The Persuasive Essay Guide

Learning to Write by E3000

For the first five years of your child’s life, you will be the biggest education influence he or she will have.  Of course your child may have daycare or something similar when he or she gets to interact with other children.  But the process of learning starts from day 1.   From just a few months old, these tiny humans start learning about their surroundings and what they are capable of doing.

As your child grows through the years, there are several critical learning landmarks.  The first few are learning to speak and learning to walk.  Next, they will learn to read.  The last critical landmark in learning through early childhood is learning to write. Whilst your child becomes more aware of the world around him, and begins to learn the basics of expressing one’s self in society, writing forms an integral part of the education process, and must be encouraged throughout your child’s ongoing development to promote intellectual stimulation and a thirst for knowledge. In this article we will look at some of the most effective methods to teach and enhance your child’s writing abilities, and the impact this can have on future development.

Learning to write is an important first step in encouraging creativity amongst children. Creativity is immensely important in education, as the parent of innovation and quick thinking. By providing a means to channel the creativity necessary to breed intelligence, i.e. writing, you are giving your child an immensely valuable problem solving tool, and allowing expression and natural intellectual development to take its course. Through promoting a culture of writing, and importantly writing correctly both grammatically and spelling-wise, your child will become more proficient at reading, which again is essential to breed an intelligent and rational thought process with an understanding of concepts and ideas throughout the process of education.

One of the main ways to encourage your child to write is to combine it with the process of learning to read. As you teach your child to read and pronounce the written word, encourage him or her also to pick up a pencil and form the letters and shapes she is reading. By linking the two together, you can build bridges between the various aspects of intelligence required for each to create a more rounded picture of the fundamentals of education. This should allow your child to progress more steadily through both disciplines, to the benefit of his overall education.

Another good way of teaching your child through the learning to write process is by making writing a game. Call out words and ask the child to write the phonetically. Go through with your child afterwards and discuss each word, getting the child to read it back. Then, provide your child with the correct spelling of the word and explain the sounds to him. Play the game again with the same words and offer rewards and praise for each correct answer. By doing this kind of routine with your child, you can provide structured learning for long term progress through learning to write and read.

Teaching your child how to write is the first step in encouraging independent thought and learning. It is important to understand that the quicker your child embraces literacy in all forms, the more able he or she will be to adapt within an education environment to new concepts and new ideas, progressively as they become more complex and in-depth. By allowing your child to develop the means to express themselves, you create channels for creativity and learning that will stay with your child throughout their life, to the benefit of their intellectual development.

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Exam strategies by PurplePick

I use to hate exams.  And I did quite a few of them with two degrees from separate universities.  Don’t get me wrong.  I loved learning and still do.  But I hated exams.  I failed to see (and still do) how 2 or 3 hours of writing could determine my understanding of a topic.  I have messy slow writing (oh, my precious keyboard, I worship thee).  That made my exams 10% harder even before someone said ‘turnover your paper and start’.

I use to think that exams were a test of how well I could cram useless facts into my brain long enough to regurgitate them on paper.  Of course, these set of facts had to be quickly replaced by the next set of facts for another exam.  And I am not the only one to share that conclusion.  Steve Gillman wrote on his site that exams area a dreadful experience for every student. But essay exams are even more petrifying, terrifying, and nerve-racking. Unlike an objective test, essay exams are not checking to see if you have learned certain pieces of information, they ask for your understanding of the main concepts, ideas, and theories of the course presented in a smoothly written form. Quite an annoying combination.

And since essay exams are more demanding than the rest of exams you sit in your student’s life, they call for greater preparation. Here are some tips that will help you pass your essay type exams with flying colours.

1. Writing Identifications

Usually essay exams comprise of two tasks: writing the identification of a term and composing an essay. In both cases you must present your own knowledge on the topic and present it in correct and plain English.

