Do you like my title? I will make a connection in just a bit. This post is mostly about online colleges. I saw on TV that Kaplan now has online courses. So, what do I think about that? Here are some points.
I think this is an important starting point. Yes, there are people that can do just fine in an online course. Say there is an online course in physics (and there are). I think that students (not sure how many - could be a lot) that could perform just as well on a physics test as a student that took a traditional format course.
I don't think this is a far fetched idea. What makes a student successful in understanding physics? It is not really what the instructor does, it is what the student does. If a student wants to work at home in his or her underwear, that is great. Learning is all about doing.
Another thing to consider is the format of online courses. They are changing. It is not just an online textbook (which, by the way - I have) it can be a wide variety of technologies (including video lectures).
This depends on what is done in an traditional lecture. If the instructor is just presenting material to a 300-student room, then the video lecture is the same. Maybe the video lecture would even be better since it could be paused and rewound and stuff.
Don't worry, I hear you. I know your class is different because it is smaller and the students can ask questions. Also, you ask them questions to prompt them to think about important issues. Maybe this is true, but also it is possible that this doesn't really add much to the learning. Honestly, I don't know the answer. Anyway, it probably depends on the student.
So, I think that if it is an online course versus a traditional course - it could be about equivalent.
From my experiences teaching, I think most students need:
- Face to face contact with instructors. Talking to someone on a phone is not quite the same as talking to them in person.
- Structured Learning. For many students, they need the structured meeting times - otherwise they put off the learning. Many students also need structured learning activities - it doesn't have to be from a workbook, but that is the same idea.
- Hands on stuff - like labs.
Can online courses do that same stuff? Maybe. Maybe even more in the future.
If you take the nucleus of Uranium (Uranium 235), it has an atomic mass of 235 u. If you shoot some neutrons at this, you can get it to break into pieces. The cool part is that the mass of all these pieces does not add up to 235 u. This is the essence of nuclear fission where the missing mass becomes energy (E = mc2).
If college is like uranium, then the classes the student takes are like the pieces that uranium can break into. A college experience is more than the sum of the classes that make up that degree. And this is where online universities have a problem. I like to think of college and universities as a community of learners (and I am one of those learners). College is more of an experience and a time to learn to think about things in different ways. Here is a quote that I just made up:
So, colleges and universities do two things - foster learning and research is the first thing. The other thing they do is to somehow mark or score or "grade" the level of understanding of students. This "grading" is done both with grades and by having students declare majors. Why? I guess the reason is to somehow "certify" the students. I know I am crazy, but wouldn't it be cool if we didn't have to do this grading stuff?
