.

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This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

I have not posted here for quite sometime and my regular readers would know the reason behind it. I’m on my final few weeks of finishing all my assignments and once all of us submit our assignments, I’ll start publishing them part by part.

Today, I am just getting little bit personal and would like to let you know why I became a teacher and didn’t pursued other professions though I had little stint in the entertainment/service sector as an executive way back in 1997. So here we go…

I sometimes ask myself why I chose to be a teacher! Since kindergarten, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I was older, I always said, ¨I want to be a teacher¨. I don´t know exactly why or whether I was conscient that being a teacher is a tough job, but this idea stayed with me over the years and, step by step, became a reality.
We have all had a teacher in our lives, actually more than one. We even loved some of these, or hated them. Children are the ones who notice when a teacher does his/her job well, or when he/she has no aptitudes or capacities to teach the others. There are people designed for this career, who have teaching in their blood. Anyone can be called ¨teacher¨, but not everyone can be a ¨Teacher¨- in capitals, which means they are deserving respect and trust. And this is what I want to be, a Teacher.
I guess that my passion is caused by the fact that I realise that each of my students may become of value for this world, since they are the basic ingredients of a thriving community. This motivates me to achieve my professional goals – to send information and to hammer out personalities.
Being a teacher is much easier nowadays than it used to be. There are so many schools that offer Elementary Education degrees, that being a teacher is only one step away from you. One can even choose online degrees, and this means a lot of time is saved and, your desires are quicker to fruit. But before making a decision, you must realise that this job requires courage, confidence in a better future for your students, and being in a permanent search of new things; it requires innovation and discovery.
As far as I´m concerned, I think this is a very difficult profession, but a profession that also brings satisfaction. It´s about encouraging students´ attitude, so, if you are not handy with listening to others´opinions, your place is anywhere else apart from a school. Being a teacher means having in mind all the time that children undergo dramatic developmental changes and you are the one that has to guide them through this challenging and exciting time. The education that children receive from you can determine the outcomes they will experience as adults. So you have a big responsibility, but as hard as it is, it´s one of the most rewarding careers. Nothing calms me more than spending my time with children, being part of their lives, watching them creating, and on an endless quest for knowledge. Nothing pleases me more than knowing that I get the opportunity to develop the minds and attitudes of those who are the world´s future.

Modern psychologists deal with human behavior which is purposeful. Human behavior, unlike lower animals varies according to situations and can not be explained by a single mental aspect. So, modern psychologists have formed some inter-related concepts of human behavior. Motivation is one of such concepts.

Motivation is the tendency to perform purposeful behavior. Psychologist Swift has said that the dynamic action which always controls its behavior to fulfill various demands of the individual is called motivation. So motivation is related to needs. On the other hand, motivation is such type of mental condition which inspires man to directed behavior. So motivation is the middle stage of performing action of the individual.

There is a deep relationship between motivation and teaching-learning process. Learning is the process of changing behavior. In order to adjust, properly with the environment, man has changed his behavioral pattern on the basis of his experiment. So learning is the process of fulfilling directed behavior which needs motivation. And it is the teacher who is to motivate students to fulfill learning.

So, motivation oriented learning is very important for the whole teaching-learning process to bear fruitful results. In order to make the process more effective, motivation has been given due importance in educational psychology. There is also need of incentive to create motivation with the learner. So the duty of the teacher is to select proper incentives in order to create learning oriented motivation among students. Psychologists have suggested certain techniques out of their experiments that may be utilized in this regard:-
1) The learner should be made conscious of his purpose. Before presenting the subject matter, the teacher is to make the learners conscious of that
2) The teacher will assure the students of their success and that assurance will inspire the students
3) Students will be inspired if the teacher takes steps to inform the students of their progress at an interval of short period
4) Rewards, not punishment will be the motive for students in learning
5) Group works will be helpful to fulfill the purpose
6) Health competition among the students is surely to motivate and inspire them.

So, we see that motivation is one of the most important factors for succeeding the whole teaching-learning proce

This is the second part of my assignment, 350 word limit ( I might have exceeded it my 20-25 words but that perfectly acceptable by the authorities) – I might have changed a few words or sentence structures here and there – but that might count only to 1% of my whole assignment. So, its quite original piece.