Identifications are short essays that give precise definitions on the name or a term in a single paragraph of between three to five sentences. Make sure that your identifications have:

1. the names of the individuals involved in events;
2. their notable accomplishments;
3. a precise identification of the time frame for the identification;
4. the appropriate geographic reference relating to the term;
5. historical significance of the term identification.

With these features your identifications will be fully-developed, precise and smooth.

2. Taking the Essay Type Exam

When writing an essay type exam, it is advised to follow the set procedure of essay writing. It will help you organise your thoughts, tune for essay writing, and write a well-structured and well-thought essay.

So, first, look through the list of the questions you will need to answer in your essay. It is often advised to start with questions you can do readily. As you read, make tentative choices of the questions you will answer, and jot down the ideas that cross your mind.

Do not worry, if you don’t have a definite answer on some question. Focus on what you do know about the question, not on what you don’t. Postpone the question you feel dubious about, and the answer will come all by itself when you expect it the least.

Secondly, make sure you understand what you are asked to do in your essay. Try looking closely at what the question is directing you to do, and try to understand the sort of writing that is required. For example, “analyse” suggests summarising fully with detail in accordance with the selected focus, considering composing parts of the idea and their interrelationships.

Along with “analysing”, you may be asked to classify, define, discuss, illustrate, outline, etc. Be sure you know definitions of these words by heart. Otherwise, you may become flustered, lose concentration, and even go blank.

Once you have chosen the topic and know how to take your stand, write down at least three supporting sentences you are going to build your essay around. Make sure they are followed by convincing supporting evidence in form of quotations, facts and figures you came across in the course.

When writing essay answers, you should favour a direct, concise, and precise writing style. Do not waste time trying to compose a graceful lead paragraph, instead, get to the point quickly and directly. State what you intend to discuss and develop those ideas with well-chosen examples.

Finally, your conclusion paragraph should embrace no more than three sentences, in which you restate your thesis statement and summarise your essay and supporting evidence.

3. Other Hints for Your Essay Type Exam

Other than knowing the general principals of essay writing during the essay type exams, you also need to know some tricks in order to stay focused on the essay during the whole exam. Here they are:

• Keep track of time! Allow a set time period for each question, but keep in mind that a question worth 50% of the grade should probably take 50% of the allotted time;
• Take all the time you are allotted! Do not walk out of the exam room if you still have time on your hands. Instead, reread, rethink your answers. Use every advantage you are given!
• Don’t pad your answer with irrelevancies and repetitions just to fill up space. Within the time available, write comprehensive and specific answers.
• Ft is also advised to double-space. This way you will leave room for additions, and strike through errors or changes with one straight line
• Remember to keep things as clean as possible, for you never know what will earn you partial credit.

You may be sure that with these tips in mind you will know how to write an essay that: 1) demonstrates your knowledge of the subject; 2) has a theme clearly stated in the beginning; 3) recognises the central issue of the question; 4) has specific examples; 5) is not vague.  Moreover, these tips will help you turn scaring essay exams into stress-free and enjoyable process.

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Technical Writing image by Nickobec

Are you nearing the end of your degree but don’t know what type of writing career to pursue?  There are many demands for you talents – journalism, copywriting, magazine article writer, fiction book author.  But if you have a technical mind and enjoy the sciences, why not consider a career as a technical writer?

So what is a technical writer?   Technical writing is the use of basic technical knowledge of a product or service and understanding of the terminology and language associated with that particular industry utilized to provide documentation on all aspects of the product or service.

Usually, it is grouped into the marketing department of a company, since it is involved in much of the literature provided to both consumers and professionals who install, setup, and maintain whatever product is in question. However, other areas of marketing are geared toward promoting a product for sale, while the technical writing department is focused on factual information only, providing information on the inner workings of the device, as well as troubleshooting material.

