Wk 8 - 6105

In our readings this week I read a research article done by Jung in 2005. Summing it up very briefly they compared the cost-effectiveness of online teacher training to face-to-face instruction. They found that the online teacher training was more cost effective than face-to-face instruction. However, the face-to-face instruction was more effective. They gave a couple of reasons for this. The one that stood out to me was "... the absences of online pedagogies" (Jung, 2005, p. 145). "This supports the results of previous studies in which instructional design, rather than technology itself, has been found to be a key factor in making differences in learning" (Jung 2005, p.145). These two phrases really jumped off the page for me. We, as teachers, need to be aware that what may work fabulously in the classroom probably won't have the same effectiveness in an online setting. As we prepare online courses, we need to be educated ourselves in online pedagogies and best practices for the online classroom to facilitate student learning and not solely rely on what works in a face-to-face environment.