As educators and professionals in higher education, we have undoubtedly began to see wide-spread inclusion of online and/or hybrid classes in many syllabi across the nation. There seems to be a mixed reaction to this change in institutional culture. As I have observed, some faculty have embraced the notion of providing higher education online--becoming motivated to be part of this innovative pedagogy. Yet, I see others as resistant. These instructors may present with a variety of "excuses" against online education, many which indirectly point back inwards to what these faculty are or aren't willing (or able) to learn and provide.
In a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the author describes a survey conducted asking college/university presidents and the general public whether or not they believe students are accessing the same educational value with an online format as in the traditional classrooms. Interestingly, over 50% of college and university presidents (institutions of all types--2 year, 4 year, private, public, and for-profit) believe the two avenues are equal, where only 29% of the general public believed this notion. Why such a slanted viewpoint? Perhaps, the general public are still flying under the assumption that "online education" assumes students just sit around in their pajamas all day, and read/submit projects "when they feel like it." The article refers to this as "fighting popular culture." For more on this and "real-time" accountability, keep reading.
In another recent posting located in www.insidehighered.com, the newly named "Outstanding Technological Teacher of 2011" at Southern Connecticut State University describes his views of the pros and cons of implementing higher education online. The author asserts that sometimes instructors and administrators need just as much help learning about technological choices and how to use them as their students. He believes that some instructors take this as "too much to consider" with an already demanding schedule and a pre-set way of doing things. His advice--be patient, take it slow. Choose one or two elements of online education (i.e. Blackboard postings) first to implement into your pedagogy and find what fits for you.
Within most fundamental changes, there are inevitable setbacks (i.e. Who hasn't had trouble connecting to the internet when you really really need to!?). However, there is no denying that online education has value beyond just another "option." On this "University Decisions" link, authors uncover research stating that "students wrote better papers, performed better on exams, produced higher quality projects, and were capable of more meaningful discussions on course materials" when enrolled in an online or hybrid course (differences between the two also listed). Much of this is attributed to accountability. Whether entirely online or within a hybrid format, instructors utilizing programs such as WebEx or Any Meeting hold students more personally responsible for items like completing assigned readings/assignments, attending classes, participation, attention, and the ability to contribute meaningfully to class discussions. These programs offer meetings in "real-time." As opposed to institutions that are fully online (University of Phoenix, Argosy University, etc.) where a majority of courses require students to simply do all of the work and processing alone and submit papers/projects online. The only real-time accountability here is a deadline for submission.
To add direct personal perspective, I can vouche for the effectiveness of online/hybrid education. I am currently enrolled in a doctoral-level course for school counselor education held in a hybrid format. Over the course of this semester, we meet twice face-t0-face (as in traditional classes), and the rest of our meetings are held online. For our online meetings, we have a designated "meeting time" on WebEx. Upon signing in, we are now linked to our classmates and instructor through a variety of senses--sight (webcam), sound (microphone), and touch (keyboard--chat windows). I truly have felt the pull to keep myself more responsible to what I give and take within the class. There's no way to "hide" per se because we are all directly face-to-face, within eye contact, and able to contribute to discussion by multiple venues. Instructors well-trained in this format (as our instructor) are able to promote equal contributions from everyone by simple prompts (i.e. "Please type in the chat window which of the four articles assigned for today was most meaningful for you and why. When I tell you to, I want you to all push enter at the same time. Then we can discuss aloud.").
I will make one disclaimer here--I believe online/hybrid education via these methods are more directly suited for graduate students. This is primarily because of numbers. In my class mentioned above, there are six students. Why this is very effective and easily managed, an introductory class of dozens, if not hundreds, of undergraduate students would obviously not be a best choice. Also, most graduate students are now working full or part time, have families, alternative commitments, and may only be available to travel to campus a few times during a semester. Online or hybrid courses offer a much more logical option for these individuals.
To conclude, I do see the profound benefits of holding classes on campus, face-to-face each week. However, technological advances have began to push past the basic "cons" of former online education to hold students just as accountable, if not more accountable, to their classmates, instructors, and their own learning. I view the biggest obstacle here today to be within instructors themselves. How many are willing to learn an entirely new pedagogy, or at least attempt to implement small pieces, for the sake of student learning in a technology-demanding time?
Kylie raises issues I have personally witnessed and confronted myself as a teacher and college counselor in secondary and post-secondary environments. Although most teachers I have known have generally welcomed technological advances in the classroom and on campus in general, such a sentiment is usually qualified due to the way in which technology has also added layers of extra duties to their lives(learning new operating systems, software applications, hardware basics) and unforseen worries (regular slowdowns, timeouts or breakdowns of computer networks; copier and fax machines malfunctions, and so forth). In such settings, I myself observed various faculty and staff who seemed less than willing to embrace technological change and the time and energy it required to fulfill their particular promises, even when it seemed clear that such change would benefit their student populations.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am also -at the college and especially research university levels- very sympathetic to the realities faced by many college faculty today, as cogently detailed in our assigned class reading: "Understanding the American Academic Profession" by Martin J. Finkelstein (2001). In the article, Finkelstein draws from the literature a portrait of a contemporary American college-tenured faculty member at Research, Doctoral-granting, Comprehensive, and even Liberal-Arts institution that is working increasing hours (50-60 a week on average, per Finkelstein's estimate), while pressured to varying amounts to not only do research (especially at the Research and Doctoral-granting levels, of course), but also more teaching and other forms of student service. This because, as tenure loses popularity with both college administrations, state governments and the general populace alike as budgets get cut and misperceptions of faculty performance and attitudes metastasize, fulltime faculty are required to take on more duties as their number are increasingly replaced with non-benefited adjunct faculty. And the adjunct faculty, meanwhile, are left largely to their own devices as they often must commute from campus to campus in order to build a livable income. As far as all of the 2-year college instructors in our midst, they are increasingly also facing part-time work situations providing few benefits (see http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/voices/CCteachers.htm ), thus necessitating the need for many such teachers to take on second and even third jobs with comcomitant commuting and scheduling burdens.
