Increased focus on online education

TIMMINS - Northern College is increasing its focus on the potential of online education.

Recently, Northern College president Fred Gibbons met with a number of fellow college presidents to discuss the matter and its potential.

The Timmins Campus of Northern College

"Northern College is interested in the potential of this facet of education," said Gibbons. "This relates directly to the strategic plan that the board approved in April of this year. We have four strategic directions at the moment and one of those has to do with improving accessibility and removing all barriers."

That means providing education to those who require it, regardless of their geographical location.

"We recognize that not all students who want to pursue college level studies and apprenticeship programs can make it to one of our campuses," said Gibbons. "We have to take our programs out to them and one of the most efficient ways to do that is to utilize the technologies around us and we've been investing into pretty advanced technology when it comes to distance education and teaching methods over the past four years."

Northern College has long invested in the idea of providing non-traditional education options for its students.

"We believe that we have the infrastructure in place and we've already started down this path in a modest way," said Gibbons. "There are costs associated with converting traditional, classroom teaching methods for an online contingent while keeping the level of engagement that you need to be able to acquire to emulate what is found in the classroom."

The idea is to push the potential of the services offered to ensure the school serves the North as efficiently as possible.

"One way of being able to improve accessibility in the North, in both rural and city centres is to push for online learning," said Gibbons.

"The mining program through Northern College has been available for online delivery now for about four years, so students no longer have to attend only the Haileybury campus to go to school, they can take it from any of our campuses."

Programs like those offered have led the way for other colleges which don't face the same hurdles as Northern.

"In terms of ranking ourselves with other colleges, we are probably one of the leaders in the province when it comes to online learning," said Gibbons.

"For many other institutions who haven't really had to look farther afield in terms of filling courses, haven't had to look to to the online component the way that we have and I feel that we are better off for it."

That being said, Gibbons doesn't feel that the idea of online education will ever out weigh the effect and importance of in classroom interaction and learning.

"This is certainly a new component and avenue to explore in terms of education," he said. "But I do not believe that any technology can truly replace the impact and significance of what comes from a personal interaction between student and teacher within a classroom."

nnew3670ed 23 Jul, 2013

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Source: http://www.educationnews.com/2013/07/23/increased-focus-on-online-education/
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