Final Reflections

Over the past 15 weeks, my skeptical, preconceived notions about online schooling have softened and  been replaced with a much more nuanced understanding of both the pitfalls and the many strengths of online schooling.  At the outset, I was highly skeptical that online schooling could come close to offering students the experience of f2f schooling and was suspicious of the intentions of the purveyors of online courses.  I felt that online schooling could not offer students the peer-to-peer interaction, rigorous content and rich educational experiences that f2f schooling can.

Boy was I wrong!  And, happily so!  Throughout this course, I have seen so many fantastic examples of rich, rewarding educational experiences that are offered in online courses.  I have seen the power of virtual labs to enrich the student's understanding of science.  I have seen great instructional design that requires student problem solving and critical thinking.  I have experienced the rich student interactions that can occur within a well-designed online course. 

While not all virtual courses are great models of online instructional design, neither are all f2f classrooms.  I think that the most valuable thing I have learned from this course is how much online schooling can contribute to improve the field of education in general.  It is a great area of experimentation, and it has produced some wonderful instructional tools and methods that can enhance f2f education.  Without a doubt, virtual education is worth exploring, supporting and researching.