Technical writing can involve producing white papers, installation instructions, troubleshooting guides, wiring information, and other detailed documents involving the functionality and usage of a particular product. While it is not usually necessary for a technical writer to be familiar with every aspect of a product or device in order to prepare such documentation, technical writing requires that you be able to decipher and make use of the terms that arise in the application of the product or service on a daily basis within that industry. This means having a concept of the entire industry in which the product is marketed.

For example, if you are a technical writer in the telecom industry, you should be familiar with the usage of terms like “switch” and “server” in relation to the products provided by the company you work for, as well as maintain comprehension of several acronyms that you would use on a daily basis in your technical writing, including abbreviations like CDMA and NTSC. Technical writing is a great field to enter, if you have any kind of intimate knowledge of technical and technological industries

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Lecture Recording by Meet The Media Guru

If I ask you to remember 50 points right now, how many will you remember the same time tomorrow?  How about in a week?  The human mind filters information in order to deal with its surroundings.  On average, you will only retain about 20% of what you hear after a few days.  For a university student, this can be catastrophic when studying for an exam.  Of course, they have lecture notes to fill in the gaps.  But the best way to remember information is to hear it first hand again.  The only way to do this is to record the lecture.

Lecture recording can be defined as the process of capturing the audio and visual components of a lecture, digitizing, storing, and distributing them. There exist two kinds of lecture recording – synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous recording is when at the time of recording, the lecture is also broadcast live to its audience. Asynchronous recording, on the other hand, when the lecture is recorded, archived, and can only be accessed after the recording has been made.

Two main components make up the lecture recording process – hardware components and software components. The hardware must work in synergy with the software to provide an effective recording and broadcasting service to the audience.

The hardware component consists of the capture equipment, the server/repository, and the viewing equipment. Generally, the capture equipment consists of a microphone input, a video input, and a DVI/VGA frame grabber. Devices, such as the Lecture Recorder, capture these three analog signals, digitize them, and send them over the Internet or LAN to the server or repository. At the server, all three signals are synchronized and produced. Finally, viewers are able to connect to the server (usually via the Internet) and access any of the recordings made.

The software component makes up the software installed on the Lecture Recorder itself, the server, and the viewer’s computers. Modern techniques in OCR (optical character recognition), fast indexing, and video compression allow lecture recording platforms to contain many of the elements found in today’s Web 2.0 environment.

As such, lecture recording, while not completely replacing physical lecture attendance, is becoming a key tool and learning aid with students who need to review a lecture after they have attended it or if they missed it. Lecture Recorders make students’ lives easier, while at the same time creating an archive of all lectures for accountability and educational purposes.

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Mistakes by Library Mistress

Writing a thesis is almost like participating in a marathon. Hard work, determination and vision are the key ingredients that will produce a good thesis. Effort is the only things many are afraid to invest while scripting one of your own. It is a gratifying and pleasurable experience for those who can put in that effort.

There will be a sense of total drain of thought when you end your thesis writing, but still a feeling of accomplishment will overrule them. Here are some of the common mistakes that people do while scripting their arguments. Make sure you deem them as guidelines and make your scripting hassle free.

Complex Subject Matter – It’s a commendable effort that you have chosen a topic that has a wide focus enormity. But it is not advisable to pick such topics. Choose a subject with a manageable size, and then focus on detailing it and presenting your point of view in a fair manner.

Basic Subject Matter – In order to not to go in for complex subject, it is not a great idea to choose on a basic subject. This will not make an impact on your committee. They will be bored to death while confronting such an argument.

Many Tangents – Make an organized and well informed thesis. Avoid talking about unnecessary topics that might just be an ancillary to the main subject. Strictly avoid building up stories about the same subject and limit their importance.

No progress or details – It serves to be as an important aspect to determine who you are professionally. Do pay attention to every word of it. Since your audience is an intelligent group, craft every word of your argument keeping them in mind. Say appropriate stuff only.

No supervision – Obtain proper knowledge and extracts from experts related to your subject of writing. They will provide you with unbelievable facts that will elevate your argument to a higher level.

