Dallas' Online Teaching Blog

To Convert or Not. That is the Question.

I've been blogging ideas attached to our course readings, but have not done a good job of discussing those readings in depth. I'm backtracking a bit, but I hope that the next few blogs will remedy that issue.

I had one thing in Chapter 3 of Ko and Rossen that I felt strongly enough about to blog. On page 48 there is an "Important" paragraph at the top of the page that says,

"The move to an online format offers you opportunities to
try out new methods and approaches. Preserving the quality of your course
need not mean finding an exact translation of what you've always done in the
past."

In both of the examples of course conversion at the beginning of the chapter the instructor started off with what they knew of traditional teaching, (Reach read and composed questions, Yendell offered lecture and asked for questions.) Both have since converted to a model where more of the learning takes place through discussion between peers and through FAQ boards. In Reach's opinion "Requiring her students to discuss online assignments online engendered a sense of community that reduced isolation many students would have felt working entirely on their own."
I feel that the best approach is to step outside the traditional classroom paradigm and look at the world from the eyes of your students. Too much focus is spent on available technology and what is the 'latest' device. In an article from Changing Pedagogy: Does the Introduction of Networked Learning Have an Impact on Teaching? the authors make the following comment:

There is no doubt a long way to go before active learning in e-environments
is standard majority practice across higher education but clearly advances are
being made. However, it seems to us that teachers and their students, not the
technology, should of necessity be at the centre of the process. They are the
experts on learning and the technology is no more than a tool, albeit a powerful
and exciting one with masses of potential. It is how teachers use it that will
bring ultimate improvement and success.

Most students starting college today have a great deal of experience with online communication and internet based research. It may not be at the collegiate level, but this shouldn't be a stumbling block. What they haven't experienced is the traditional 'lecture, test, lecture, test.....' classroom. They are used to someone actually paying attention to whether or not they complete an assignment and for the most part are used to having a personal relationship with their instructor. That breaks down in traditional large universities where classes are in the hundreds.
Ko and Rossen emphasize that all design decisions should consider learning objectives and how the design elements direct learning outcomes toward those objectives. There is a growing group of educators who feel that traditional lecture style courses don't meet this gold standard. Maybe we need to forget about traditional paradigms and ask the question "What would the course look like if the students designed it?"

posted by Dallas Becker @ 4:52 PM