Nowadays, online learning provides education chances for people who are of different age, nationality, and occupation. For example, it opens to everyone without age and area limitations. And then, online learning opens not only for on-campus students but also for any people who are working in different careers. There are two kinds of different modalities of online learning, which are close and open enrollment course. Those enrollment courses can help the student learn an online course effectively. And also, there are various digital web tools for online instructors and students to assist these two modalities. In this paper, I am going to focus more on open education. I will introduce some differences between close and public courses. Also, I will explain some benefits of online education.
The Moodle system is one of the digital web tools that suit to close the course. Students need to pay tuition for learning and getting school credit. In this system, course information is just provided for people who are enrolled in this course. Also, the instructor uses IM (instant message) to communicate with students. It just likes the office hours at school. Compared to the on-campus course, students can also interact with each other and learn some knowledge the same as the on-campus course does. EDCI 339 is the first online course that I take. In this course, we use WordPress to post our assignment. Even though we pay for tuition, this close online course uses the digital web tool of an open session. I think it is the right way for us to obtain more comments and communicate with others who are not just from our classmates. What’s more, it helps us learn and get more comprehensive information.
Blogger and WordPress are suited to open enrollment course. People can manage their site as they like because those are open-source. Not only student can see the course material and post the site, but also those who are enrolled in this course can do it as well. They offer public platforms for people to make comments and get feedback. It is beneficial for people to learn more from others who are from a different aspect. The open course also provides more opportunities for those who are not full-time students to learn. The more comment and feedback we get, the more knowledge and ideas we obtain.
The digital web tool is social media. As we all know, learning is not just limited to school. We can also learn lots of knowledge outside of school. Open education is good for us to gain knowledge outside of the book. It provides us a platform to share resources, ideas, and comments. In Open education, people can communicate with those who are unknown but have an interest in the same topic and want to have interaction. It also connects unfamiliar people. I think learning should not be limited by age, area, and economic condition. Open education is a platform that overcomes these kinds of problems. For example, it does not limit people’s age. It is for everyone willing to learn. Also, it does not limit people’s area. For example, if I am in China, I can still learn by sharing a resource or connected community. Besides, open education is free. This is good for people who want to learn and hard to afford tuition. For example, as an international student, we pay the expensive tuition on the on-campus course. However, we can also learn something outside of school from open education. I think EDCI 339 is a half-open and closed course. It needs a student to pay tuition, but the instructor uses open education ways to teach this course.
Online courses are mature nowadays. Online learning is not only convenient but also costs less than traditional education. People can adjust their schedules when they are learning online. They do not have to set up a fixed time to attend class. It means people who are not full-time students can also learn what they want. It is more flexible. I think students could learn well by online courses the same as on-campus does. Sometimes, I can learn something and get some ideas from the online course which cannot get from the on-campus course. Thus, the online course is a good experience in study life. Open education promotes the development of education. As we can see, past education has lots of restrictions. However, it encourages many people who can enjoy educating. It means more new modalities of education will keep being created in the future. It is a kind of revolution of education.