Course Length
When we leave the “ground” world of "contact hour" measurement, what other assurances are there to ascertain appropriate course rigor?
Jim:
I defer this question to other students in this course who are more familiar with "ground world of contact hour measurement".
Satrohan
Since the beginning of online, the conversion of "typical" courses with the age old contact to credit hour conversion, has been a problem for college and regulators. I hope ALL online players will not try to make online a short cut to a degree or career.
Jim:
With my limited knowledge of the U.S. Educational system, I believe that the online version of a course has to be approved by the Accreditation Board. That approval should, as a minimum, consider the competencies, the content domain, and the assessment measures. All components of the on-the-ground version of the course was at one time deemed necessary by the Curriculum Development department of the academic institution; hence, I cannot discern why and how and on what premises they can create an abridged version of the course in any Subject area.
Satrohan
You are correct. In the "perfect" world, the course objectives, thus outcomes, should be the same regardless of the modality of delivery. In the early days, way back in the 1990s, regulators wanted assurance that the "hours" online were at least similar to on ground. This proved difficult to measure and prove. Now, I believe, the focus in on demonstrating outcomes through online assessment methods. As you know, in a classroom setting, student A does not really need all four hours of "lecture" in a week, while student B does not "get" the materials in the four hours even with tutoring and extra help. There is wide variation among students in any setting. What we, as teachers, must do is to assure the student learns the materials necessary to satisfy course content. It is a new world and is changing every day. Exciting times for all.
Jim:
I agree that Instructors should be committed to ensuring that students learn the course materials. Do you think educational institutions would be open to considering providing online Instructors with Teaching Assistants; or increasing compensation to compensate for the additional hours Instructors have to spend on helping "slow" learners?
Satrohan
This goes back to the student teacher ratio questions. I think if ALL things are equal, learning objectives, approximately identical materials, class sizes, and learning objectives, I believe online and classroom should be managed and compensated similarly. I do hold that a GOOD Online teacher "works" more hours with the same number of students. However, he or she has a much more flexible schedule, no driving/travel time, and heck--one can check email with morning coffee in hand on the back porch!
Tutoring "slow" learners is a completely different question. Outside of reasonable "office" or "virtual office" hours, I do not think ANY teacher should tutor unreasonably "for free." So, YES, if an Online teacher is responsible to work with numerous students, who were not really ready for the course to begin with, then they should be compensated. However, I believe this is true for Online or Classroom. Tutoring Labs should be available in either modality, prerequisites MUST be followed, and remedial/prep courses should be available in any learning environment. There is no “fair” compensation for having ANY teacher tutor an Algebra student in basic math! This is poor academic management and all too often happens. I believe teachers should be compensated based on the number of students who take (not necessarily pass) the final exam. This would reward based on class size AND retention, without having the incentive to “dumb down” the final and course content.
Jim:
You have made some very solid recommendations and propositions, particularly in the second paragraph. The metric of compensating by the number of students who take the final exam is an interesting one. I encourage other participants in this course to offer their comments on ideas.
Satrohan
I have taught both in the "ground" world and now in the world of "contact hour" measurement. I think that the best way to assure appropriate course rigor is contact. In the ground world, students see us. They can watch us, hear us, emulate us, etc. In the contact hour world, they are all alone on their end of the computer. They are sitting in their PJs, or they are barefoot, or even both! They are having to deal with outside noises, inside noises, kids asking questions, spouses or significant others asking questions, etc.
This group of people is actually in a world where they are asking others around them to understand the importance of what they are doing at the computer -- that it is just as important as if they were sitting in a classroom.
So I feel that the more contact they have with me, the more VCs that they have the ability to come to and interact with me, hear my voice, hear the voice of other students, etc., the better chance they have of continuing to move forward at an appropriate pace.
When a student is left in the online world to do just whatever he/she wants, the drive dwindles as well as the need for accountability.
You bring up some very good points Kathryne. The other advantage of the on ground teaching world is the fact that you can see the students--see the light bulb going off or the confused looks.
As an online teacher, what do you do to have more contact with your students so that they are motivated and engaged?
Well, of course, I rely a lot on emails. When a student emails me a question, I think to myself, "Is this something that others may be wondering too?" If the answer is yes, I send the entire group an email saying, "Here is a question I received that I wanted to share with all of you, and here is the answer." I have received wonderful feedback from students who have said, "I wanted to ask that but I forgot!" Or some have said they thought maybe it was a silly question, etc.
Also, the VC that we utilize has four different emoticons that the students can click on and it will flash for a few seconds next to their name. There is a happy face, a disgruntled face, a clapping hand and a thumbs down. I use these throughout the class to show my pleasure with how students are doing, and I encourage them to click on them throughout class as well to let me know how they are doing and how they are feeling. We also have a chat window that I ask them to write to when I am asking questions. I explain to them not to be chatting in the window while I'm teaching since that would be similar to talking out in class; however, when I am explaining something, many times I will have students who type, "Oh, I get it!" or something to that effect. If they have a question, they raise their hand and I let them either get on the microphone or they can type their question to the chat window.
I really try to keep them as involved as possible so that they aren't sitting idle on their side of the computer.
