Synchronous, online learning, and "remote" learning
The question of synchronous sessions in online learning has been swirling in my head over the past few weeks. So has the term "remote" instruction (🙄). I usually tend to sit on the sidelines these days, maybe throwing a few potshots on twitter here and there when I have time, but this article on IHE today was one where my eyes rolled too hard, and there was an audible grunt in the room... First of all, I guess I should explain my aversion to the term "remote" instruction. Our field, distance education, has many terms to describe learning at a distance that actually mean something, and have actually had decades of research behind them! Because the existing terms mean something, and usually have legalistic implications, it's like administrators are using a synonym for "distance" in order to avoid any sorts of contractual agreements that they have made. For instance, at my institution, if a faculty member develops an online course from scratc...