Comment Re:computers = accountability (Score 1) 71
That's for sure. My observations here (nope -- you won't hear where "here" is) lead me to believe that it is not the older established profs that excel in the online environment, it' the younger, more dynamic graduate students and assistant profs who don't have as many preconceived notions about teaching & learning.
The web can really expose someone's incompetence. More alarmingly, the web can really expose someone's laziness as incompetence. The best instructors tell me that online courses require much more time than traditional courses to manage. They spend more time reading (of course), more time keeping everyone "on task" throughout the semester, and they also have to work on creating a "learning community" (much like the Slashdot community, but they only have 15 weeks to do it) of their students.
The people least suited for conducting an online course are the instructors who have their classes organized to a fault, digging out the folder for Day 57 when the time comes. I think we all know how out of control and unpredictable an online community can become (see flame wars, et-al). It's truly an art to control - no to direct such a beast and have learning as its outcome. And I'm of the opinion that online learning can and does happen. I wouldn't say that it's the same learning that comes from a traditional course - but it's in no way inferior.
Last week I had a talk with an assistant prof teaching a web-assisted advanced writing course. He uses his online classroom for between class communication / discussion and as a repository for his lecture notes. The results are two fold: First, students are up to speed on the daily lecture the minute they walk in the classroom (from the class threaded discussion groups). Second, the students are freed from frantically copying down the day's notes since they are assured the notes will appear after class on the web site: so the classroom discussions are richer and the students are more engaged.
The weak link in online ed isn't the technology - it's finding instructors with the ability and imagination to use online tools effectively and to their advantage without focusing on the tools as end in themselves. There seems to be a tendency to overemphasize online tools. In my opinion, the effective use of online tools is no more contrived or forced than the use of overhead projectors or white boards in the classroom. The leaders use the technology as if it were naturally intended to be a teaching tool.
That said, I wholeheartedly agree with the conclusions of other slashdotters that courseware itself also has a role to play in the success of online ed. The instructors' ability to control the look & feel of the environment, threaded discussion, creating "learning communities," and standardized content all have a lot to do with the quality of the courseware used - as does ease of use.
The web can really expose someone's incompetence. More alarmingly, the web can really expose someone's laziness as incompetence. The best instructors tell me that online courses require much more time than traditional courses to manage. They spend more time reading (of course), more time keeping everyone "on task" throughout the semester, and they also have to work on creating a "learning community" (much like the Slashdot community, but they only have 15 weeks to do it) of their students.
The people least suited for conducting an online course are the instructors who have their classes organized to a fault, digging out the folder for Day 57 when the time comes. I think we all know how out of control and unpredictable an online community can become (see flame wars, et-al). It's truly an art to control - no to direct such a beast and have learning as its outcome. And I'm of the opinion that online learning can and does happen. I wouldn't say that it's the same learning that comes from a traditional course - but it's in no way inferior.
Last week I had a talk with an assistant prof teaching a web-assisted advanced writing course. He uses his online classroom for between class communication / discussion and as a repository for his lecture notes. The results are two fold: First, students are up to speed on the daily lecture the minute they walk in the classroom (from the class threaded discussion groups). Second, the students are freed from frantically copying down the day's notes since they are assured the notes will appear after class on the web site: so the classroom discussions are richer and the students are more engaged.
The weak link in online ed isn't the technology - it's finding instructors with the ability and imagination to use online tools effectively and to their advantage without focusing on the tools as end in themselves. There seems to be a tendency to overemphasize online tools. In my opinion, the effective use of online tools is no more contrived or forced than the use of overhead projectors or white boards in the classroom. The leaders use the technology as if it were naturally intended to be a teaching tool.
That said, I wholeheartedly agree with the conclusions of other slashdotters that courseware itself also has a role to play in the success of online ed. The instructors' ability to control the look & feel of the environment, threaded discussion, creating "learning communities," and standardized content all have a lot to do with the quality of the courseware used - as does ease of use.
