Abstract
Online learning has been on the rise during the 21st century. Both instructors and students enjoy the flexibility of teaching and learning from anywhere they choose. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 forced institutions of higher education around the globe to rely on technology to deliver education whether the institutions, instructors, and students were ready or not. The spread of the virus dictated the quick adoption of remote delivery of education. In this chapter, the authors provide a brief history of traditional learning theories followed by an assessment of their applicability to online education. Next is a delineation of the roles played by both instructors and students in online higher education. Furthermore, they explore generational differences in online learning (i.e., based on existing literature, what generational differences are evident with learning online and delivering content online?). At the end of the chapter, they provide the reader with implications/recommendations for the successful delivery of online learning/education.
TopHistory Of Online Learning
Online learning has its roots in distance learning, which can be traced back to the early 17th century. This history can be categorized into five eras (Means et al., 2009; Kentor, 2015) as described summarized below.
Written era: Learning material and feedback between students and instructors shared through mail around the 17th century (Kentor, 2015).
Radio era: The radio was introduced around 1922. In 1925 more than 200 universities were granted radio licenses to transmit teaching material and feedback to students (Wood & Wyle, 1977).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Instructor Role: Responsibility expected of the instructor or teacher.
Student Role: Responsibility expected of the student.
Online Learning: Education that takes place over the Internet. It is also often referred to as ‘online education’.
Online Education: Education that takes place over the Internet. It is also often referred to as ‘online learning’.
Student Engagement: Extent to which students show attention and interest during the learning process.
Online Teaching: Providing learning/education to students remotely via a plethora of technologies.
Pandemic: Widespread disease affecting either an entire country or the world.