IS UNCC KEEPING UP IN THE E-LEARNING RACE?

As a transfer student from a two-year college where virtually every class had an online option, I was quite taken aback when I found out that UNCC did not offer as many classes online. In my three years as a UNCC student, I’ve only had one class that offered an online option. This begs the question as to why our much esteemed institution doesn’t offer as many classes online. I haven’t found the answer yet but I believe perhaps cost may have something to do with it. I found this article which talks about how ‘As MOOCS Move Mainstream, Universities Must Pay to Play’ (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/buck-goldstein/as-moocs-move-mainstream-_b_4170524.html) and this kind of reinforced this theory for me. An encouraging tidbit though is an email I received recently stating that an Economics class I took last summer will be offered this summer as a hybrid course (part online and part in person). Too late for me obviously but for all you hopefuls out there like me who are hoping for more online classes, maybe our prayers will be answered.

ARE EMPLOYEES GETTING THE MOST OUT OF eTRAINING?

For most companies, e-Training lowers the cost of training new hires and existing employees. Before e-Training, a company might have to shut down a manufacturing plant in order to train workers on new processes and procedures. Nowadays, due to the flexible and ubiquitous nature of e-Training, employees can be trained without having to resort to such measures. I personally think that for some companies though, e-Training is causing them to not provide as much training as required. For example, I have an e-Training session coming up with the company that I work for. I currently take calls for two major wireless companies and the training will allow me to be able to handle three other lines of business. When I first started working for the company, I received about 3 weeks worth of training but now I will only get 2 days of training to learn about the other businesses. This is far from adequate and I think that had it not been for current e-Training methods, I probably would have received more training in a brick and mortar setting. So with the many benefits of e-Training, are companies making sure that employees are getting the most out of it?

WILL E-LEARNING REPLACE THE CLASSROOM?

As Karen Cator said ''This is education's internet moment. Are we ready?'' I certainly am ready for it. As a 32 year old mother who works full time, e-learning would be the answer to a lot of my issues in trying to balance work, home and school obligations. The flexibility that comes with being able to take classes online is priceless for a lot of young adults who face the same obstacles. What about those for whom the whole college experience is about physically being there to soak in all the good and bad that our college campuses have to offer? How many high school grads will actually give up the opportunity to experience that once in a lifetime experience of being away from home for the first time if we no longer have the traditional classrooms? Questions like these make me think that no matter how much technology advances, the traditional classrooms are here to stay. With recent inventions like MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) whose model is to deliver learning through technology to anyone who is able and capable of taking it, e-learning will definitely continue to play a significant role in our educational system. (http://www.educause.edu/library/massive-open-online-course-mooc)