Technical Difficulties
One of the points in this module was very intriguing to me. I find myself still thinking about a way to accomplish it, but am unable and am interested in hearing from the experienced online instructors. In the module, it mentioned having a backup method of receiving assignments when technical difficulties exist (I read this to mean they can not send the assigment electronically). My first inclination was that the student can mail it, but there has to be better solutions out there. What have you all done to resolve this issue?
Michelle:
Fax and mail are the only two methods of which I am aware. In my years of experience, I have never encountered a system failure that lasted so long that students could not submit their assignments. When institutions have to change versions of their Course Delivery Systems, they usually advise styudents or offer the course on a redundant server. If there is no redundant server, institutions usually choose an appropriate time, usually around 3:00 a.m. to execute their changes. Major power failures are handled with emergency generators. Institutions must maintain extremely low "derver down-times".
Satrohan
In instances when students have reported difficulties in using the digital drop box for lesson submitals or the school email systems have been disrupted by technical glitches, I have always given the students my email address (one different than through the school-EDU URL) as an alternatve email contact as a parallel communications link. I feel that duplication is always better that missing a due date.
Agreed, Herschel. Redundancy in communication links is an excellent facility to provide.
Satrohan
One has to be careful when an instructor provides an email address other than one your institution provides.
For some universities this is directly against school policy as all communication is subject to subpoena in legal cases. By using an external communication method your personal records may then become subject to search.
This may even violate a faculty code of conduct or handbook policy, not to mention be a compliance issue.
One should be very careful since companies have to comply with all of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and constant oversight of career colleges by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Education and other regulators in this industry.
Has anyone else heard of such issues arising from using an alternate e-mail address to contact your students or have them submit thier work to you?
Thomas:
Thank you for sharing these precautions with us. As far as I can tell, universities I have worked with require Instructors to use the e-mail address the university provides. E-mails are stored on the university's server----for the same reasons you have mentioned.
Satrohan
I really do not sweat this. If the student cannot post it where it is suppose to be posted, they can email it to me; and I do require them to later post it for record purposes.
Hi Michelle:
The student's first recourse should be to contact technical support. If this is the first course for the student, it might be a training issue if the student did not go to the orientation course on how to use the virtual campus.
In general, emailed assignments are not accepted as for compliance reasons there must be a "paper trail" of the submission. An exception at my school is that the assignment can be emailed to my supervisor who can post it to the virtual campus for me to grade.
To really eliminate technical issues just require all students to use the same platform exactly. Not possible you say? Why not issue every student the same Android tablet and make every assignment, book, forum, etc. specifically for that device. Every few terms everyone gets a newer device.
This would still be far cheaper than buying textbooks given how cheap Android tablets are getting, and would entirely eliminate the technical issues problem.
Kevin,
I think the technology needs to mature a little more, but most of the apps you need and the technology will work now. I am really interested to see what a few more years will bring along these lines.
Herbert Brown III
