In “Turning the Tide on Online Learning,” Shorelight’s William “Bill” Durden, examines the future of learning at a distance.
Durden coauthored an article in 1999, “Distance Learning: Education’s New Oedipus,” with Bryan Polivka, Emmy-award-winning scriptwriter, IT senior consultant, and part of the team developing Shorelight’s online platform, American Collegiate Live.
“We argued that the most effective learning at a distance will be that which, through ever more sophisticated technology, approximates most completely the live classroom environment, including both direct instruction and instructional support”, he wrote.
The crux of the argument continues in the final paragraphs:
“Unquestionably, faculty and staff members in large numbers must find a digital delivery platform worthy of teaching and learning, measured against the personalized level of exchange to which students and faculty are accustomed in their conventional classroom. Most important, the particular online delivery platform that a university, department or single faculty member chooses in haste must, at a minimum, provide identity affirmation of both students and faculty, if the online offering is to be successful.”
In speaking with Durden on the inspiration to publish this piece Durden stated, “I believe that Shorelight Live exemplifies a delivery platform that, in fact, will ’turn the tide on online learning’, if learning at a distance is to become permanently — as it arguably must — an indispensable and pervasive platform for advancing knowledge and skill in higher education globally.”
