Open Learning Initiative

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Abstract

Online courses offer a huge opportunity for improving access and quality. Even though the digital divide is still significant, public schools, public libraries and community centers have now made access to the world wide web fairly ubiquitous.  Especially in contexts in which high quality human educators are not available in sufficient numbers and are not going to become available anytime soon, the opportunity for improving access and learning outcomes is substantial.

Introduction Abstract

Online courses offer a huge opportunity for improving access and quality. Even though the digital divide is still significant, public schools, public libraries and community centers have now made access to the world wide web fairly ubiquitous. Unlike textbooks and mail-order video courses, online courses can be made to be interactive on every level, incorporating virtual discussion rooms, multimedia, virtual labs that support open-ended exploration, and virtual tutors that can react intelligently to student input. Cognitive and computer scientists have shown that educational technology, properly designed and deployed, can significantly improve learning outcomes on the K-12 as well as the college level (Anderson, et al., 1995; Graesser et al., 2002; Koedinger, et al., 1997; Mostow, 2001; Ur & VanLehn, 1995). Especially in contexts in which high quality human educators are not available in sufficient numbers and are not going to become available anytime soon, the opportunity for improving access and learning outcomes is substantial.