This week included a very interesting assignment, namely, what we would do to convert a classroom teaching project to an online distance learning course. There are number of important differences between classroom and online distance learning settings. A glaring deficit of online learning is a great empty canyon of communication between instructor and student, that is plentiful in the classroom but sorely lacking in nearly all distance learning environments.
I once took an online course (different college) that was so poorly put together, with instructions so misleading, confusing, and in some cases just downright incorrect; I had to complain to the dean of the college after the instructor of the course also proved to be completely absent and impossible to even contact or find.
The end of that conversation lead to everyone in the course passing and the instructor being reprimanded (several of the students were previously failing, and I in fact was normally their resource of choice). It was a statistics course that is generally a pretty difficult course even in the classroom. That bad experience has made me a little wary of online courses ever since, and I am generally pretty vocal and prompt about pointing out mistakes or confusing content online.
I am happy to say that the quality and responsiveness of our UTB instructors in our distance learning has been so far above the mediocre attempt at online learning from the other college in the statistics course. Still, improvements can be made to further elevate the quality of our distance learning experience. Such improvements do not come without extra time, attention, and a certain amount of creativity and technical prowess from instructors, but recent advances in software, computers, and technology make it possible to virtually eliminate all online learning disadvantages, while retaining all of the unique advantages of this learning platform.
Best regards,
Robin Martin
I once took an online course (different college) that was so poorly put together, with instructions so misleading, confusing, and in some cases just downright incorrect; I had to complain to the dean of the college after the instructor of the course also proved to be completely absent and impossible to even contact or find.
The end of that conversation lead to everyone in the course passing and the instructor being reprimanded (several of the students were previously failing, and I in fact was normally their resource of choice). It was a statistics course that is generally a pretty difficult course even in the classroom. That bad experience has made me a little wary of online courses ever since, and I am generally pretty vocal and prompt about pointing out mistakes or confusing content online.
I am happy to say that the quality and responsiveness of our UTB instructors in our distance learning has been so far above the mediocre attempt at online learning from the other college in the statistics course. Still, improvements can be made to further elevate the quality of our distance learning experience. Such improvements do not come without extra time, attention, and a certain amount of creativity and technical prowess from instructors, but recent advances in software, computers, and technology make it possible to virtually eliminate all online learning disadvantages, while retaining all of the unique advantages of this learning platform.
Best regards,
Robin Martin
