Hi,
I can't find a direct or appropriate email address for you so I thought I'd use this format to say a bit more. By looking at various places, you could see that I am a retired professor of education from Univ. of Wi.Stevens Point. I still live in that same town.
I've lost track of just how we got onto the subject of MOOC's and online education. I have plenty of knowledge and experience with teacher training in person and online. I don't think that everything that can be done face to face can be done online. But the other way round is true too: not everything possible online works in a traditional classroom or meeting. My wife is also an experienced online instructor and we have both taught interpersonal relation improvement online. I teach statistics on Wis. Public TV every Sunday during the academic year. To me, interpersonal relations and statistics pretty much covers the spectrum of subjects from human to impersonal.
The state of Wisconsin has just committed itself to a careful evaluation of online schooling. Right in downtown Minneapolis, Capella University (for whom I have taught) and Walden University work at delivering quality education all over the world with a minimum of traditional contact. For doctoral students and others, it is sometimes quite valuable for students to meet for conversation, drinks, etc.
My degree is in educational research and I am a former 5th grade teacher. To me, distance ed. vs. actual classrooms is a non-issue.
Generally, no one actually knows what a given student is experiencing, whether among 20 other kindergarteners or 20000 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) students. What matters are
clear cut steps for each student to reach
good teaching and communication of material and steps to reach each step
Sensitive, friendly, non-judgmental help for those who need it
a system in which repeated attempts to reach a step are allowed
A helpful conception of online instruction is the traditional drawing or pottery class where the teacher roams around, noting and assisting those who need it. Good online instruction arranges for student to student communication while also watching for mis-use of the system as in bullying, putting down, advertising, and hitting on for dates. Undergrads might be the lower limit of students ready for such things but of course some 4th graders are totally caplable while some 40 yr. olds aren't.
If you have a good observer to watch over the students' progress who keeps good records and you add in a sensitive people person who can sense the experience of the students and their possible frustrations and fears, you can usually equal or surpass most traditional classrooms. People can be surprisingly intimate and open in settings where they do not see each other's faces.
I am leaving Puerto Rico on Thursday and will be gone for a week but after that, I am available for more talk with you or others. I am retired and not looking for work.