Stolen Lectures – This ought to be that last things that you ever think of embarking on while you write one for yourself. It is unacceptable to introduce your professor’s notes into your thesis. You my start it as lecture topic but it should just serve as a beginning.

Citing Reviews – Ask your lecturer to help you find resources. He knows the best. Read up everything that he suggests and make them a basis for your writing.

Using Internet investigation – Internet is a storehouse of information. But it should not serve as your reliable source. It is a risk to depend on the World Wide Web.

Conversion of a Journal to thesis – Do not try to fool your committee. Knowledge is a sea but your discipline is not that big to be unheard of. Therefore stop acting smart.

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Twitter Classroom by Florian

Is education keeping up with technology?  Twenty years ago, if a student was asked to write a persuasive essay, they would think of a topic, research their ideas in a book or journal from the library and type their assignment on a typewriter.  The world has changed significantly over the last two decades – has the delivery methods for education been able to keep up?

To answer this, Kisu Kuroneko looks at two reasons to bring Twitter into a classroom -

1. To study twitter itself as part of a media literacy unit, and

2.  To use twitter as a collaborative tool:

Examining Twitter in the Classroom

Social networking (web 2.0) is changing the way the world communicates. Consider the following real-life examples involving Twitter to stimulate media literacy discussions:

First of all, CNN reported a story on Steve Tucker, a wheat farmer from Nebraska who has more people following him on Twitter in his online community than people who live in his physical community. (They interviewed him using Video Skype.) He tweets using his cell phone from the middle of nowhere.

Secondly, Twitter and social networks are changing the way news gets reported. For example, people in Tehran were able to use their cell phones to tweet what was happening during the Iran election and subsequent demonstrations.

In addition, politicians are using social networks to communicate with and mobilize their voters. At the time of writing, 15,797 people were following Prime Minister Harper’s Twitter account (twitter.com/pmHarper) and 1,654,168 people were following President Obama (twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA)

Finally, identity theft can happen on social networking pages. Well known celebrities and personalities are being impersonated and slandered by people who create false accounts in their name. For example, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter in June 2009 when someone impersonated the Cardinals manager. Twitter now offers verified accounts for high-profile twitter accounts, including Ashton Kutcher (twitter.com/aplusk), Ellen DeGeneres (twitter.com/TheEllenShow) and Britney Spears (twitter.com/britneyspears). According to Twitterholic, Kutcher, DeGeneres and Spears have more followers on Twitter than CNN (twitter.com/cnnbrk)

Using Twitter in the Classroom as a collaboration tool

Similar to blogs, wikis, and google docs, twitter is another digital medium that helps people (including students) collaborate and communicate. Here are some paper-and-pencil examples of teaching strategies in the classroom:

1) Think, pair, share is a common teaching strategy that provide students with an opportunity to independently try a problem as well as get feedback from their immediate peers and entire class.

2) Having students write responses on post-it notes can be a great paper-and-pencil tool to help students become more precise in their answers. Writing on a post-it note can be less intimidating than a larger piece of paper.

3) Posting examples of student work on the wall allows students to see what excellence looks like

4) Timely feedback allows students to self-correct and guides their learning.

Twitter is a neat “little” collaboration tool that allows you to do the same teaching strategies online. You could create individual or group Twitter accounts for your students. A class account follows all of the students so we get a live feed of ideas which you can then project using a data projector.

1) It’s kind of like using classroom clickers (i.e. SMART student response system), but instead of being limited to multiple-choice answers or numerical responses, you’re texting in short messages. In the computer lab, you could ask a question in response to a text (printed or media) and have students respond on Twitter.

2) Think, Pair, Share using Twitter: Think – composing a response on twitter and submitting it. Pair – Seeing what other people are tweeting and revising your tweet based on their feedback. Share – have students turn off their monitors and have a whole-class conversation about the question.

3) Students can post responses to a question on Twitter which can be read by their peers allowing for immediate feedback.
Responses are limited to 144 characters which is the digital equivalent of a post-it note.

