Online Education Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Online Education surmise - Essay ExampleBullen and Janes (2007) reckon that institutions of higher education around the world are instanter appreciating the importance of e- erudition as a strategy of managing the ever-growing and ever-changing student populations. Life-long accomplishment has become a necessity, while at the same time time-constraints and job commitments and the trim numbers of students pursuing education apply it more sensible to pursue other forms of delivering education besides the traditional institution-based form. As a result, distance learning was born and positive and now online education is developing at ever increasing rates. Beard et al. (2007) however argues that there is a risk of e-learning focusing on the technological aspect rather than the educational aspect that is, more emphasis on the e than on the learning. A deep theoretical base is thus required to sustain e-learning. From the learning theories developed for traditional face-to-face edu cation, theories for online teaching and learning can be extrapolated and studied. This paper addresses a theoretical modeling for online education based on existing ones, based on the statement that a constructivist-minimalist possibility is the most effective in guiding online teaching and learning. This supposition is developed from my own experience as an online learning student and because I will focus on how the theory guides my approach to e-learning and how it affects my learning practices. The Constructivism-Minimalism Theory I developed this theory from two existing theories the constructivism and the minimalism theories. To begin with, the constructivism theory is one in which cognition is focused upon. The learner undertakes an active learning process in which new ideas are constructed from their acquaintance (Kearsely, 1994). It is meant to influence the student to explore beyond the information given to them by the instructor through cognitive structures which prov ide meaning and organization. Bruner (1966) states that the instructor should aim to influence the students to construct their own hypotheses, and make decisions and discover principles on their own. A spiral model is utilized to make students build knowledge upon existing knowledge in them. The instructor designs the most effective sequence for presentation of material and structures it to facilitate the learners comprehension. A consequence of the constructivism theory is that it enables me to associate it with another theory so as to come up with my own perspective. Carrolls Minimalist theory is specifically designed for computer users and hence quite applicable to online education. In a close relation to Bruners constructivism theory, the minimalist theory also focuses on exploiting the learners previous knowledge and experience besides advocating for an active learning process. The backbone to the minimalist theory is the idea that instructors should minimize the obstruction of learning resulting from instructional materials and instead focus efforts on activities that are learner-directed. Passive forms of learning are minimized, with the learners being prompted to fill in the gaps, besides error recognition and recovery activities (Carroll, 1998 Kearsely, 1994 Patsula, 1999). The Constructivist-minimalist theory that I have developed