Reimagining Online Education - Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed

As long as aviation pioneers tried to mimic birds, controlled, heavier-than-air human flight proved impossible. Along somewhat similar lines, it is only by breaking decisively from traditional face-to-face models that it will be truly possible to create the kinds of immersive, social experiences in online education that will truly engage students and promote high levels of attainment among broad profiles of students. If online learning is to be more than a pale imitation of the face-to-face experience, educational innovators must rigorously address and radically rethink four key facets of online education: Motivation, learning acquisition, the student experience, and assessment. In designing our online experiences, the University of Texas System's Institute for Transformational Learning and our faculty partners have adopted an approach that is outcomes-driven, modularized, personalized, gamified, and activity-based (and also bilingual). https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/reimagining-online-education