Are you taking an online course? Well, the amount and availability of online courses has been on the rise for quite a few years now. And yes, they are gaining traction because of their convenience, and the fact that the teachers are finding innovative ways to engage with content makes online activities accessible. That was not the case a decade ago. Now, everyone is online, Even Oprah has “Master Classes.”

It is happening at all levels of education, and Sener (2010) suggests that online learning will become one more part of the educational system. I envision online education as a supplemental arm that supports learning and achievement. Now, there is a struggle with online learning and it’s important to note that the quality of online courses is not uniform, and there should be a concerted effort to make improvements in this aspect. It takes time to identify scaffolds, practice problems, and informative models that need to be put in place for all learners It can be challenging to effectively engage and obtains the desired results for knowledge transfer.

Current Trends in Reading

Why does It seem like reading in online courses takes a back seat? There is something to be said about textbooks over tablets; much of what I’ve witnessed in the classroom is theirs less distraction for students when they have books vs. tablets. It seems that teachers embrace many other resources and prioritize them over the traditional reading of materials that have always been one of the main activities for most subjects (Morrison & Anglin, 2006). There appears to be a trend towards the use of less conventional materials over books. Statistics have indicated for many years now that reading comprehension is on a downward trend that does not seem to correct itself through current efforts (NAEP, 2018).

 New Skills

This digital age has brought many changes, including a lot of new proficiencies that are required from a person to be considered “literate”. These New Literacies are always changing and adapting to the environment and seem to have had an overall negative effect on the reading comprehension displayed at all levels of education by students (Leu et al., 2009). Much of the conversation was around reading form a screen negatively affects reading performance compared to reading from a paper or a book.

More Research is Needed

It seems that the field is not yet clear regarding this topic, we have little conclusive evidence regarding the actual effects of reading comprehension and lack thereof in our current online teaching environments. It would seem that the kind of texts that students engage with and their unstructured formats have certain negative effects on the way students comprehend the reading material and perform in traditional tests, but on the other hand, they seem far more skilled in other ways to find and acquire knowledge, which in turn helps them resolve the tasks at hand (Kiili et al., 2008, 2009; Mioduser, Nachmias, & Forkosh-Baruch, 2008).

Conclusion

Although many doors are open now to students of all ages and levels with the internet and online learning opportunities we must make sure that they do not fall behind in their ability to properly comprehend any given text. Many technological innovations are making textbooks and traditional books adapt to a new environment where they are challenged and no longer the sole keeper of knowledge, this should prompt us to be vigilance in terms of the quality of content and the way in which students engage with it.

 References

 Heafner, Hartshorne, Thripp (2019). Handbook of Research on Emerging Practices and Methods for K-12 Online and Blended Learning.

 Kiili, C., Laurinen, L., & Marttunen, M. (2008). Students evaluating Internet sources: From versatile evaluators to uncritical readers. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 39(1), 75–95. Doi: 10.2190/EC.39.1.e

 Leu, D. J., O’Byrne, W., Zawilinski, L., McVerry, G., & Everett-Cacopardo, H. (2009). Comments on Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes: Expanding the New Literacies conversation. Educational Researcher, 38(4), 264–269. doi:10.3102/0013189X09336676

 Morrison, G. R., & Anglin, G. J. (2006). An instructional design approach for effective shovelware: Modifying materials for distance education. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 7, 63–74.

 National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2018). NAEP reading report card. Retrieved from https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/

 Sener, J. (2010). Why online education will attain full scale. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(4), 3–16.