The aim of education is to transfer knowledge to students through mediums of instruction. In India, it is mostly done via the lecture method where a teacher delivers lecture in the classroom and students follow him. Without debating on the methodologies of instruction, we can say that a without a clear objective, the system of teaching-learning and evaluation process won’t succeed as instructional objectives are part of the whole systematic instructional process. Before organizing any activity, one must know where exactly that would lead and incase of instructional objectives where would it take students.
There are two types of objectives in educational process- i) instructional objectives and ii) behavioral objectives.
When the teacher selects the course, subject matter, materials and resources, methodology and activities that takes the teacher and students at a measurable level of achievement it is known as instructional objective. To succeed, the instructional objectives require skills and personality development through tangible, concrete ways in a classroom situation.

Importance of Instructional Objectives:

Instructional objectives are of immense significance in today’s education process. They provide organizers of the process with the opportunity to delve into learners mind and know where they are heading. Instructional objectives provide teachers the opportunity to design proper assessment procedure through tests and evaluation. Students know what they are supposed to do, use before or after a particular class. Instructional objectives also help trace the amount of change that has been brought about in a student. It gives a definite direction to the whole teaching-learning and evaluation process of a particular class in classroom situations. It also helps both the teacher as well as students in determining particular educational goals and enables them to focus their attention on specific learning activities to achieve those goals. Through instructional objectives – the organizers of educational process can determine the resources, course materials, curricular and co-curricular activities, relevant contents and references etc. which are so vital to make the process functional.

Instructional objectives also lead the teacher into discovering the best learning situations, strength and weaknesses of the prevalent learning process, level of growth and development of learners through a pre-determined evaluation process. In short, instructional objectives help in monitoring and evaluating the whole educational process in minute details.

This is the first part of the 3 part assignment that I am doing currently. I’ll post the other parts tomorrow when I’m done with it. Word limit for this part is 350 words and my answer is 373. I hope there is some concession as its quite difficult to write on such a large topic within those words!

Activity Based Instruction:

What does activity based instruction classroom look like? Well .. active! Here, the teacher is mostly that of a facilitator rather than of authority in knowledge. He engages the learners into tasks and makes abstract ideas into concrete ones. It is learning by doing rather than learning by listening It can be done in two ways – i) Student cantered instruction where students have freedom to choose a problem and formulate strategies to solve them and ii) Teacher cantered instruction where the teacher takes the lead role.

Advantages of Activity Based Instruction:

1) The most important feature of activity based instruction is learning by doing. So this method of instruction can fulfil the natural urge of a growing child on one hand also can help them learn their lesson.

2) The method also promotes better understanding of a lesson among students as they learn the lesson by practicing the task themselves.

3) It inspires the students to apply their creative ideas, knowledge and minds in solving problems as well as promoting competitive spirit among them.

4) It also helps learner psychologically as they can express their emotions through active participation in something useful.

5) The method also helps in developing their personalities, social traits and inter-personal management skills.

Disadvantages of Activity Based Instruction:

1) The activity based instruction method requires long-term planning with minute details of the whole process because before engaging the learners, the teacher has to make sure that all students have sufficient knowledge and skills regarding the task they are going to perform. So this method can not be used on a regular and daily basis as it involves a lengthy procedure.

2) The objectives of the method can only be fulfilled if the planning of the lesson is flawless. If there is slightest flaw in the planning, this method would do more harm than good.

3) Learners have varied levels of merit and understanding. So less meritorious students might not prepare for a task as other which might lead to failure of objectives of the whole process.

4) Many renowned educationists also are of the opinion that the activity based method is more suitable for branches of experimental sciences and less useful for subjects of social sciences.

Some old readers might remember that I was doing an advanced course on teaching. Unfortunately I could not finish it completely. So this year I enrolled for the same course with Indira Gandhi National Open University. I have to submit my first assignment by Monday, the 8th March. AT the moment – the class 10th & Higher Secondary examinations are also going on and most of us, teachers have been deputed to the board as invigilators. Hence, I’ll have little problem arranging couple of days of holidays without taking any official leave.

Here, I am posting what type of assignments I’ll have to do in the coming months including time schedule

(Note: I have downloaded the assignment from IGNOU  University website)

Once I finish each assignment, I’ll post them here.

