One more question on the role of an online instructor...

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by YSM, Sep 30, 2005.

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  1. YSM

    YSM New Member

    Hello, all,

    I would like to introduce myself as well.

    My name is Natalya, and I have recently enrolled to one of the DL certificate programs in a US public prestigious university.

    My Bs (lingustics) is more than 10 years old and my work experience has been in business development, then PR.

    ...still, I am just wordering - my previous DL-experience (I had to accomplish two-years out of five by DL, while working abroad from my country) tells me that an online teacher/instructor/ professor is the one who gives you more than you can get just by reading the best of books. This is the one who coaches, structures and provides some unique touch to your education. Surely, he/she grades you, but input comes from both sides...

    The input of instructor in my current course is close to zero:
    - his lectures cover elementary basics, not even a brief sum-up of the book material,
    - online discussions: he posts an initial couple of questions to open a unit, nothing about structuring/rounding-up students' discussions
    - upon grading my first assignment as "B", he has not provided any concrete comments, actually it looks he did not have enough time/desire to read it

    So, my question: is this just bad random luck with a particular person, or my expectations have been too high?

    Do get me right: I do not want to hurt one's feelings, I just want to get something more than my own reading/researching followed by mentioning of a prestige course in my CV...

    Thanks in advance,
    Natalya
     
  2. se94583

    se94583 New Member

    I would say that both as a student and also a professor in the online environment, that your mileage may vary.

    For example, as an online student at three different institutions, I have had professors who take weeks, if not months to grade a paper. And email responses take a week or two. In one course, the students actually rebelled against an unresponsive professor. Others, although responsive, think a page or two of typewritten notes constitutes a "lecture" comprable to 3 hours of class time.

    In my student experience, I have had a few good instructors, but they have been few and far between.

    As a professor at two online universitites, I, for one, have recognized this by responding to students in a timely manner-- immediately to an email, if possible, and if not, at least in a day or two. Assignments back, with real feedback, in 3-5 days.

    But that's me. Unfortunately, in online education, you have two breeds of instructors out there: traditional teachers who are dabbling in online education, and really don't have a clue as to how to proceed. And then, you have purely online instructors.
     

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