I Just Want to Speak With a Real Person!

Although I've only taken one course online, my experience with online education has been unsatisfactory, to say the least.  During the last decade or so, the population of residents in my county has grown significantly, and the county's one high school has to educate more students with a far greater student to teacher ratio than ever before.  As a result, there are more students in every class, and the school doesn't have the physical space or monetary funds to hire more teachers.  By the time I reached my senior year of high school, I had taken every math course that the state tests required and the school was able to offer in classroom, and that's pretty sad considering that I'm not very mathematically inclined.  At this point, I didn't really have to take another math class, but the other course options during that class period were limited, so I ended up choosing to take statistics online for community college credit.  The only math options available were calculus and statistics, and there was no way that I would take a calculus class without a teacher in the classroom who could answer the many questions that were liable to come.

I'm usually a pretty upbeat person, so I'll start off by stating the positives of online education:
1) Pretty flexible.  I was able to take my statistics course in a computer lab during a class period in the school day, but I could pretty much do all of the electronic assignments like discussion board postings, quizzes and such whenever I wanted to, just as long as they were completed and sent in by the due date.  The only assignment I had to complete offline and during the class period were the tests, which were proctored.  I had my online class in the morning, so it was nice to be able to use that block of time to study for a class that had a test that day... or to finish reading the addictive Harry Potter series for the first time...  I'm more of an afternoon person than a morning person, so I ended up doing a lot of my work for that class at home after dinner when my mind was fully awake and functioning.
2) Options.  If online classes weren't offered, then many schools wouldn't be able to offer a great variety of courses to students.  Even though my online class was not the greatest, if I wasn't taking online statistics, then I would've had to take up a spot in an elective course, like cosmetology or auto shop, that I wasn't really interested in.  At least I was able to earn college credit for taking online statistics.

 Now that I've touched on the positives, I can move on to the numerous negative aspects of online education, which I feel can be summed up in this two word statement:
Minimal interaction.  I took my online class in a computer lab with a teacher to "babysit", and bunch of other students, each of whom were also taking online courses.  But, there were only three other people in the lab taking the same course I was, so if none of the four of us could figure out a concept, we would either have to wait until the end of the week to get help from the teacher after school, or one of us could email the teacher and hope that she answered the email before the period was over and we wasted an entire class stuck on one particular concept.  This was sometimes made difficult when one of us was absent or doing something else not class related (and by the middle of the semester, no one really did much work in class anyway unless someone couldn't figure out one of the concepts from the day before).  Everyone enrolled in the class at my high school was required to post and answer questions on a discussion board, which was largely unhelpful when it came to fostering interaction between teacher and students, which I gathered was the purpose of the exercise.  Everyone just seemed to be going through the motions so they could get their discussion board points.  Classroom interaction is such an important component of the entire learning experience.  Being able to ask live questions and get live examples is very important to me in a classroom environment, especially in a subject like math.
        
I mentioned earlier that my limited experience with online education left much to be desired.  Now that I've given credit where credit is due, I have to say that while online education has its merits, in my case it just didn't get the job done.  Yes, I walked away with college credit, but I don't feel like I walked away with the knowledge I should have gotten from an introductory statistics course.  While online education may be a better alternative in many situations, it rarely replaces the real classroom experience with constant interaction between peers and teachers.            

Error 500.

I'm fairly inexperienced with online education, in terms of personal experience, so this post will involve my (limited) first-hand experience with the online education system, followed by thoughts and such.

I've taken a grand total of one online class in my educational history.  It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time - I could work on stuff for the class in my bits of free time, at my own pace, with no class to slow me down.  One of my biggest problems in high school was that I learned at a much quicker pace than most of the other people - as they discussed the same things over and over, I grew bored, and things went downhill from there.  But in the online setting, I thought, I could proceed at my own pace, and things would be awesome.

What happened?  I'm sure just about anyone can guess.  I procrastinated, and forgot about the class, and ended up pulling an all-nighter the night before everything was due just to complete the assignments.  I had to race through them, speed-reading to try and grasp the concepts that I'd need for the quizzes and such.  I passed the class with an A (don't ask me how), but that entire experience did a great job of showing me that I wasn't ready for online classes.  By their very nature, they require a lot of self-motivation and efficient time management, and those were two areas in which I was lacking.

Granted, that was years ago - I know that I've gotten a lot better with both time management and self-motivation (well... maybe not so much, with the latter).  But would online classes be a good idea for me?  I don't know.  I'm really not sure whether I learn better from reading or from interpersonal interactions.  One of the key components of any online course is the lack of interaction with other people, so that restricts people who require that sort of thing pretty severely.  As Kelsey mentioned earlier in the week, the (potential) lack of feedback can be both infuriating and crippling.  I don't mind doing something "wrong", as long as I can have my mistake(s) explained to me, so that I won't make them again.  This isn't something that you'll always get with online courses - it really feels like you're expected to somehow know what you did wrong and fix it yourself.  This seems terribly inefficient and... well, stupid.