Integrating technology into the curriculum helps prepare students for the real world, validates this genre of literacy, and can motivate / interest students in a way that traditional paper-and-pencil tasks do not.

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Scholarships for Moms by Richard Masoner

What is the average cost of doing a degree these days?  The answer will depend on the university of choice, but the answer will be upwards of over $10000 per semester for a quality school.  Even a local community college will put a dent in your purse.  This makes it tough for a young student, but spare a thought for a single mother.  As well as a massive impending student debt to worry about, she has to put a roof over her head for her family.

Because of the increase in the number of working moms and single mothers going back to school in this day and age, scholarships for this demographic is on the rise as well. This is the main reason why more organizations and institutions are providing financial support for this group of women who are trying to get a degree and complete their education. As a matter of fact, a lot of non-profit organizations aimed at helping women are now also allotting budgets for scholarships in order to encourage them to go back to school to complete or further their degrees.

Online searches reveal that there are several scholarships available for mothers. But although most of them are based on income or financial status, there are still some that disburse money based on skills and interests.

The good thing about this is that the number of applications you can submit is unlimited. Multiple scholarships can be applied for at the same time.

Right now, it is actually possible to apply for as many grants and scholarships as you want and receive multiple awards due to the fact that regulation for this type of monetary support is still not established. And since there is no need to pay back these financial grants because they are not loans, it is advisable to take advantage of this opportunity by submitting applications for several scholarships that you think fit your requirements.

While looking for educational institutions to attend, Individual scholarships can also be completed for each college you wish to attend. You can use the amount of funding that they are willing to give away as the basis for prioritizing each application that you should complete.

Aside from the individual colleges, there is also a growing list of private foundations and non-profit organizations that encourage women, working moms and single mothers to obtain their degree to support their family by providing scholarships, grants and monetary aid.

With the advent of technology and the popularity of the Internet as an information exchange tool, online resources are proving to be very helpful in saving you time and increasing the number of scholarships you can apply for without leaving the comforts of your home.

You don’t need to set aside your plans of earning a degree just because of your additional responsibilities as a mother. So wait no more, start today, log on to the Internet and see how many scholarships you are qualified for. Obtain your degree and support your education for free.

Contributing author – Source.  Image shown under creative commons share alike – Source.  This photographer has a bike blog at cyclelicous.com – check it out if you like two wheels.

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Persuasive Speech by Cory Doctorow

Have you just received your next assignment and it is a persuasive essay speech?  Instead of writing down your ideas on paper just for your class lecturer,  you now have to present this assignment to your entire class.

The good news is that principles of writing a persuasive essay are the same as giving a speech.  You still have an introduction, issues about the topic to discuss and a conclusion.  What may be difficult is what topic you will choose to talk about if it is not assigned.  Not only do you have to demonstrate good literary skills, you have to entertain 20 or 30 people.

To make this job a little easier, here are more than 70 topics you can research for your next presentation -

1. Human rights
2. Smoking/drugs
3. Family problems e.g. divorce
4. Freedom of speech
5. Aids
6. Gambling
7. Parental rights
8. Children’s rights
9. Women’s rights
10. Cost of higher education
11. Emigration/relocation
12. Child abuse
13. Marriage as an institution
14. Capital punishment
15. Gay rights
16. Rape
17. Prisons
18. Crime and violence
19. Education
20. The media
21. Racial prejudice
22. Social justice
23. Law and order
24. Prostitution
25. Green movement
26. Endangered species
27. Deforestation
28. Pollution
29. Vivisection (animal abuse)
30. Greenhouse effect
31. Toxic waste
32. Nuclear accidents
33. Zoos
34. Poaching
35. Game parks
36. Overpopulation
37. Pop culture – music, fashion
38. Book reviews
39. Musical instruments
40. Subject matter of music lyrics
41. Musicians
42. Movie stars
43. Award ceremonies
44. Theatre
45. Digital systems e.g. home theatre, photography
46. Music
47. Television programs
48. Movies
49. Dancing
50. Stage
51. Ballet
52. National pride
53. Fairy tales
54. Proverbs
55. Love
56. Marriage
57. Weddings
58. Superstitions
59. Music
60. Poetry
61. Opera
62. Drama
63. Comedy
64. Value of computers in education
65. The Internet – pros and cons
66. Chat lines/newsgroups
67. Bill gates & Microsoft
68. Computers vs. print
69. Terrorism
70. Information super highway
71. Email as a means of communication
72. Computer literacy

