Line Up for On-line Learning
I’ll start out by stating my bias: I’m not a fan of on-line university education. Although I’ve never taken a course on-line, I’ve written and taught on-line graduate courses. I’ll admit that as a doctoral student I did it for the experience (something to put on my c. v.) and for the money. I taught classroom courses as well; those I enjoyed.
That said, I also believe that on-line education is here to stay and will grow and develop. I know arguments for it, such as including convenience for working students, availability for students geographically precluded from higher education, more “thinking time”, and lower overhead for the institution. I also know arguments against it: reduced personal interaction, greater work load for instructors, inconsistent expectations among courses, and perhaps most importantly…who’s doing the work?
With the current set-up of many on-line courses, there’s no way to know who’s completing the assignments…they’re posted, and that’s that. I hope that the person who’s doing the work is the same as the person who’s registered, but with an entirely scripted asynchronous course, I really have no idea. As the technology improves, I’m sure a lot of bugs will be worked out, but up to now there’s been a tremendous number of on-line courses taught with little security.
The impetus for this rant today is an article I recently read on CNN.com about web cams being used to deter cheating on exams for on-line courses. Essentially, it works like this:
“When the exam begins, the device records audio and video. Software detects significant noises and motions and flags them in the recording. An instructor can go back and watch only the portions flagged by the software to see if anything untoward is going on — a student making a phone call, leaving the room — and if there is a sudden surge in performance afterward.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out during testing; it’s being introduced this fall at Troy University in Alabama. How will students and instructors react? Will it make a difference? Will students figure out a way around it?
Perhaps in the future, on-line courses will be designed to be so secure and rigorous that I will become a fan. I’m not a Luddite; I love my little Powerbook and 24/7 access to the web. Almost daily I’m impressed with what I can find there…it’s a great tool. Heck, on-line learning was even an essential part of the research for my dissertation.
Still… at the university where I taught, a student could earn a master’s degree in education totally on-line; there would have to be no face-to-face interaction for the entire program. In education, where teachers are required to face people everyday? In my state, a master’s degree is required for teachers, and that’s where students study pedagogy, not in an undergrad program (like when I got my degree, back in the Stone Age.) Therefore, one can become a teacher without having to personally interact with people until they participate in pre-service teaching. That doesn’t sit well with me.
Wow, that’s a lot of complaints. Let me focus here: I guess my overall objection is that on-line education has been embraced too rapidly and used too extensively before it is technologically ready to handle issues concerning security, consistency, and interpersonal relations. There. I’ve said my piece. Now back to searching for ice cream recipes on the web…
Be brave. Be human.
Susan
July 2nd, 2007 14:21
Hi Susan,
I have taught on-line and I agree that it has been over-hyped and is currently used primarily as a promotional tool and cash cow for many schools. I have worked for both what I consider to be one of the best on-line organizations out there as well as one of the more problematic. I have heard the arguments that it is both more convenient and flexible than traditional classroom interaction, and these claims are entirely accurate. My question is similar to yours-at what point does student convenience become the primary purpose of educational interactions?
If I am looking for the easiest way to get a degree in X, on-line is often the best choice. I have had interactions with several students who state quite openly that they simply do not have the time to go to a traditional class. This is fine, and a problem that on-line classes can solve.
My concern is that many of these folks who don’t have time to go a traditional class simply don’t have time for ANY class and see on-line classes a fast way out of that problem. Many schools are only too happy to oblige these folks with content and courses that are of lower quality than these students might receive in a standard class, and make a great deal of tuition money in the process.
Teaching well on-line is significantly more time consuming than traditional classroom instruction for one simple reason: Typing takes longer than talking. It’s just a fact of the process of on-line learning. Until this can be address in some manner on a large-scale you’re going to have problems.
As far as dealing with who is actually taking the course you’re teaching, there is still no really solid way to know. You could do electronic fingerprinting or something along those lines, but the basic problem is how can you be sure that the ID info given is coming from the individual you think it is?
