So during the fire alarm this afternoon, I sat with a former student who's finishing a law enforcement degree at the college. She's funny, has a complicated life, and likes to talk to me about a wide range of topics.
She told me about her online course this summer, American Government, where she didn't learn a single thing. How can that be? I asked. Because the course consisted of reading and taking a weekly quiz. That's it. No interaction with other students. No feedback or conversation or discussion with the professor. She spent nearly $500.00 for this "course."
What do I do with this information? I'm breaking my neck with my online course: was in the office until 10:40 tonight uploading my first batch of graded assignments: 23 students, two or three files each to upload, minimum five minutes per student -- you do the math. These numbers don't even count the time it takes to download their written work, read it, comment on it, save it with a different file name so I can distinguish it from the ungraded work.
These numbers also do not count the time spent reading discussion postings (from the whole class and in the small groups I've set up so students can peer review each others' work), making discussion postings, writing News items, commenting on the class blog, answering questions, etc. To me, a college course means students have interaction with an instructor and with material. Is that old-fashioned?
Our union thinks that all online courses are the same. They're not. And somehow something must be done. But what?
Evacuation roots
5 hours ago
5 comments:
You probably know what I'm going to say --- but, a quick look at the political science courses shows that ALL of them have 50 students --- including the on-line ones. Reading / quiz is a survivial necessity.... you are busy enough with 23 students --- more than double that and try to keep up... it is impossible.
This is EXACTLY why I won't teach on-line courses in my discipline, in the third semester they are the same size as my face to face courses -- and I can't imagine teaching a good on-line course with 50 students in it.
I would pass the information to the AVP -- with the observation that current on-line courses are capped at 50... or, encourage the student to pass the information along. This isn't the fault of the instructor, but rather an inevitible result of a stupid policy.
Oh, yeah, you are SO RIGHT! The idea that 50 students is a reasonable number just *stinks* when it comes to an online course.
Of course you bring up an excellent word here: "a good on-line course." What's "good"? I don't think I can teach a good writing course online unless I have fewer than 20 students. I *know* some of my tech writers are going to fade away because they're not getting enough help, given where they are as students.
One thing I have to disagree with: the instructor does have some responsibility for this learning environment. Instructors can set up quizzes ahead of time, program when they start and stop, and then NEVER pay attention to the class again. Sure, he had 50 students, but he could have posted News Items, given feedback on the quiz answers, opened discussion boards for Q&A about the topics, etc., etc. He did NOTHING. That's my outrage.
I doubt the student will talk to the AVP, but I'll encourage her to do so.
THANKS, Pal!!
I agree that no class leadership is an outrage -- and probably the reason that administration thinks it is ok to have such huge classes... of couse, they think the same basic model happens in my philosophy classes as well -- so 50 students in Ethics, Intro and World Religions is ok as well --
Really, it is so contradictory to think that we can both have interactive/ active learning / writing development kinds of classes... all without the evil 'lecture' AND not decrease the class sizes.
Aparently, the Dean who is supposed to be in charge of the on-line program recently said that higher class limits were acceptable because those classes have a higher drop rate...
Of course, this is BS -- mostly because I know from experience that the drop rate in large classes is far from uniform -- some Ethics sections have one or two drops all semester and others have 5 or 6. Either way, 1) you can't plan an ethics class betting that enough will drop to make writing assignments manageable -- 2) This logic also dictates that we ought not do writing assignments until later in the semester -- which isn't exactly a sound method to develop decent writing and 3) unless the drop rate for on-line courses is closer to 50% than 10%, even the post-drop class size is still near the maximum.
To say I was disturbed to read the minutes of the AASC retreat would be an understatement. At a minimum, I expect the folks in charge to make better arguments.
Wow, wow, wow. I've gotta read those AASC minutes: now I know why I've gotten ousted from AASC . . . I would have raised holy hell.
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