ASSIGNMENTS-SUBMISSION SCHEDULE FOR B.ED.

It will help you to complete the assignment in time if you start working on the assignments as soon as you get the print material. You should pace out your work in such a way so that the assignment for each theory course is submitted by the date specified in the schedule.

Last Date of Submission Course Code Assignment Code
March 8, 2009 ES-331 01-ES-331
April 2, 2009 ES-332 01-ES-332
April 26, 2009 ES-333 01-ES-333
First Teaching Subject (ES-341 to ES-345)
Choose any one subject
May 22, 2009 ES-341 to ES-345 01-ES-341 to ES-345
First Teaching Subject (ES-341 to ES-345)
Choose any one subject
June 15, 2009 ES-341 to ES-345 01-ES-341 to ES-345

Please note:

a) There is one compulsory assignment for each theory course.
b) The Assignment Responses (AR’s), may be submitted by hand at your Programme Centre or sent by post to the Coordinator of your Programme Centre.
c) You should retain a copy of all the assignments in your own interest.
d) If the last date for the submission of assignment falls on a holiday, the Assignment Response should be submitted on the following working day.

Assignments
B. Ed. (1st Year)

ES-331 : CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION
Assignment 1
Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) What is ‘activity-based instruction’? Discuss its advantages and disadvantages with examples? (350 words)
ii) Explain the importance of instructional objectives in teaching, learning and evaluation?
(350 words)
iii) What do you mean by effective management of instruction? State any two problems commonly faced by you in managing your classroom. Explain as to how you dealt with those problems. (800 words)

ES-332 : PSYCHOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) What do you mean by motivation? Why is it important in the teaching-learning process?
(350 words)
ii) How do learners differ on the basis of creativity? Explain in brief. (350 words)
iii) Develop a plan to identify maladjusted children in your class and discuss the strategies you would apply to help those maladjusted children. (800 words)

ES-333 : EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION
Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) Explain three important criteria of a good evaluation tools with examples. (250 words)
ii) Define rating scale and state their uses and limitations. (250 words)
iii) While evaluating your students’ performance, you must have used oral test. Provide the one test used and write a report on their preparation and also explain how did you make it meaningful and purposeful? (1000 words)

ES-341 : TEACHING OF SCIENCE

Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) Explain briefly the nature of Science. (250 words)
ii) Describe “Scientific Method” with examples. (250 words)
iii) While evaluating Science practicals, you must have conducted Science practical examination. Write a report of practical examination highlighting the following:
(a) How did you set question paper for Science practical examination? (Enclose the question paper.)
(b) List of apparatus and chemicals to be used.
(c) General instructions for students.
(d) Key to the question paper. (1000 words)

ES-342 : TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS
Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) Explain briefly the principles of formulating Mathematics’ curriculum. (250 words)
ii) Differentiate Analytic Method with Synthetic Method. (250 words)
iii) While evaluating mathematical learning you must have used observation method. Mention two aspects of Mathematical learning taken for evaluation through observation method and write a short report on the use of observation method with the help of rating scale. (1000 words)

ES-343 : TEACHING OF SOCIAL STUDIES
Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) What are the approaches to organizing Social Studies curriculum at secondary school level? Which one of the approaches would you adopt and why? (250 words)
ii) Formulate specific instructional objectives and teaching-learning activities for transacting the content ‘social life and economic conditions during Indus Valley Civilization”. (250 words)
iii) Choose themes from Class IX Social Studies Curriculum. Organise instructional activities for the same themes using the following group-directed instructional techniques.
(a) Debate
(b) Panel discussion
(c) Brainstorming
Write a comprehensive report mentioning the planning and organization of the instructional activities and the experience gained by you as well as students.
(1000 words)

ES-344 : TEACHING OF ENGLISH
Assignment 1

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words.
i) Discuss how the physical and social environment of a learner helps him/her to acquire language skills. (250 words)
ii) What should be the criterion for selecting texts for reading purposes? Illustrate your answer with a variety of texts that can be selected for the purpose. (250 words)
iii) What is the role of the controlled and guided writing tasks and free writing in teaching writing? Illustrate your answer by framing tasks of each type. (250 words)