But for my concerns, I can't dismiss the idea of online classes entirely as a plausible option for myself, or other people.  I'm getting ready to start taking classes again, and I have absolutely no idea how that's going to work out.  Taking online classes would make my schedule a lot more flexible, as long as I motivated myself to set aside an appropriate amount of time for my schoolwork.  It's about 13 miles from my house to where I'd be taking classes, about 11 miles from there to where I'd (likely) be working, and about 23 miles from there back to my house.  On any given day that I both had classes and worked, online classes would cut a third of my commute distance off.  Assuming a minimum of three class days a week, that would quickly prove beneficial.

I really don't know for sure if online classes would work for me.  I do think that they're geared towards a very specific type of student, as has been discussed, and I think that they'll become more and more common as time goes on.  For the sake of our future, though, I hope they don't become the only option available.

I Wish I'd Taken Chemistry in High School

The way that online classes are typically handled is... well, abysmal at best. Requiring a discussion post and replying to X number of classmates on each topic isn't going to get you anywhere near simulating an actual classroom environment. Personally, I think that the problems with the format lie in the fact that most instructors don't really know what to do with it, so they try to approximate a traditional classroom to the best of their ability.

An excellent example of online classes being executed poorly would be... well, every online class that I've ever taken. Most recently, I took a Teaching English Language Learners class online. It followed the same model that every online class I'd taken before then. Read a set of class notes each week, read an article or two, write a reflection, comment on three other people by the end of the week. There were also a few projects thrown in here and there, but this was the bulk of the class. Then the midterm came, and I failed it rather miserably. Why? Because this was not an effective method of learning. There was no actual teaching occurring, and it was too easy to just skate by without actually retaining any information.

However, I don't think that all hope is lost for the prospects of online education. There are a few factors that need to be properly addressed before it can be a valid method, though.

1) Subjects. Online education is just flat out inappropriate for some subjects. The most immediate example that comes to mind would be languages. Some subjects just need that face to face interaction and communication with an entire class that you could simulate with video chatting, but at that point, why bother?

2) Content delivery. Most online classes that I've seen provide content in a way that's simple for the teacher to produce, simple for the student to access, and just... too ineffective. Simple word documents aren't good enough. Content needs to be delivered in an effective manner that can address multiple learning styles, and it needs to do it in a way that only online education can do. Personally, I like the idea of interactive flash-game-type-contraptions that show how things work with a written and spoken explanation, along with questions as students work through it, with explanations for what they may have done wrong provided if they get the wrong answer.

However, the best uses of online education come not through fully online classes, but classes taught in person that are heavily supplemented through online tools. Now, any college student today has used Blackboard or Desire2Learn, and most instructors usually post grades and the occasional handout from class, but what I'm talking about is when it serves a purpose that either can't be served in person or can be served so much more effectively online.

The most prominent example is submitting assignments. Submitting papers and such through an online service of some sort eliminates most of the issues with losing homework between printing it and getting it to class, and it allows the instructor to provide feedback and engage in discussion over the assignment outside of regular class time.

Another example that works particularly well is posting notes online. Now, a lot of people are opposed to this because it encourages laziness, but providing the slides and allowing students to print them and take notes on important points from the lecture is kind of the best thing ever for a student. It allows for having all of the straightforward bits already available and encourages actually paying attention in class instead of just trying to rapidly copy down every word from the slides.

All things considered, online education will never completely replace traditional classes, but it will play a huge role going forward. The availability of online classes for those with limited schedules will increase, and as time passes, the methods of running these classes will become more effective through trial and error, and online components will become necessary at all levels to supplement the traditional classroom environment, all in the name of making the content more accessible to as many people as possible. John will be offering his views tomorrow, and then Pendleton will be wrapping up the week on Saturday.

Educating Online

Personally, I see a lot of potential in online education, although it is not yet where it could be. I do have experience with online education - I took a couple of online classes during high school, so I have some idea how such education works.

My first thought towards online education was the easy one - how it could be used to further education in America, but I would rather focus on the potential in other areas, such as underdeveloped and under-educated countries. Especially in rural areas, where it may be harder to have access to in person education. So I see it as an great asset for undeveloped rural poor countries, and for adult education in others, both developed and underdeveloped.

Of course, I would not argue that we should just give kids laptops and give then access to online education and have them start learning in these developing countries. I think there is more work involved in getting the education set in place in such locations than actually developing an online educational system. Especially when there is a large education gap, especially in adults, I think online education will probably be the way to go in catching up. As with the topic on education reforms, I believe there are already enough wheels turning with online education that people are developing ways to make it an even more effective tool for learning.

