Back to School for GrownUps

Patricia, over at the Communication Exchange got me to thinking today. She wrote an article about The Communication Connection Between Newspapers and Universities that raises the question of whether colleges and universities are headed the way of newspapers….  will they, too, be offered almost entirely in an online format? And if so, what will we lose as a result?

Don Tapcott, author of grown up digital , which is quickly becoming one of my most oft-quoted books, is very clear that the research done by his group shows that digital generations have very different values and expectations than those who came along before the technology. They have shorter attention spans, for starters  - and they want things when they want them, and most importantly HOW they want them. 

They take technology for granted …. and they know that they can use it to get what they want when they want and how they want it - so they are less likely to be willing to jump through the hoops that come from bad or pre-technology design or from tradition. 

grown up digital should be required reading for anyone interested or involved in teaching - and also for parents, and anyone in business that would like to stay in business over the long haul, for that matter! It really is well worth the investment.

Anyway …. back to the topic…

As Patricia rightly notes in her article , “for every improvement society makes comes loss” - and moving away from traditional on-site colleges and universities is no exception. 

For me, as much as I love my computer and the Internet, there is little doubt that I learn far better in a traditional learning environment. I need the interactions, the face to face time with classmates and professors, the challenges of having to speak my ideas out loud in the group before they are fully formed and ready to write.

I learn from my peers, and often it is a thought or question that someone else raises that gets me going off in new directions (I am called flit for a reason, after all )  I can DO online courses - and do very well in them - but they have so far been much less productive, overall.

But then, I am clearly too old to have grown up digital - so my experiences don’t really count for much, do they?  Although, given that I seem to be the biggest techno-geek in my cohort, perhaps they do :) 

Anyway ….I would love to know what you think would be the benefits - and pitfalls - of moving towards online educational offerings and away from traditional post secondary settings. 

And seriously - you should buy the book!  (And nope, this is not a paid advertisement, and I don’t receive any $$ if you do buy it - I just think it is a really important resource) 

I was mucking about over in hubpages today and happened to come across this article about how to become an online class instructor for a university .

That is definitely something that I would love to do - I have the computer skills - and I love to teach ….but I wonder if I would still enjoy the teaching without the face to face interaction with students? Probably - I enjoy my online interactions with people I meet on Gather and through blogging and other social networking sites - so why not through teaching as well? 

My own experience with online course instructors has not been very positive on the whole though. I have taken online university courses both through Laurentian University’s Envision program , and through Athabasca University . 

In both cases, the materials provided were excellent. The instructor support, not so much. 

Both of my Envision courses had the same professor. First mistake, I guess. At least, if I had had different profs I might have had a shot at getting at least 1 that was…. well…. I don’t want to say good, since that would suggest that the one I did have was bad - and I didn’t have enough interaction to know that. The professor I did have was just totally unresponsive, mostly. 

No welcome email, or acknowledgement…. and when I emailed her with a question about an essay, her response took more than 2 weeks. It finally came about a week after the due date for the essay. Helpful. 

The courses I took at Athabasca all had different tutors - but again, so little interaction as to be pretty near useless. Honestly can’t even remember the names of either of the Shakespeare people …and the psychology one I remember mostly because I sent her my final essay back in January and am still waiting for a mark for it and for the course. Because of my car accident in November, I was late (with permission)…so some delay is understandable… but I would rather like to know how I did on the course… have the credit show up on my transcript… you know…  I did, after all, pay in excess of $600 for the course. It is a little frustrating. 

And if I had NEEDED that course to get accepted into the phd program I applied for, it would have been a lot frustrating. 

Anyway - when I am the prof, I will do a better job of it! 

Have you taken any online University courses?  How did you find them? What would you do differently if you were the prof?

Not for me…. for my database students…

I’m sitting here (on a table at the front of the room instead of on a chair, since there is no podium chair in this lab) dropping Entrecards and  growling at anyone that tries “just asking him ….”

Occasionally I get up and go walk around to make sure no one has msn or any other messaging programs open, or to tell someone (for what is already beginning to feel like the 1000th time) that the zip file has to be extracted before Access can see the files in it, and that no, I’m not going to tell them how to do what they need to do - defeats the whole purpose of a test. 

I love teaching…but bluddy hell, test days frustrate me ! Especially with this year’s crop….. they are, on the whole, pretty unmotivated, and more than a little demanding. It is a TEST for Pete’s sake….  

You are supposed to show up for tests on time and prepared. 

Don Tapscott, in his newest book grown up digital , talks about the many ways that young ‘uns demand difference approaches in education ….I actually typed out his tip sheet for that section, but it’s at home, of course… maybe I’ll post that later…. but anyway …. according to Tapscott, these guys are supposed to prefer hands on, open book, find it on the Internet, figure it out stuff as opposed to I’m the teacher and I will tell you what you need to know. 

