Why OpenLearning is worth our investment, page-122

I wouldn't say there's evidence yet that OpenLearning is an effective platform. Perhaps it's ahead of its competitors with efficacy, but its true competitor remains face-to-face. I'm still not sold. I don't believe university students are enjoying the online learning medium, out of the class of 59 that I am teaching, 10 have dropped their studies this semester. It's hard to pinpoint the reason, of course.

I would personally remark on the technical aspects of online education, delivery of tutorials has become easier, actually, because all students can clearly see my hand-writing and they are not at a distance from the board. However, clearing up their confusion through questions and answer has become a nightmare. We often have to take it in turns to share screens, it's hard to replicate the switch quickly between say a sheet of paper, a drawing on the board, and their laptop. This is punctuated by the fact that foreign students can often have intermediate grasp of English.