In developed countries, I think online education is most useful in adult education. At that point most adults are working, probably have families that they have to support and night classes have been really their only option so far. But with online education, they can learn at home or in the evening and do not have to go anywhere except for tests and such. There are already colleges like Phoenix University that cater to such an age group.

Though, with personal experience, I do accept the criticisms of online education. Some people learn better in a classroom setting, and I personally would never take a class that was critical to my degree online. I see potential for the form of education, but currently I do not think it teaches as well as a traditional classroom setting. I think it is most useful when combined with in class learning, used as an extension but not that only thing. But I think with the growth of technology, online education will become even more viable in the real world.

Uneducated

This topic is going to be a bit difficult for me for two reasons: I’ve never had experience with online education personally and I don’t know much about how it works outside my area.

I will say this: I’m not very fond of it as a theory. I mean, the idea of having the ability to do things on a more flexible schedule in the comfort of my home is nice. But, when you get down to it, there are just too many cons. (I am doing this from what I know of the way online education works on the high school level.)

I think a large amount of the learning process (as Kelsey mentioned) is the relationship you can have with your teacher. If you have a problem understanding then you can talk it through and work on it. The only way you can get through it online is practice in a way that maybe you aren’t particularly good at learning in. While I understand that there are actual teachers, I don’t think they’re very effective because explaining a problem is a lot easier to do in person. Just like explaining the solution is.

I have met people who learn in every different way you can think of. I think that online learning restricts you because it makes you learn primarily through text or video/graphics. But I know a lot of people who are hands on learners who need real life examples or something tangible to learn better. These students would be hindered in an online environment.

I don’t have any personal experiences with online education and therefore I think going into depth about this topic would be misinformed. So, I would love to open this up for discussion and know everyone else’s opinions on the matter.

Sorry for the third week of mediocre posting, hopefully I can respond to comments and make up for it. Can’t wait for Kathleen’s opinion on the matter tomorrow!

"A bit" might be understating it

Hey guys, so I'm starting off this week of online education and I feel compelled to make one thing very clear: I'm going to be a bit biased. I like online education for a lot of reasons in theory, but in practice, it's always managed to injure me somehow.

Case 1: I failed English freshman year of high school and had to take it during the summer. I took it online and was totally unable to go on choir tour because this online class had in-person exams that had to be done in a very strict timeframe. I understand the reasoning behind making sure the person taking the class is the person who's getting credit for it, but this is still stupid. High school English is stupid.

Case 2: Despite what that last paragraph implied, I actually get really good grades. I completed my AS in Computer Science with a 3.8 and had a 4.0 at my previous university. That said, the lowest grade I've ever gotten in a college class was online. Usually, when a teacher assigns readings, I blow them off. They don't really expect you to know it, they just expect you to have a base knowledge so you'll know what they're talking about when they go over it in class. I pick up things pretty quickly so I don't bother. I listen and I pay attention and I absorb information and I learn. For this class, there were obviously no lectures, just reading assignments, so I did them. I read that entire textbook basically from start to finish, and not even just skimming it. I discussed it with friends. I took notes. I wrote papers. I did the assignments. I put up with a group project. I studied.

And I got a C. I've gotten poor grades before in classes (poor like Bs) because I didn't do the work, but it worked well in college because exams were usually weighted higher and I did well on those. But this class? I did the work, but according to the statistics she sent out, I was in the 25th percentile of exam grades. It wasn't that the class was hard, it was that I sucked at it. Keep in mind that this is a psychology class and psych is one of my favorite subjects. It's not like I had a hard time understanding the material; it's not like I didn't do the work; it's not like it was an objectively hard class; I just did terribly.

And my only explanation for that is that the class was online, and I think that highlights a few major flaws with the idea.

1) The lack of teacher-student feedback. Now, I've had online classes (I took 3 last semester) where the professor gave thorough feedback on everything I turned in, or at least everything where points were taken off, but more often than not, that's not the case. In another class I took last semester, I got literally no feedback on anything. I did the assignments on my own time; they were graded at some point in the future; and my grade was literally my only feedback. B+.

Why was it not an A? I don't know. I don't know what I did wrong or what I could've done to fix it. Now, this isn't a problem so much innately with the system as with the professors but the main problem is that even if they give feedback, I have to seek it out. I have to go back to my assignments and stalk them every day until they're graded and hope there are comments there. This makes actually figuring out what the professor wants and improving on it a much more difficult task, especially when...

2) The assignments tend to be all the same. This is definitely a limitation of online software. If you have students in a room together, you can do all sorts of activities. Show a movie; play a game; draw pictures; call on students to explain; have people ask questions; put people in small groups; make a diorama; pretty much anything.