July 2nd, 2007 17:08
Hi Grant-
Yes, I’d have to agree with everything you said.
As far as the time issue, the university for which I used taught used to have smaller class size for on-line courses…I forget what, exactly…16-18… something like that. Then it was changed it so ALL courses had the same cut-off: 26. Teaching on-line was a nightmare then; I never felt like I was doing enough for the students. (And I type reasonably fast. Reading on-line takes me longer, too.)
Complain, complain. I would like to try teaching on-line for a better system, just to see.
Susan
July 4th, 2007 12:55
You can count me as yet another who has taught online courses, with mixed success. Given that experience, two things come to mind. First, the issue of fraud is, I think, no bigger than with traditional classes. There are always a fraction of students for who will cheat. For anything students do outside of class, we have no way to verify the work as theirs. Homework, papers, etc. all are done with no supervision from us. This doesn’t even address exam cheating. We fight against it, but no system is perfect. The same is true with online leaning.
But secondly, and I think more importantly. the biggest issue with online courses as I see it is that it should not be treated simply as the online version of a classroom. Just as a small class is not the same as a huge lecture. With online courses we lose some things such as live verbal discussions, but we gain others. The ability to work asynchronously does radically change the nature of a course.
I think online learning can be successful, but to make it successful universities will need to break away from the idea that it is a cheap way to gain students.
July 5th, 2007 09:03
Hi Brian-
While I realize that traditional classroom cheating occurs, I don’t think it’s as easy as when the class is on-line. (My frame of reference is working with Master’s level students who do not have exams, but papers and projects.) If I have a student in class, face-to-face, I have some idea through class interaction of that student’s abilities. That’s missing from on-line courses.
I agree: on-line = cheap is not the way to successfully approach these classes.
July 6th, 2007 09:12
Hi all.
Very interesting choise of topic, thanks for posting it Susan.
As a student who gained a degree via the Open University in the UK, I applaud systems that allow people who are in work to better themselves. This was not online, it was a paper and postal system with exams at the local college. I guess the fact that the answers were hand written could give a graphologist a clue if someone was cheating. However as with all systems they evolve, at the moment it seems you are criticizing the little rodent like creature which will someday swing around in the trees, come back down and wow. “You went to a university, what you got in a vehicle and travelled to a building,” said the student shaking his head as grandfather explained how it used to be.
Oh dear, I hope all you teaching type academic people will take this in good humour. I’m a good student, really I am. When you don’t get the opportunity to go to university, and work your way up spending evenings and weekends learning, then you appreciate the diverse range of learning options we have in the developed world, even if they aren’t perfect. It was very interesting though to read the tutors point of view. Do you think it might help those with abilities who suffer from phobias to gain qualifications that they might otherwise avoid taking? Perhaps even giving them confidence that might free them from the phobias. Do you think there is potential for people who have a lot to offer students but are put of by lots of staring eyes, to teach online?
A final note, I would rather spend ten hours a week reading books than sitting in a car, train, bus etc commuting to an educational establishment. I would learn more, be less stressed, exhausted etc. I speak from experience, on a day release course, which involved leaving home at six in the morning, the course did not finish till eight in the evening, and most of the lessons just after lunch I found my eyes closing and almost nodding off even though I tried to fight it. This lesson was also the most demanding, so my learning had to be supplemented by lots of off site catch up.
Keep up the good work. Thanks David
July 8th, 2007 13:25
Hi David-
Thanks for the student’s perspective. I’m sorry if I made it sound like I dislike all on-line learning…I’ve only experienced it in one form, although it’s a common one. What I’m against is using it because it’s cheap for the university and not really requiring it to be equivalent to classroom courses. They can’t be taught in the same way. On-line is a different medium, but it shouldn’t be less rigorous. Rushing in (because it’s trendy, inexpensive, popular) and doing it poorly is unacceptable.