An Environmental Investigation of Learning

Charles Shewell
Jun 10, 2022
2 min read

The Findings of Virtual Environments and Digital Presence

The Offer of Free Education

If you are seeking a transformation through an online education but cannot find the time to dedicate yourself or financially afford it, then EdX may be a solution. This online education offers courses from highly regarded universities and institutions worldwide. EdX offers a variety of courses that allow you to pursue a degree, certification, and courses for professionals to enhance their knowledge within the field they currently work.

The Environments of Learning

As an online platform, edX provides recorded lectures, reading material, assignments, exams, and forums for student discussion. The online learning environment edX offers brings a teaching-learning process through their pre-recorded lectures, which allows for a structured course, but does not allow you to develop an educational relationship with your instructor. However, because there are discussion boards for students, you have the ability for informal learning through conversation with peers, and can benefit from digital interaction.

The Presence of Intellect

With discussion boards open to past and present students, edX allows opportunities for shared knowledge to help connect the learners through thought and experience. Although professors are pre recorded, there is the ability to allow a cognitive presence within the course through strategically placed discussion boards and forums for a more in depth conversation of the material.

There Is a Presence Without Being Present

Because the courses are previously built by the professors already teaching the material at different universities, there is a high teacher presence. All coursework has already been prepared, as well as the course design. The coursework is not necessarily monitored by the teacher in this case, but by the student due to the online courses being offered as self paced. Although the teacher is not necessarily present, their presence is felt through lecture videos provided throughout each course.

The Social Aspect

With provided threads and discussion boards, students can build a social presence as well. Threads are provided for students to get to know one another, as well as a pre-recorded video of the instructor introducing themselves, providing some background information to allow social connection and trust. Although there are guidelines for what is appropriate within the discussion boards, there is also a level of autonomy, which gives students a level of comfort when sharing personal thoughts or details. All of this provides a hint of realism for students that helps create social presence.

The Takeaway

In summation, I find the constructed learning environment appealing because I am an online student pursuing a masters degree. Taking courses online offers opportunities for people from all locations and backgrounds to receive an education. EdX not only does that, but many of their courses are free, which provides a great learning environment and social presence through people of all walks of life engaging through discussion boards placed within the courses. I would like to see an improvement in teacher interaction with the student for an improved teacher presence. I understand the majority of these courses are provided by universities around the globe, but building a relationship and trust with your teacher provides more value to the education and teacher presence.

Note

If you are interested, edX provides a course demonstration, https://www.edx.org/course/demox-edx-demox-1-0, and will guide you through completing the course.