Today, students who earn degrees or take classes online enjoy the advantage of participating with their classmates and professors entirely online through the help of various interactive technologies. The technologies are both being introduced and improved upon rapidly. One of the most common interactive technologies is blogs, which stands for “web log.” Blogs are essentially simple Websites where students can contribute their thoughts on a regular basis.

Blogs are perhaps most famous for their use in social contexts, but with respect to online learning, professors often use blogs to post assignments and open ended questions students must respond to within a time limit for grading. Online learning students are often required to start up their own blogs to demonstrate that they have thought about assigned reading and course content, and their writing ability is considered by professors.

In some courses, students must sign in to an online “chat room” in order to converse in real time with their fellow classmates or their professors. Many online learning courses also require students to thoughtfully respond to weekly postings posed by the professor, as well as to respond to classmates’ thought s and responses through email and message boards.

In many online learning courses, students can watch video-taped lectures, which they can watch and respond to online. The advantage to these video-taped lectures is that they can be watched and re-watched at the student’s leisure, and confusing portions can be played again until they become clear.

Other interactive technologies that are used a lot in online learning are programs professors can use to post a course syllabus online, create an online Gradebook which their students can use to check their grades online as well as to track their assignments, create online quizzes & tests, and use online communication tools - including email and discussion boards, offer online office hours and provide additional online course materials.

Tags: Learning Technologies, Online Education