User:Ajm72/Independent learning

Independent Learning new article content ...

Within the field of education, independent learning refers primarily to learning done by a single learner outside a structured classroom experience; other terms used synonymously with independent learning are "self teaching, self directed learning, or autonomous learning". This term and concept are an important aspect of the evolution of Open Education Resources; for example, Mary Thorpe situates the independent learning practices within distance learning, identifying independent learning as a feature of distance learning in the decades of the 70s and 80s while tracing out the movement toward collaborative distance learning that is a current feature of distance learning. However, this is only one instance of how independent learning factors into the history of education in the Unites States.

History of independent learning
Given the connotation of self-directed learning, it may be argued that independent learning has existed almost as long as education has. However, within the context of modern education, it is possible to trace the development of self-directed learning back to the correspondence courses that became popular as immigrants to the United States traveled westward from the East Coast into places that lacked formal sites for learning (such as school houses, colleges, or normal schools. [needs citations and more information]

Trends in independent learning
Returning to Thorpes exploration of the move from instances of isolated learning to a more collaborative but still physically isolated learning environment reveals trends in independent learning that have taken place since the days of the correspondence course. [needs citations and more information]

Independent learning within classroom spaces
At times, students enrolled in a course or program are given the opportunity to experience independent learning. Most colleges and universities in the United States have versions of independent learning courses. [needs citations and more information]

Independent learning external to classroom spaces
[needs content]

Independent learning and the age of technology
[this section needs content; the idea is to connect current iterations of independent learning to the history and also to the collaborative nature of independent learning that Thorpe explores.]

Future directions
[this section needs content; how does the growth of OER factor into the future directions of independent learning?]