Читать книгу Online Learning For Dummies - Susan Manning - Страница 44

You may be curious about the origins of distance education. Online education is just an extension of what began in 1728 when Caleb Phillips started selling shorthand lessons in the Boston Gazette. In the United States, as soon as the postal service was up and running, schools such as Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts of New York and the International Correspondence School proffered correspondence lessons, the old-fashioned version of self-paced learning. Meanwhile in Europe, the University of London was the first to offer distance learning degrees, in 1858. Learning anytime and anyplace is not new!

That’s not to say that there’s no schedule. Your asynchronous class may have a definite schedule of when assignments and activities are due. For instance, every week an assignment may be due on Monday at midnight. When you work on that assignment, however, is entirely up to you. If working at 5 A.m. when the baby wakes for a feeding is good for you, then that’s when you go to class! On the other hand, if you prefer to study after the 11 P.m. news, you can go to class then. By not having synchronized schedules, students can attend to coursework when it’s convenient.

You can see that asynchronous learning represents a big difference between online and traditional education. Though you may complete coursework on your own schedule, few traditional schools allow you to show up when it’s convenient. On the other hand, most online programs assume that you will work when it’s convenient, while submitting assignments according to the prescribed schedule.