I am not the only one who loves online teaching

I have fallen in love with this method of teaching. I feel more connected to my students than I ever have, and I feel needed and appreciated daily.

That is how the author of this opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education concludes his essay. And, that is how I feel more and more with my online classes and students. So much so that next week I am lunching with a few online students who said "yes" to my suggestion that we meet and eat in the real world :-)

And how did that opinion piece start?

"Impersonal, disconnected, and unfulfilling." That is how I would have answered if you asked me 10 years ago what I thought of online teaching. As a teacher, I feed off the energy of the crowd and thrive on exciting and entertaining my students to the point of drawing even the most resistant into attending class. When the economy and my growing family necessitated that I teach online as well as in the classroom, I couldn't have been more surprised by the satisfaction and joy that could come from a distance-learning program.

Teaching online can be rewarding, but ...

Here is a relatively fair and balanced take on teaching online. Of course, there are a few places where I disagree with the author. But, by and large, a balanced piece.

This term, I am realizing how technological glitches can affect stuff .... (Bill, you do not need to do anything here; things are happening, but a tad slowly. That is all.)

The good news is that I got a new laptop. I asked for a built-in webcam, so that I would not have to use an external camera to record my video clips and, yes, the new laptop has that. The relatively bad news is that ever since I got the new laptop--was it four or five weeks ago--things started unraveling, and finally I lost all access to the network drives, printers and, worst of all, the computer wants to connect to the H: drive even when I am home!

So, the first couple of weeks I did not do videos because I did not want to struggle with the old laptop that was wheezing like it would die any minute. And for almost three weeks now, totally different kinds of problems. Problems that are proving to be quite a challenge to our tech people.

So, this is what I think: I am relatively tech-okay. Perhaps significantly above average tech fluency compared to what might be the norm for a middle-aged university faculty! So, I have been dealing with the problems without harassing the tech people. (I wonder if they think that I am harassing them!!!) On the other hand, imagine if a less than tech-fluent faculty were teaching online, and such problems came up.

Which then makes me wonder whether there should be some kind of 'if you are below this height" metaphor that needs to be in place? What would be an example? When I am on campus, I could not connect to the "P:" drive, which is where my web pages are. So, what was my work around? Using our FTP (Filezilla) to connect to the drive from home. I just did not engage in web page editing when I was on campus. On the other hand, last term when a colleague told me how frustrating it was for him to go back and forth with a USB drive, and how he sometimes forgets it, I told him that he might be better off using Filezilla and demonstrated it. He was impressed, and commented that he wished he had known about it earlier.

Teaching online, the way I understand and practice it, requires a constant learning of new technology. I am all for learning new stuff--if I find something that fits with my teaching style, I use it. But, I don't ever use technology for the sake of using that fancy technology. I am not sure though whether non-users, and maybe even some users, understand how much such constant learning is required ..... or, am I using an incorrect framework?

The Sale of Waldorf--not the NY hotel!

In an earlier post, I referred to online education degrees being advertised in the Statesman Journal, and noted there that until then I hadn't heard of the provider--Ashford University. That mystery is solved now...when I read that:

It was novel a few years ago when Bridgepoint Education purchased the Franciscan University of the Prairies, also a small, religious Iowa college. Today the renamed Ashford University has both the former institution's campus (since improved), but also new online programs.

The same report notes that:

Many experts have been predicting -- just like Hanson -- that in the next few years more for-profit universities will buy financially struggling nonprofit colleges. And the model that Waldorf and Columbia Southern are following -- where the nonprofit institution retains some identity and a campus, even as it add programs linked to the larger for-profit interest -- appears to be growing.

I am not sure how much the two examples the story cites become a trend that "appears to be growing." Oh well .... :-)

Virus, schmirus! No cancellation of online classes

Yesterday, I commented to my online class students that

So, we realized one of the advantages of an online class: campus closure because of a virus does not affect this class in any way. Maybe you were thinking that is exactly the disadvantage, eh!
If a computer virus shuts down our computing systems down for a day or two, guess what? No class cancellations even then ..... :-)

And then this morning I am recipient of the following emails.
First from a colleague, who included a couple of us in the email to the dean and the division chair:

This is just to let you know that I am making back up plans in case of further WOU closures. I am informing students as to what they will need to do to take part or all of the rest of my courses in an online format. I emphasize that this would happen only in the event of further closures.

If I don't hear from you to the contrary, I will assume that this meets with your tentative approval, given the circumstances.

I would also like to volunteer my services to help out other faculty who may interested in forming such back up plans. While going online entails a tremendous amount of additional work for faculty, I see no other alternative in the scenario of additional closures. I also realize that some subjects are more suited to this form of learning than others. Please let me know if I can be of assistance.

I think we would be wise to have alternative plans as this flu has the potential to be extremely disruptive. The sooner such conversations happen, the better.

To which the dean replies:

I’m supportive of your planning…indeed, the more that faculty utilize web-based course management assistance (Moodle, et al.) the more seamless a campus closure/reopening would be.

I am glad that such sentiments are being expressed in different arenas, in support of online teaching and learning. But, and I know I will be repeating this for the gazillionth time, like here, I don't see any systematic campus conversations on online teaching and learning. Our task force has a limited charter, and maybe for all the right reasons. However, at some point though we will have to become obsolete .... I mean the task force, and not the individuals :-)

Happy Cinco de Mayo; isn't it awesome that it always falls on the 5th of May? ha ha ha

Do I overestimate how high-tech students are?

