Review by: Schönwald, Ingrid (2006-11-13)

The number of students enrolled in online programs is rapidly rising in colleges and universities throughout the US. Institutions of higher education need to consider whether they are ready to meet growing learner demands in the coming years. Navigating online education requires an understanding of the current state and the future direction of online teaching and learning. What might the next generation of online learning environments look like?

The study of Kim and Bonk tries to explore future trends of online education. The two authors conducted an online survey of college instructors and administrators who were members of either MERLOT or WCET. The survey took place from late November 2003 to early January 2004 and investigated the current status of online learning at the respondents’ organizations as well as predictions about online teaching and learning. Of more than 12,000 who received the e-mail request, 562 completed the survey.

As regards to emerging technologies for online education, most participants named enhancing content and associated content delivery, whereas technologies for social interactions, cross-cultural exchanges, or new feedback channels where hardly mentioned. The responses indicate that participants still see learning as content-driven, not based on social interactions and distributed intelligence. The emphasis remains on a knowledge-transmission approach to learning, not one rich in peer feedback, online mentoring, or cognitive apprenticeship.

Survey participants were asked to made predictions about the quality of online education in the near future and about how online courses would be taught and evaluated. A large majority of respondents predicted that course quality and learner outcomes would steadily and significantly improve during the coming decade. However the authors also revealed a couple of inconsistencies in the assessments. For example the respondents stressed the need for students’ self-regulation competences while they also emphasised the increasing meaning of learning management systems to “manage” students.

The authors conclude that institutions of higher education increasingly see the potential of the Web in the coming years as a tool for virtual teaming or collaboration, critical thinking, and enhanced student engagement, so that CMS vendors have to think about developing and market more pedagogically engaging tools and resources.

As the study was conducted more than two years before it was published, the authors had the opportunity to see how the predictions the survey respondents made meanwhile have turned out. Estimations regarding the accelerating growth of learner demands for online learning as well as the potential for enhanced online pedagogy have taken place. In contrast, predictions related to emerging technologies seem to have been invalid, given that only 1 % of the respondents said that the use of blogs would increase dramatically by 2008, while today (in 2006) “blogging” has come into vogue.