Customer Reviews

Online Education: Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace

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Kearsley's book provides a comprehensive list and short discussion of many of the issues that face faculty who are considering teaching online.

"Online Education" is an excellent introduction to many of the issues of online education and (re-) developing courses for this new medium. After some background on the history of computers in Education, the author introduces the elements, research and design of online learning environments. He also discusses policies and barriers and provides lots of links to examples on the Internet.

What he does is take all those words you've been hearing lately, like threaded discussions, moos/muds, desktop video, learning communities etc. and clearly define them. He also reviews many of the 'real' issues in online education, such as what it can be and how to design it.

In fact, the companion website for the book ... has short paragraph summaries of what is covered in the book and their associated web links.

The book has, but is not limited to, a University / College orientation. Kearsley has plenty of experience in this area as a past faculty member at Nova Southeastern and George Washington Universities, as the author of research and writings in the field of education and, recently, as a consultant to the complete redesign of the University of Wisconsin's Engineering Program.

A great read for anyone starting out in thinking about online education.

Wadsworth, the publisher, should be ashamed of itself and anyone buying this book now needs to know they're getting ripped off. Be aware -- this book was originally published in 2000, and IT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED SINCE. So you are paying $120 for a book describing the state of the Internet and online education 8 years ago.

For example, the book notes how access to the public Internet is done almost entirely through dial up connections. It talks about the cutting edge technologies that make up RealPlayer and CuSeeMe. There is a section on MUDS/MOOs. Most of the websites highlighted in the book disappeared years ago.

Reading this book is a bit like stepping back in a time machine to 2000, but that this book is still in print at such an exorbitant price is outrageous. It is this sort of nonsense that makes students rightly detest textbook publishers so much.