Building Professional Practice Education Cultures in the Online Environment

The Medium: The Online Environment

Online learning is at the cusp of educational innovation, in its accessibility and flexibility as well as technological advances, to address a range of learning styles and needs. Particularly at the post secondary level, student demand for computers and Internet based approaches to education has reached unprecedented volume, with highly refined tools and methods forming the measure for the satisfaction of their experiences (Aminzade & Pescosolida, 1999; Grauerholz, McKenzie & Romeo, 1999; Green & Dorn, 1999). Accessibility and utility are fundamental to a student population that is mobile, migrant and mature in its expectations that educational institutions will deliver products and processes consistent with the rapidly advancing telecommunications market. Moreover, in the current climate of education as commodity, and students as consumers, optimal flexibility and opportunity for choice are considered basic terms of engagement as students survey the offerings of universities and colleges (Calhoun, 1999; Soley, 1999).