When trying to explain something, I have always found it easiest to make comparisons to a subject or item that is already familiar. So when my sister asked me how I liked going to school online, I replied, “It’s sort of like Facebook!”
“How can going to school be like Facebook?” She asked me.
“Well,” I said, “If Facebook were Axia, my wall would be the classroom or the forum. Every time I post a status, and people comment, it’s like a threaded conversation. The difference at Axia though, is that people can post comments to comments which you cannot do on Facebook. My inbox is where I would post assignments and I get feedback from my instructor either in my inbox or on my wall where my classmates can also give me feedback. We don’t even have to be online all at the same time. That would be like the chat feature of Facebook, but instead our conversations are asynchronous, meaning that we are all logged in at different times, just like on Facebook!”
“Wow that sounds pretty interesting. Can you post pictures and chat too?”
“No. Facebook is strictly a social site. Axia is still very much a college. I am definitely working hard, and don’t have much time for socializing. But the layout is as user friendly as Facebook and the way we communicate on Facebook is pretty much the same way I communicate at school, with the exception of instant chat.”
“So if you can’t post pictures, how do you know who is responding to your status. Oops, I mean thread?’
“ There are icons, or little graphics that help me to differentiate between my posts and my classmates. Also, whenever my Instructor leaves a post there is a little graduation cap icon that lets me know it’s from her. So for example, if I log on today onto the forum, instead of seeing my instructors picture and then her status next to it like on Facebook, I will see a graduation cap icon and then possibly a discussion question. Under the question I will see my classmates’ responses, just like I would see...