These are broad topics to get you started.  First, pick one that interests you and start to narrow it down.  Start with some basic research – is there any current social issues about that topic for you to talk about? Try and find a topic that your audience willl find interesting.  For example, take the topic “terrorism” – you could narrow this down to the question of “What is a terrorist and what is a freedom fighter?”.

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Admission Ticket by Nagyman

As a prospective university student, the most persuasive essay you will have to write to this stage in your life is the admissions essay.   This passage of work will play a large role in getting accepted to your chosen field of study.

So what goes into an admission essay?

Think of your essay as a way for the university to understand why you are applying.  What are the benefits to you?  How will you contribute to this academic school?  Your answer gives you the opportunity to state your case and gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself from other applicants.

To get you started with an admissions essay, Essayinfo.com has some great essay topics for you to consider-

Sample essay topics

There are hundreds of possible topics that you can be asked to write an essay on. Given below are some of the more common ones.

1. What events, activities or achievements have contributed to your own self-development?
2. Describe a situation in which you had significant responsibility and what you learned from it.
3. Describe your strengths and weaknesses in two areas: setting and achieving goals, and working with other people.
4. Your career aspirations and factors leading you to apply to this course at this time. Describe a challenge to which you have successfully responded. What did you learn about yourself as you responded to this challenge? Describe a challenge you anticipate facing in any aspect of college life. On the basis of what you learned from your earlier response, how do you expect to deal with this challenge?
5. Describe and evaluate one experience that significantly influenced your academic interests. The experience might be a high school course, a job, a relationship, or an extracurricular activity. Be sure to explain how this experience led to your setting the goals you now have for yourself, and why you think the academic program for which you are applying will help you to reach those goals.
6. Describe your educational, personal or career goals.
7. Role Model – If you could meet/be/have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and why?
8. Past Experience – Describe an event that has had a great impact on you and why?
9. What was your most important activity/course in high school and why?
10. Forecast important issues in the next decade, century – nationally, globally.
11. Why do you want to study at this university?
12. Tell us something about yourself, your most important activities?
13. How would your room, computer or car describe you?

List all your activities for the past four years. Include school activities; awards, honors, and offices held; community services; jobs; and travel. Record major travel experiences. Note your strongest impressions and how they affected you. If you loved the Grand Canyon, for example, write down three specific reasons why, aside from the grandeur and beauty that everyone loves. Describe an accomplishment that you had to struggle to achieve. Include what it was, how you tackled it, and how it changed you.

Think of one or two sayings that you’ve heard again and again around your house since childhood. How have they shaped your life? What personality traits do you value most in yourself? Choose a few and jot down examples of how each has helped you. Think of things that other people often say about you. Write about whether or not you agree with their assessments and how they make you feel.

Brainstorm “top ten” lists in a few selected categories: favorite books, plays, movies, sports, eras in history, famous people, etc. Review your list to see which items stand out and describe what they’ve added to your life. Describe “regular people” who have motivated you in different ways throughout your life. It could be someone you only met once, a third-grade teacher, or a family member or friend.

Starting your essay

The most common topic–particularly if only one essay is required–is the first, “tell us about yourself.” Since this kind of essay has no specific focus, applicants sometimes have trouble deciding which part of their lives to write about. Beware of the chronological list of events that produces dull reading. Remember, also, to accent the positive rather than the negative side of an experience. If you write about the effect of a death, divorce, or illness on your life, tell about but don’t dwell on your bad luck and disappointments.