Online? Your choices are mostly read this article; read the textbook; watch this video; write a paper; take a quiz; or complete a worksheet. I've also been asked to listen to music clips but that was a music class and not really relevant in a broad sense. And this is the problem, because if you don't know how to write a paper like your professor wants, she can't write in the margins revising notes. You just get 15/20 and have no idea why. And then you get 15/20 for every other assignment because they're all essays. But I know the main problem, at least for me, is that...

3) There is no room for incorporating other learning styles. When I first signed up for online classes, I had to complete some sort of online course readiness test that asked me about a bunch of relevant things. It asked me about my computer skills, my typing speed, my reading speed, my computer specs, my work-ethic, my degree of self-motivation, etc. You know what it really didn't ask me? If I learn well in a text-only environment. Yes, it was sort of my bad to pick 3 online classes in a semester when I hadn't taken one before, but all signs pointed to "Ooh, I'm self-motivated and love setting schedules for myself. I'll be the best online student ever!"

And that just wasn't true. Like I sort of mentioned before, I work really well in a format that involves discussion. I talk through things to understand them (which I tried to do by commenting on the textbook to my friends), but that dialogue between professor and student is really important to my learning. Without having a single lecture or, honestly, a single word actually written by the professor for the class (All of those powerpoints had different people's names on them...), you might as well have just given me the textbook and the final exam. That is not how I learn. I tried. I really tried, but consistently, my exam grades were lower in my online classes than they've ever been via traditional methods.Not to mention, I don't really remember anything of what I learned. I mean, I didn't know it then, so there's no reason I'd know it now, but isn't that sort of a problem? Honestly, I really think that's because in person, you can incorporate all sorts of different learning styles, but online, unless you're doing video conferencing, there's really only one. And the idea of video conferencing leads me to my next point:

4) Setting up a universal schedule is impossible, or at least highly inconvenient. Some of the main reasons people take online classes is because they work during the day or they travel between two homes or they have children, which sums up to one thing: their schedules are severely limited and they need something flexible to work around it. This means a few things. First, it's really hard to coordinate for a group project. Second, you can't set exam dates that aren't windows and you certainly can't set a location. Maybe they don't think this is a problem for high schoolers taking freshman English, but I could have been busy (and would have been). The same system is in place for seniors who might have jobs or siblings they need to take care of. I've had professors say all assignments are due Sunday night only to assign something due Friday that I never looked at because I was busy during the week. This lack of touching base is something that's hard to work around. It's hard to say things and not know when people are going to check it, which is why it's an even bigger problem that...

5) Some professors still aren't accessible. Again, this is a problem with the professor and not the concept, but it's still something I've run into. One professor in particular comes to mind as being completely inaccessible 3/7 days of the week. Specifically, Friday-Sunday, aka "The time everyone is done doing their weekday stuff and has time to work on online classes." Again, with flexible schedules, obviously some people were working before then, but I think the amount of people who do most of their work for online classes during the weekend comprises the majority. This is one thing if you have physical classes where you see students every other day and are always available at some time convenient for both of you (i.e., during class), but online? You need to be available. Obviously, no one expects a response within 10 minutes (and you shouldn't be asking questions about your assignments that soon before they're due), but you can't block off 3 days where people need you the most.

A lot of these gripes and examples are personal, and I hope they aren't all universal, but I think it does say something about online education: the way it's being implemented presently falls short of what a traditional classroom can offer. Traditional classrooms give you varied assignments and teaching styles along with an actual relationship with your professor. You can ask your professor a question and get immediate feedback that can incorporate drawings and other media and doesn't rely on text alone. You can interact with other students in a way that can actually help your education (e.g., "Wait, so we're doing what on this assignment?") rather than only because you were assigned a group project and you have to talk to these people whose names you won't remember next week. Online education can be an option but I really don't think it's the best way to retain the most information. It's just too limited as it exists now.

Week of 6/3- Online Education

Hey y'all.  For this week, we're discussing online education.  In the past few years, many schools have begun to offer students the option of taking approved courses online for credit.  People have many different reasons for taking online classes.  Sometimes these courses are taken outside of regular school hours on the student's own time, and sometimes they are taken during school in the library or computer lab in place of a regular class period.  Many home-schoolers also rely on online education for some of their studies.  In addition, online education is also utilized by a number of U.S. undergraduate and graduate degree programs.  I've found that many people have differing experiences with online education ranging from terrific to terrible, so it'll be interesting to hear about everyone's experiences and how those experiences have shaped our opinions about online education.
Kelsey will be posting on Monday, and I'll finish up this week's topic on Saturday.
Thanks for reading!