Math Online?

Hello blogosphere! I am back with a few more things to say surrounding all beautiful things math.  My first topic of discussion is e-learning and mathematics. The shift towards blended classrooms, flipped classrooms and online courses are most the most predominant trends in teaching math. With that being said, there still many people including teachers that question the delivery of course content and student success rates from online math courses. As a student I have personally not experienced an online math class however there have been a few variations I have encountered as a university student and as an educator. In university some intro calculus classes for programs other than math and science were offered online. In these courses students were taking online quizzes, listening to online podcast lectures and submitting assignments online. This course was run through the university’s main online portal “Avenue To Learn” however the course was only partially online as there was a traditional in-class portion each week. This format also required students to write all tests, mid-terms and exams in person on campus. This course was clearly more of a blended approach and since the students enrolled in the course most likely did not have a strong math background they found they should still include a traditional in class portion. Looking at the high school level I have experienced multiple fully online courses using the online hub “Desire to Learn”. These courses especially during the summer are always full and the subject areas offered are usually English, History, Geography, and some of the upper year social science courses. I have yet to see a Mathematics course offered online and there are a few reasons I can see why. 

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First, just like the university students, high school students may require individualized attention and assistance that is best provided in person rather than through a screen. I think in using this portal makes it difficult as a teacher to really get to know your learners and to understand where they are struggling. This places a lot of responsibility on the student to advocate for their learning and make sure they send emails to their teacher and pose questions within class forums. Some arguments have been made from students and teachers that this online forum and others similar are difficult to work with, confusing and overall not very user friendly. I believe this comes down to the effort put in by the instructor. I have seen a history class that was designed in an extremely organized fashion allowing students to follow instructions that were very explicitly written. The site also incorporated links to videos, webpages and other sources used to aid the lesson, all of which were not difficult to locate later on and it did not put the students through a maze to get back to the lesson they were working on. Again, this was a mostly writing based course and the question remains as to whether even the most organized and well planned sites can effectively educate students in a mathematical sense. This brings me to my recent experience with Google Sites and Webinars. I personally believe that in catering to all types of learners an online mathematics course should include both an interactive face to face component as well as individual study. Google Sites and Google classroom are excellent bases for math classrooms. A teacher is able to engage students with visuals, maps videos, provide links to games, blogs, and other helpful or interesting math links. I know you can do most of this on the other portals but having the information on a website you may be more likely to get students to participate in readings and additional learning activities instead of looking for what it due for the week. Using this method I think including webinars can be a solution to connecting to your students and understanding their fears, struggles and goals in the class. For example you can provide the link to webinar session to be hosted once a week and students can join in to ask questions, discuss their learning and possibly working on their problem solving skills together as a group. As new programs continue to be created and curriculum is developed there are endless possibilities for online learning, yes even in math as long as there are dedicated teachers, committed learners and an open mind.   

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