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| Photo from morguefile.com |
From my own experiences with online learning, which started about two years ago, I think one difficulty for the online moderator is the fact that all the material and resources are immediate and constant and the expectations this can create with the students. I know as a student when I log in, I will usually have immediate access to everything about the course. There tends to be, even as unrealistic as it is, this expectation that the moderator should be constant and immediate as well. I think this extends to many areas of our lives because of technology and the desire for an immediate answer or solution to any problems or issues that arise. One obvious advantage to online learning is the ability to access the material and resources anywhere at anytime. If the web server is down, or if it is running extremely slow, you quickly see how much we rely on the constant and immediate access that online learning experiences bring. We have become conditioned to it. So when the immediate and constant resources and materials are not enough, and we need to speak to the moderator, we run into the reality that human beings are still part of the process.