Do these increasing time and energy challenges excuse current faculty and instructors at all levels of higher education from learning and incorporating technological advances into their lesson planning and instruction? Absolutely not, I say! But on the other hand, are they provided adequate training opportunities by the administrators and working environments within which they work? And in ways that agree with their additional life responsibilities? For some faculty and instructors, perhaps an hour or two of training and facilitation may be all it takes to effectively introduce some new technology. For others, it could require days or even weeks to competently acquire new skills and knowledge. Are both faculty/instructors and their administrators willing and able to work together in making this process a success? While I agree with Kylie that many instructors today could be doing more to learn and incorporate technology into their teaching, I also believe that college faculty and instructors are often pushed to the limit nowadays in terms of available energy and time to learn any new "tricks" at all, and that faculty/instructor training should be built into work schedules with much more frequency than is currently the case, in general.
I confess that when considering the topic I am compelled to focus on for my weekly blog topic, I avoid reading the other blogs posted by my classmates. I fear that if I read the other blogs first, I will become intimidated and my post will be influenced by their posting.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Kylie, in this case I wish I had read your blog first before posting mine. Your post and the article you referenced brought up several points that I had not considered or was unaware of such as the hybrid format with the incorporation of a "real time" component and the appropriateness for a graduate/doctorate level student. I was tunnel vision in my posting in focusing purely on the community college student in online classes.
I have had online courses in my undergrad and quite frankly, it felt like I was teaching myself the material. Content was posted or assigned, read, memorized, and then I was tested over it. I feel that solely online classes shortchange the value of the insight and experience that the instructor brings to the class. Online classes also remove the richness of the peer to peer interactions of the classroom. I feel that even my worst experiences with the poorest of instructors gave me a better educational opportunity than the online classes did. But, the format you described provides a balance to enable students to reap the rewards of both worlds.
I have mixed feelings about online classes, and I believe that the format of the class makes a big difference. In the past year I have taken two online classes. The first was very content oriented. What we were studying was quantitative and it did not seem like there was much to discuss. There was no face to face interaction or live discussion. The second class I took was very different. The professor created weekly lessons that were accessed through youtube. in addition we also did a project with a partner. These two aspects of the class made me feel more connected and engaged.
ReplyDeleteNew technology such as WebEx would have helped me a great deal. Having more personal contact is very important to me. The biggest problem I had with my online learning experience was that networking for me was limited. I did not meet other students or professionals in the field, and felt isolated.
On the plus side, those with busy schedules and other obligations have the ability to continue their education, which can be great for many people. This type of education just was not the best fit for me.
Nice post! So appreciate your openness to online learning because so often you hear a grouchy perspective.
ReplyDeleteI think it is going to be harder and harder for teacher to avoid using some online technologies in their classrooms as students coming into school have had much more exposure to technology. There are students coming into higher education now who have already been involved in much more technologically classrooms at the K-12 level. K-12 school students are using ipads, ipods, online software, and smart classrooms more than ever. I taught a group of students this summer in an online stats class. They were all education majors and many of them talked about using smart tech. in their classrooms I had never heard of.
Additionally, students are graduating and going into increasingly tech-savvy industries.
How are we preparing them to do this, if we aren't also adapting? I think there are some incredibly creative ways to use online learning in the classroom. In some ways though, I wonder if the technology available to higher ed has really caught up enough to meet our needs? Online video chats can slow down if you add too many people on at one time. However, maybe we're just not reaching out to companies that have this technology to learn how we can use it in higher ed.
I'm a huge proponent of adding technology to the classroom in creative and exciting ways!
My partner is doing a full-time Master of Computer Science through CSU. Since we live in the Denver-metro area, it's not pragmatic to drive to Fort Collins for classes. Instead, CSU has begun to offer the entire degree via online learning. Since it's computer science, this makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteMost of the classes are "hybrid", but not in the sense that students meet once or twice and the rest is online. Some of the classes in the program are hybrid in the sense that there are two sections, one online and one in person. However, the two can benefit from one another since they share a Blackboard forum and the lectures. Professors video record the live lecture, sync with the PowerPoint, and upload to Blackboard. For my partner, this way of online learning is incredibly effective, especially since working full time is then a possibility as well.
Like Margaret mentioned, students are in increasingly tech-savvy professions. For future software engineers, online learning is a natural progression. I think it can also be for other hard sciences without labs. I wouldn't want students doing their chem labs in their kitchens!
I believe that for graduate students, online education is a viable and acceptable option to balance life's many demands. I will also concede that an academically prepared undergraduate with some measure of individual motivation may also find success in online courses.
ReplyDeleteI am less convinced that online courses are suitable for students who are coming right out of high school and have not demonstrated some measure of success in terms of individual motivation. Let's remember, simply filling out a college application does not mean that one is motivated or capable. Margaret makes a point regarding k-12 education and the use of technology within the classroom. While I understand her point, I don't think that we can forget that in every instance in high school, students still have the opportunity to receive motivation and encouragement (and reminders) from their classmates and teacher.
Online courses demand responsibility, organization, time-management, motivation, and drive. Many community college students quite simply do not have this down yet. They do not always understand that their college education is their own and that they very well may be the only one who cares that they have missed half their assignments or got a 25 % on their test.
As online course offerings continue to grow, administrators need to think carefully about who can take them and what kind of support is available prior to enrolling and while taking the course.