What is my past online learning experience?

My past online learning experiences include two different periods and purposes. The first was the NIH training I undertook for my Master's degree thesis. During this process, you have to read over a series of power point slides and then answer questions about what you read after the end of several slides. This was not setup very well as the answers were basically regurgitation, though. However, the end of the training was better designed, if I recall properly, there were a few actual application questions, where you had to apply what you read to a few research scenarios to determine whether proper informed consent was needed, whether informed consent was actually gained in relation to the amount of information divulged by the experimenter, and was the research was ethical or not. This was very beneficial and really helped to ensure that you actually understood and could apply the rules and guidelines you had read. The beauty of online learning is that the temporal freedom and intrinsic motivation is likely to be at higher level because the individual selects when he or she engages in the content as opposed to a immutable bell schedule. Since a learner picks when to begin and end work, the instructor has the flexibility to use the information from a real-world context, where analysis and processing takes a large amount of time. As a result, the quality of education can be much greater. Picture if you knew when each student was ready to learn and could be taught in that exact moment. What you could accomplish... This is not possible in a standard classroom, where the clock is the Mad Queen, and if you do not heed, “Off with your head”. The temporal freedom offered by online education is especially needed in mathematics, now that the Common Core Standards (CCS) are rolling out. CCS focuses on forcing a student to think critically and analyze situations, hyper-condensed word problems, which require heavy processing, addition of contextual and implied information, and synthesizing, high ideals on Bloom's Taxonomy. Such problems cannot be completed unless a student is able to have the time to understand, setup, and solve today's super-complex mathematics problems. Literally, my class is covering approximately one problem every few days. Though this will speed up later experience, this poses a great problem as the progress and momentum is lost daily and pacing guides must be obeyed. Online education allows for this. My second online learning experience has been at Georgia Southern. This would be the true online learning experience. And just as I previously stated, I have been able to tackle coursework at my convenience, but more importantly at my peak of interest, energy, and attention. The professors, while physically not there, through pictures, videos, and audio files helped us still get to know them. Literally, because of some of Dr. Green's feedback and in-depth bio, as well as Dr. Griffin's synchronous chat sessions, I actually feel as though I would recognize their voice, face, and possibly Dr. Green's hair, if I saw either in passing (don't quote me on that though, :-)). This connection is very important, as many educators know that many times a student works for you as a friend and mentor, and not always necessarily as a teacher. Dr. Kennedy has done this as well through our communication, because her personality has come through. So that it was not just communication solely for the sake of education, but also genuine humanitarian concern and encouragement from one educator, learner, and up-wardly progressing individual to another. It is a beautiful and powerful bond that must be made to motivate certain students, and excellent online teachers do that using the many wonderful and powerful online multimedia tools which are thankfully, free.