Instead, emphasize what you have learned from the experience, and how coping with adversity has strengthened you as an individual.

1. Tie yourself to the college: Why are you interested in attending, and what can the institution do for you? Be specific. Go beyond “XYZ College will best allow me to realize my academic potential.
2. Read the directions carefully and follow them to the letter. In other words, if the essay is supposed to be 500 words or less, don’t submit 1000 words.
3. Consider the unique features of the institution, e.g., a liberal arts college will be impressed with the variety of academic and personal interests you might have, while an art institute would be most interested in your creative abilities.
4. Be positive, upbeat and avoid the negatives, e.g. I am applying to your school because I won’t be required to take physical education or a foreign language.
5. Emphasize what you have learned, e.g. provide more than a narration when recounting an experience.
6. Write about something you know, something only you could write.
7. Make certain you understand the question or the topic. Your essay should answer the question or speak directly to the given topic.
8. List all ideas. Be creative. Brainstorm without censoring.
9. Sort through ideas and prioritize. You cannot tell them everything, Be selective.
10. Choose information and ideas which are not reflected in other parts of your application. This is your chance to supplement your application with information you want them to know.
11. Be persuasive in showing the reader you are deserving of admission. Remember your audience.

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Classroom by Adecker31

To study online or be present in a classroom?  Ask this question 20 years ago and there was little competition.  Classroom training won hands down with distance learning coming in a poor second.  Distance education lacked the prestige of a class room as well as the ability to convey the same information.

But technology has changed rapidly in the last two decades and education has evolved.  Recently at a round-table discussion about eLearning in the Commercial Lending industry an interesting point surfaced periodically: “Is classroom training still perceived as being more credible than online training?”.  With streaming media and digital libraries, online education can emulate the class room experience while being on the other side of the planet.

In this article, our guest author reviews the issue and concluded from a round table industry discussion that this prejudice varies by industry but many people still believe that classroom training is the “best way”. E-Learning is acceptable as a “second-best” option but will not work as well as a classroom session. In fact the only reason why they may “settle” for an online solution is to save time and money.

Why does this perception still persist?

Here are a few perceptions of classroom training that might lead someone to think that it’s more credible (allow they might not be correct):

• Paying for Flights and Meals: It can get expensive to bring participants into a classroom. Maybe this is seen as a vote of confidence in the classroom because a company is willing to spend money and time to bring employees in. Showing that they are willing to put out $$ may portray to employees that it’s important.
• That’s how I Learned: Classroom sessions are how most people learned when they got their university degree. Online schools and degrees have not typically the same weight/prestige as traditional universities.
• I’m Present in a Room: Participants are sitting in a room and I can see them. It must be better than them staring at a computer somewhere.
• Yes…They Were There: A trainer can certify that a person actually arrived. Yes they had buns in a seat.
• The Message Was Delivered: Management can ensure that a person stood up and told everyone what needed to be said.
• Comments and Discussions: Participants have the opportunity to personally see and discuss topics with others. They can network and connect faces and names.
• Online Training is Just Reading: Unfortunately some online courses are bad…they just put pages in an interface and let participants read. This was especially true in 5-8 years ago. Some people have never had a good learning experience with a true online course and don’t know the potential.

It is only a matter of time before these perception barriers are eliminated.  While education may embrace new techniques, the industries that these students enter do not.  The worse offender is commercial banking as it is not known to be pioneers in the latest technology – think crusty old men in suits resisting change.

In the early days of eLearning it seemed that the goal was just to recreate the classroom in an electronic format. That is no longer the case. I think that the attempt now is to use the strengths of both. Overall, my round-table discussion ended with a consensus that blended learning could really be the best of both worlds. Both online and classroom have inherent strengths and can complement each other in many ways.
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