Online Course in Educational Technology
       EDTECH-01: Introduction to Online Teaching / Learning
  Sabri g. Bebawi       

Why are we doing this?

We know that Online teaching/Learning offers several educational advantages:

  • It offers us a tool to extend ourselves and our course beyond the limits of the traditional classroom and the traditional textbook
  • It makes information retrieval easier. Furthermore, students have access to handouts and class notes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Students prefer networked computing as a way to learn. Several studies demonstrate students' affinity for this technology. Furthermore, by interacting with the course content, students become active learners.
  • Networked computing promotes critical thinking: students need to evaluate the validity and the reliability of the information they find.
  • Networked computing provides students with a greater variety of resources and extends the resources of the traditional classroom. It can function as a library at our fingertips.
  • Networked computing is interactive and provides students with assessment feedback, sometimes instantly, as they work through course materials.
  • Students can review the materials at any time. They can review what they feel is most important to help themselves learn as often as they wish.
  • Students develop valuable computer literacy skills just by learning how to use the machine and the software to access your materials. And since the vast majority of any web page is text, students develop conventional literacy skills as well.
  • Networked computing offers quick access to the latest news and data in just about any field.
  • Networked computing allows professors to model learning behaviors for their students: students see their professors review, revise, and learn better ways to express themselves just as students themselves are learning to express ideas within a discipline.

It is the right thing to do?