In my introductory class, while explaining how technological changes trigger significant changes to the economic landscape, I used video stores as an example. About how even a few years ago, going to the video stores to rent VHS tapes was the typical way we rented movies, and now those stores are fast disappearing.

It was then I made a comment that perhaps not even five freshmen at WOU own a VCR anymore. And boy was I mistaken when I asked the class to raise their hands if they owned a VCR. It seemed like more than half the class did. And right here in their dorm rooms. "I still watch those VHS movies from when I was a kid" said one girl.

I admitted to them that it was a revelation to me. I told them how it has been almost two years since I canceled my Blockbuster card. Increasingly, I even head to hulu.com, or the respective networks' websites to watch a few TV shows. I told them that maybe the last videotape I ever used in a class was a few terms ago, and that when I donated all my educational VHS tapes to the library, the librarian told me that they too might not use them!

I am, therefore, wondering whether this particular class was an exception, or whether WOU is an exception, or whether the stereotypical representation of the younger generation as into iPods and all-things-mobile is a complete exaggeration that misled me to hypothesizing that our students don't own a VCR anymore.

Do we have any surveyed information on the use/proficiency when it comes to our students and technology? I just think this is so strange a response from my class; I was so convinced that VHS had become prehistoric :-) Even if you folks don't have hard data, any anecdotal information?

Don't Starve the Staff of Online Programs

The excerpts and comments here are triggered by a viewpoint at insidehighered.com. Hey, even the title for this post comes from that same source ...

First, a paragraph that will certainly address one of the leading concerns at our campus here:

[L]aunching an online degree program is not as simple as hiring adjunct professors and teaching courses that have been used in a physical campus setting. To do it right, you need a good learning management system, faculty who are experienced and effective online teachers, training and instructional design support, IT support and online tutors.

So, with the adjunct issue out of the way, now on to the rest of the story, to use the late Paul Harvey's phrase ...

The author makes a case for "coaches" who can appropriately guide students, troubleshoot their support issues, and make the online environment a wonderful learning place for students. I am reminded of a comment made at one of the sessions we attended while at the WCET in Phoenix: student support for online students cannot be located only in the physical world--but that has to be online as well. Which means that the registrar, or the financial aid people extend their services in the online realm too. The author writes:

At Tiffin University, we began using success coaches with our at-risk students on campus in the fall of 2007. In the fall of 2008, we took our best practices for on campus learning and applied them to online learning, when we created Ivy Bridge College of Tiffin University , an online associate degree program that offers students mentoring and support and transferability to most four-year colleges and universities.

Whether a student lives in Maine or Oregon, he or she has a success coach to help them make the transition from high school to college, and to keep them on track toward that associate degree and transfer to a four-year college or university.

In the first place, I hope the usage of "Oregon" is rhetorical, and that students from Oregon are not actually ditching the various online programs here in favor of online classes at Tiffin U.

Second, which is the main reason for this posting, are such discussions going on anywhere at WOU? I mean, for instance, when we have a CJ program that is online .....

In the name of efficiency ....

So, when we went to the conference in Phoenix, one of the panelists at a session that I went to was from the Dakotas. He talked about how there is state-wide coordination in order to promote efficient use of tax dollars.

I am a big fan of efficiency, and responsible use of tax dollars. But, there are limits to applying the concept of efficiency when it comes to knowledge and learning. While I have no empirical data to back me up, my hypothesis is that efficiency is not THE bottom line, and should not be THE bottom line.

(An aside: from an evolutionary perspective, our own individual bodies are far from any efficient design; instead, we are built with redundancies. While one kidney will work just fine, we have two, just in case! For all I know, we might be more efficient with three fingers and an opposable thumb, rather than the four-plus-thumb combination, and we would be using base-8 and not a base-10 system. All right, too much of a digression!)

Why all this you ask? Fair enough. Read for yourself this excerpt from Tom Brokaw's op-ed piece in the NY Times:

In my native Great Plains, North and South Dakota have a combined population of just under 1.5 million people, and in each state the rural areas are being depopulated at a rapid rate. Yet between them the two Dakotas support 17 colleges and universities. They are a carry-over from the early 20th century when travel was more difficult and farm families wanted their children close by during harvest season.

I know this is heresy, but couldn’t the two states get a bigger bang for their higher education buck if they consolidated their smaller institutions into, say, the Dakota Territory College System, with satellite campuses but a common administration and shared standards?

Brokaw's point in that op-ed is that "it’s time to reorganize our state and local government structures for today’s realities rather than cling to the sensibilities of the 20th century. If we demand this from General Motors, we should ask no less of ourselves."

I disagree with that, but let me restrict myself to this education argument of his. The connection to online? Hey, it will not take a rocket scientist, or a journalist, much time to figure out that they don't need even satellite campuses--instead, every home with a computer and high-speed connection becomes a personalized campus with its own cafeteria and student center! Ultimate decentralization of higher education. And then somebody else comes along and proposes that we should outsource it all to the University of Phoenix, or worse--to the University of Madras, from where I earned my undergraduate degree :-)

God is dead!