Changes and You

Olga Usova posted Sep 16, 2017 9:06 PM
     In chapter 1 of his book, Tony Bates is talking about education being directly connected to the labor market. I think this is the major challenge I will encounter when I am an online instructor or an online curriculum “builder” because labor market changes so rapidly.
    Distance education is very focused on knowledge rather than experience and practice. This is where I will have to find a fine line between those two to make sure I incorporate both in my teaching, especially because more and more students are interested in accomplishing their degrees online. I believe, in fifty to a hundred years from now, all education will be distance education. I will not live that long, but the effect of it we can perceive even now. More and more students choose to work full-time and go to school full-time. They take either hybrid classes or online classes to do that. How do you teach them to be fully prepared for future professions if they choose their college education to be their future career? This is the question I often ask myself. I often wonder whether I will be able to find a job after I finish my degree or not.
    Fortunately, most jobs have a training or probation period that helps new employees adjust to new environment. However, not all jobs do, and a lot of them want you to have experience. I often hear people say that they cannot be hired because they are overqualified but do not have enough experience.
    Therefore, I think my biggest challenge now is to know how to incorporate all this knowledge into skills to be able to keep up with nowadays labor market. My challenge in the future will be to make sure my classes give my students all the necessary knowledge and skills at the same time.