These guys, apparently, have not read the book. 

Did testing yesterday and today … for the computer course I teach … 3 sections …25 - 40 students in each.

Or there SHOULD have been that many students - had an awful lot of no-shows, considering that they HAVE to pass the test AND the assignment part of the course both in order to pass.

Two students emailed me to let me know they had a problem … one had a very good reason, and I gave him an extension - will allow him to write at another time.

Another had a car problem and couldn’t get there for his section, but was able to write today, so that was fine.

And then a third just emailed me saying that he’d missed yesterday’s test but was wondering about a make up.

No explanation/reason given.

The syllabus gives the time/date info for all 3 sections - so if he missed yesterday, he COULD have written today. It also directs them to email or talk to me BEFORE the date of the test, not after.

I am not inclined to provide an alternative for him. Sorry but….

There does seem to be a really strong notion among this group that …. incredulous looks when I expect them to buy the textbook …show up for class… actually do the work… and work quietly and look at their own screens, not those of their neighbours during the tests.  I am SO mean!

Many of those who did bother to do the test, also, seemed to be of the opinion that I should mark them immediately…while in the past I have been able to get most of my marking done during class time, with these groups there were SO many attempts to cheat - and SO many that didn’t have a clue about how to upload their completed databases to our online system that there was just no time to mark any at all during the test. I was BUSY.

“So our marks will be up later today, then, Miss?”

Uh… no. Not likely! Not TOO demanding!

I also had several people stroll in late - one of them, 2:15 into a 3 hour test… without apology or explanation. Like it was nothing…. have NEVER had that happen before so hadn’t added a rule about it into the Syllabus… I think I shall now though. Not only is it disruptive and rude, it is NOT the sort of behaviour that would/should be tolerated, I hope, in their workplaces.

I was told that this was a different crop of students than in previous years. I’m thinking yeah… but not necessarily in the good way that was meant. OY!

I often joke, when I am teaching, that someone deserves a sticker.

I don’t usually actually have stickers with me… although I do have many at home: I like stickers! Always have

Anyway … today, while teaching, I told someone that if I had my stickers, I would definitely give him one, because I really liked the fact that he was helping some other students that were having some trouble with the queries we were working on.

Stickers?

Oh sure, I told them… I even have airplane stickers because I teach them (aviation students).

Cool! They want airplane stickers.

And they are going to get them, too.

Because the silliness about airplane stickers changed the dynamics of the entire room.

Before then, many of the people were tense & frustrated. People who had missed any classes up until then - many of whom did not have textbooks…which drives me nuts and makes ME frustrated (I can cope with a few people sharing texts - but if you’re not going to come to class religiously, you damn well had best buy a book - and not only that, DO THE WORK YOU MISS!!!! …don’t expect me to keep 30+ people who do come to class and are ready to move on waiting for you - and yes, all of this is CLEARLY stated in the syllabus).

Anyway - today was a review period, and I encourage people to work together to figure stuff out without ME having to tell them (it sticks better) ….but really, the room had largely divided into people who knew what they were doing working together in small groups, and people who were totally lost & floundering making no progress except when I could get to them. I was getting frustrated, especially with people sitting idle and not even TRYING to figure things out while they waited for me…. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

But after that one off the cuff comment about stickers everything changed.

They got it …. all of them.

The students who knew what to do, within minutes, it seemed, were scattered around the room helping the students who needed help. And - after one quick redirection: helping = no touching of the mouse - they aren’t allowed to just reach over and do it for them; have to teach them, using words - not only because the learner will be more likely to learn it, but ESPECIALLY because the best way to learn something well is to have to explain it to someone else.

Some people who I had been marked and left already somehow ended up back in the room …. they poked their heads in looking for someone, and ended up back in there… helping, laughing, teaching…. learning.

Just the way I like it.

I teach 3 sections of the same course…. all students in the same semester of the same program.

You would think that the classes would be relatively similar…but they are SO not.

Part of it is due to class size, I think… both of my Monday classes are quite a bit bigger than the Tuesday group …. and attendance in the Tuesday group is abysmal compared to the other 2.

But some of it is just good ol’ dynamics - how many know (and like) each other, who the leaders are, and so on.

One of the biggest differences is the fact that the larger groups have more non-traditional/mature students. Those who are fully cognizant of how much it is costing to be there tend to take the whole experience a whole lot more seriously than do those whose families are paying - or even who are attending via student loans - they tend not to see it as “their” money until they have to pay it back. An awful lot of them that didn’t bother to do the reading I had assigned them … 4 whole pages that they had a whole week to read … I did a pop quiz re: the reading and people either did REALLY well, or really badly - hardly any in the middle.  Hopefully the next time I ask them to read something before class, they will be more likely to (yes, there will be another quiz) - but I’m not counting on it… few seemed at all concerned about their poor showing. *sigh*

Should be an interesting semester.