How Does Distance Learning
Work?
Courseware tools turn your home or office desktop or laptop into a
virtual classroom, where you study texts and online resources,
complete assignments and exams, and actively engage with the
instructor and fellow students in threaded discussions and chats,
at times that are convenient for your own demanding schedule.
St. John’s University uses WebCT
courseware. Icons on the featured pages within the
virtual classroom direct you on what to do next. Clicking on
these icons helps you to navigate within the courseware tool to
participate in the course.
How Does an Online Course Differ
From
a Face-to-Face Course?
In an online course, the student is a more independent but
collaborative learner (learns by sharing ideas with fellow students
and the instructor). The student reads text supplemented by online
resources, and then actively engages in detailed discussions online
with classmates. These discussions take place by posting messages
on a conference board within the virtual classroom, where each
student is required to submit a certain number of responses over a
period of days. This is called a threaded discussion. The
instructor monitors the discussions and gives feedback to the
group.
You can enter your response messages at any time
(asynchronously) during an assigned period of two days to a week;
hence there is more time to reflect on your comments. However,
online courses require more work and preparation from both the
learner and the teacher. In order to be considered "in attendance",
an online student must post a response and keep up with the
discussion. This means logging on almost EVERY day to participate
in the ongoing discussions. On the average each online course
requires anywhere from 8-10 hours of time commitment per week for
reading, posting and assignment completions.