Web-based learning 'levels the playing field'

Beth Kern, IU South Bend

Kern

Beth Kern, assistant professor of business and economics at IU South Bend, teaches many MBA students who work by day and take classes at night. They find it difficult to travel to the library to do research and miss the social and intellectual interaction of the residential campus experience. Helping to supply these elements of the learning experience is Oncourse, IU's Web based learning environment. Focusing the course on line lessens the constraints of time and place. On-line discussion features keep students in touch with one another and with their instructors, fostering the social aspect of the learning processes.

In Kern's view, working students can now experience the motivation that comes from a "private electronic learning community. The Web has levelled the playing field‹opened up new ways to make information available."

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