Guest Author - Gregory A. Kompes

The core value of online learning is using technology to convey information anytime and anywhere for the purpose of improving knowledge, skills, and performance (Forman, 2002). Learning about the technology while seeing it in action allows learners to guide the course direction by discovering content on their own, carrying out assignments and projects, and creating learning opportunities to meet their own educational needs. Learners need to take an active role in their own educational experience. Through hybrid courses, where online learning components are added to traditional classrooms, active learning and greater communication options breakout the traditional classroom walls.

Throughout the learning experience, learners need to be supported by fellow students in classroom forum discussions and by using personal email and online office hour chats to approach the facilitator directly. Hootstein's three pillars of online education, student to student collaboration, self-directed learning, and student faculty contact (2002) are essential elements of active learning. Each of these will be discussed below.

Student-faculty contact

Facilitators don't hold all the answers. They offer their own unique insights as they help learners acquire knowledge and develop skills (Hootstein, 2002). In active learning classrooms, learners experience online technologies in use and practice in a primarily asynchronous learning environment, experiment with the technology, and then apply the learned techniques to their personal needs and goals creating a virtual apprenticeship model. In an apprenticeship, the facilitator models the new behavior and then encourages the learner to try that behavior. After this model and response, learners are expected to do the modeled behavior on their own (Marcinkiewicz, 2003).

In a hybrid classroom, regular student-faculty face-to-face (F2F) contact is established through the daily, classroom routines. On the hybrid side, the online classroom extension adds the possibility of email contact and virtual office hours. These additions can create a safe environment for those students who might not be active in-class participants to approach the faculty.

Self-directed learning

Hybrid classrooms allow for the addition of supported, self-directed learning by students. The Internet offers a wealth of information and opportunities. As in the apprentice model discussed above, self-directed learning fits with the idea of a student learning new skills and then applying those skills through self-designed projects or knowledge quests.

Gibbons (2002) explains: "In self-directed learning (SDL), the individual takes the initiative and the responsibility for what occurs. Individuals select, manage, and assess their own learning activities, which can be pursued at any time, in any place, through any means, at any age" (p. 1).
Offering an online, hybrid component extends the classroom walls by providing a safe, encouraging space, where students can explore, try, and implement newly learned skills.

Student-student collaboration

Like self-directed learning, the online or hybrid classroom is a solid environment for student-student collaboration. This may materialize as simply as forum or discussion board posts and responses or as more involved group projects that require teams of students to accomplish a set task related to the classroom discussions, lectures, and assignments.

The skills learned, during both student-student collaboration and self-directed learning, are not limited to just the tasks required. Collaboration and self direction teach students how to organize and direct their own active learning. Student-student collaboration also helps students learn the power of teamwork. Once learned and supported, these skills allow students to continue to learn, outside and beyond the classroom.

References

Forman, David C. (2002) "Careers in E-Learning: Taking the Next Step." Retrieved August 6, 2007, from http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/nov2002/forman.html.

Gibbons, M. (2002). The Self-Directed Learning Handbook. Retrieved August 13, 2007, from http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/SDLProgram.html.

Hootstein, Ed. (2002) "Wearing Four Pairs of Shoes: The Roles of E-Learning Facilitators" Retrieved October 10, 2006, , from http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/oct2002/elearn.html.

Marcinkiewicz, Henryk. (2003) " The Brain, Technology, and Education: An Interview with Robert Sylwester." Retrieved November 23, 2006, from http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034.