Again this issue of isolation comes up. Apparently it's more common than I thought it was. Or at least more people may at times feel isolated in an online learning environment. But what really struck me was that instructors experience this too. I've never attempted to look at it from the viewpoint of an instructor, mainly because I've only been an online student. Moving into the realm of instructor is still illusive to me. Nonetheless, the assigned readings opened me to new thoughts.
As I've stated in previous posts, I've at times felt isolation in my classes and this is regardless of whether I'm overly active in the discussions or quiet. I'm starting to realize that what may be occurring is that isolation is expected to happen at some point in the course of pursuing education in an online learning environment. I'd be interested to know what causes this? Is it school related? Home responsibilities? Work? Combination of many factors? It certainly warrants a deeper look into the complexities of distance education. I think at times many articles tend to focus on the benefits of distance education, pedagogical approaches, etc. rather than the underlying unhealthy components of distance education. Not that there aren't articles out there discussing how to cope with the complexities of distance education, they're just not as prolific as other articles.
But I did find it rather interesting to know that students (especially me) aren't the only ones who experience isolation in online learning environments.
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