Digital technology is increasingly influencing post-secondary education: who attends, when and where classes take place, and how students learn.
Today, online learning allows would-be students previously hindered by personal or work commitments to achieve post-secondary education without disrupting their day-to-day lives.
ECampusAlberta is one organization pushing for greater access to education through online instruction. The organization, a consortium formed in 2002 working in partnership with 19 Alberta post-secondary institutions, promotes eLearning as a viable option for prospective students.
“Most of our students are stay-at-home moms, or maybe they’re working full-time and they just don’t have time to attend face-to-face classes. That’s why they turn to online learning,” eCampusAlberta spokesperson Jeff Louis said.
According to Louis, students get online instruction remotely from a lead institution anywhere in Alberta and get support services from whichever partner post-secondary institution is closest to them.
“It’s a collaboration with all our different partners,” he said.
ECampusAlberta recently launched a new marketing campaign in its latest push towards helping more Albertans realize they can pursue post-secondary education without having to leave their home communities.
“The focus is to let folks know that online learning is a viable option for them,” Louis said. “It might not be something that they’ve considered in the past.”
According to Louis, well over 11,000 students took advantage of eCampusAlberta last year.
“We’ve seen phenomenal growth in online learning and we continue to,” Louis said. “Ever since inception, basically we’ve seen double digit percentage growth in terms of online learners every single year.”
Bill McMullen, online learning development co-ordinator at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), one of eCampusAlberta’s 19 partner institutions, said he sees similar growth in eLearning at his polytechnic as well.
“NAIT has gone from essentially zero online learning courses seven years ago to a point now where we have 380 online credit and non-credit courses available to students, with another 101 courses available as self-directed or by correspondence,” he said.
For students like Joanne Duncan, who achieved an Educational Assistant Certificate through Red Deer College via eCampusAlberta, learning online was a great experience, she said.
“I loved taking my certificate online,” Duncan said. “Throughout the entire program I was having conversations with my instructors and peers. At home, I was set up with my laptop, headphones, and a microphone and was able to communicate with my instructors and classmates while learning.”
Schools across the country are encouraging online learning as an invaluable tool for post-secondary students.
Trent University is behind Digital Communitas, another online initiative to encourage educators and students to take advantage of the benefits of learning through digital technology.
Developed by researchers at Trent, the website offers online resources for students and teachers, as well as forums to study the interactions between academics and digital media, tools and spaces.
“This is a site that uses a constructively critical eye to assess the ‘digital,’” Sarah Humphreys, project leader for Digital Communitas, said.
“Our readers say they use the resources regularly for ideas on how to integrate digital media in the classroom and, to my mind, even more importantly, how to critique these tools,” she said.
Site developers look to show how digital technology can be successfully incorporated into different learning environments, fostering what Humphreys called “knowledge mobility” across academic disciplines and allowing for increased networking and interactivity between students and teachers.
Online learning is also on the rise at Carleton University. Since 2009-10, registration in Carleton University Online courses has increased from about 10,000 registrants to nearly 16,000 this school year. Online credits offered by Carleton increased from 33 to 44.5 from 2009-10 to 2011-12.
