I consider distance learning is my discourse community now. Since the Coronavirus, it challenges me in many accepts. This semester seems more disconnected from each other because we do not meet as a class to discuss questions or sharing ideas. The instructors do not provide enough learning materials for students to understand. Therefore, it takes more time to finish the assignments in asynchronous courses. Besides, my major is Computer Information System. If I were attending the campus, I could do more hands-on learning the material instead of the professor showing us. Furthermore, when I meet online, sometimes it could happen internet errors or the website is down or slow, which causing interruption for me in the course.
When I did the research regarding my issue that interests me, I discovered many problems arise that connect to my discourse community. They are including teachers and students. One example, some instructors are lack of training in computer technology. They require more time to figure things out. As a result, the solution is the instructors need the training in order to teach the course. Another example, students are not able to interact with classmates in oral communication. It can lead them less sociable and confident. Therefore, the suggested solution is to provide tutors to speak and help them. Distance learning has pros and cons on each side. There is a point of view from Basom and Sherritt’s survey in 1994. They showed people who thought the most is ineffective when students meet regularly, but technology is different and will improve quality all the time. However, there are also cons to this learning. For instance, Palloff and Pratt said “technology does not teach students; effective teachers do.”(2000) It means the quality of instruction is ineffective based on technology because instructors are the most important guidance to design and teach the course.
I think it would help you to be more specific with your DC than just distance learning. I think you could do distance learning for students in your specific major and maybe even those at CT since students at other colleges, even in the same major, will have a different experience and different college because different colleges have different policies in place. Then you can think about how all the things you mention create a specific problem for students in your major, especially since you all need to do hands on work to really learn and probably need access to special programs.
I think we all could relate to this issue. online courses has its ups and downs. i wish the least they could do is be more easy on grading and make the tuition a little less. they are charging us the same price, giving the sam difficult assignments and still expecting us to do the same as in class courses. especially when its a science class, with lab going online and they still expect us top learn the same.
Moving from in-person to virtual classes had an effect on all college students so this is definitely a relatable discourse community. From technical issues to not being in contact with the professor as much as we would like to for better comprehension online learning has its pros and cons. Some people may like it because they do not have to commute to school, learning and studying from the comfort of their home, can multitask school with jobs, etc. However, some cons would be misunderstanding what the professor is assigning or trouble with the virtual calls, easy to be distracted in class, professor not being able to respond to questions as quick as we would do in real-life classes and assigning a lot more work than the professor usually would when schools were opened,etc.
I agree with you in terms of feeling like this semester seems more disconnected. I consider myself a hands-on learner. Distance learning has so many disadvantages due to either complicated technology, or the chances of me getting distracted and not having those constant reminders about pending assignments.