Professors Remain Anti-DL

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kizmet, Feb 10, 2016.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    And why should they? The vast majority of faculty are engaged primarily in classroom teaching--some are engaged in research, too. Much of what is presented online is (a) counter to their central behavior of classroom-based lecturing and (b) often presented by adjuncts, thus reducing the demand further for their skills.

    Unfortunately, we're still hung up on inputs like the form of delivery and are still very far away from making outcomes the central issue regarding student learning.
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" - Upton Sinclair
     
  4. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    I once attended a dinner where two professors (one recently retired) were in attendance.

    The recently retired professor was lamenting about how worthless online learning, intersession courses and a variety of other things were in higher ed. He felt that intersession courses were the stake in the heart of higher ed since no one could possibly learn anything substantive in a course that lasted only a few weeks. Online learning, he maintained, was a sham and should be abolished forthwith.

    The other professor had no opinions on online learning because none of her courses had gone that route. But she took issue with his insistence that a person cannot learn in a few weeks. She then began to talk about all of the great lessons she learned in life at weekend seminars and during conferences as an example.

    Then a teacher, who was also in attendance, piped in and asked why she had to have a Masters degree in education and spend years learning precisely about how people learn but two people with PhDs in Business who have no formal training in education at all are deemed experts in how best to teach in higher ed.

    I don't feel strongly about anything that was said at that dinner. But there it is.
     
  5. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I'd never heard that- love it!
     
  6. novadar

    novadar Member

    This is quote is reflected in the article:

    "Seaman says; faculty members, many of whom worry that online learning may diminish the quality of teaching or even their paychecks, aren’t getting much of a say."
     
  7. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    I am often surprised by how much of a "say" faculty believe they are entitled to or how much credence they feel should be lent to their "say" by people who make decisions.

    If I ever walked into my VP's office all indignant and angry that he made a decision without my input, I would, charitably, be sent back to my office after a thorough thrashing to contemplate my position in the company. And the same can be said for anyone here even those whose jobs represent the backbone of the company.

    I get that faculty are in a different boat. They have faculty senates and things to express their opinions. But, unless I misunderstand the university structure, faculty senates are not decision making bodies. They are advisory. They are a means for the faculty to have their "say." And I imagine that administrators DO consider that opinion as they weigh a decision. Whenever faculty complain about not having their "say" it seems, to me at least, that the issue is more that they expressed their opinion and the ultimate decision simply didn't come out in their favor.

    That's a lot different than not being heard at all. That's just getting whiny because you didn't get your way. You were heard. Your opinions were considered. But, ultimately, the decision (which, by the way, likely has far broader implications beyond both faculty AND students) came down in a manner you disagree with.

    So, I'm not unsympathetic. And I support academic freedom. I'm glad professors have the freedom to do what sounds an awful lot to me like whining. But I don't feel that the outside world has to react to it when it occurs.
     
  8. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    It's a profoundly different boat. I spent many years in the private sector, from working with small entrepreneurs to mid-sized companies to multinational behemoths, and now have spent many years in academia. This environment is the only one I've ever experienced in which pretty much all of the "employees" have every bit as much expertise, experience, education and competence as the most senior "executive". Some academics get tired of the teaching and want to work in an office and insulate themselves from students a bit more. OK, fine, but they must never forget that this is done with the understanding that the path they've chosen doesn't identify them as possessing any special skills or expertise vis-a-vis those whom they "manage". Thus, the only rational sort of governance in such a milieu is thoroughly shared governance. The primary job of a senior administrator such as dean or president is not to manage and make executive decisions in any meaningful sense, but to find out what direction the faculty wants to go and do their best to facilitate it, and, more importantly, to go out, put on their best smarmy smiles and suits, and raise money so that it can get done. Where things go horribly wrong is when administrators forget this. Then you get "no confidence" votes and the administrators learn the hard way what their place is in the entire scheme of things.
     
  9. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    There is a big difference from an administrator "having every bit as much expertise, experience, education and competence" and assuming that all members of faculty and staff are forming opinions based upon the broad needs of the institution.

    I have opinions about higher ed as a former consumer of formal education and as an adjunct instructor. But I also only see a portion of the institution as a whole. And that's true of every member of faculty and staff. The University President is seated atop the whole thing. And I can imagine a situation where a person is standing on a mountain saying "Hey, there's rivers and fields over there!" while the people below say "No, there isn't! We never saw it and we don't believe you did either!" The flip side, of course, is that the administration is likewise susceptible to this disconnect.

    But frankly, some of the conduct of some faculty senates does not make me sympathetic to their cause(s). And I think if we simply look at every unpopular decision by administration as an instance of an administrator getting too big for their britches we potentially miss opportunities.
     
  10. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    I don't like this analogy.

    I see nothing about a university administrator that gives them a superior viewvis-a-vis the faculty. They presumably know where the bucks are since they're pressing the rich alum flesh like political candidates, so maybe they see more there. They can mediate disputes between warring colleges within a university, so they're sure good for that. I suppose they can exercise a bona fide management role over other lower administrators and staffers, fine. But they do not sit atop a mountain seeing things we mere faculty mortals don't see. My experience as a member of the faculty of multiple schools, from adjunct at tiny community college to liberal arts private to my present, a full time position where I teach and sit on committees and do research at a large public university that won their last bowl game, is that the only thing most senior administrators have a lot more perspective on is the strategy for their own career advancement. Generally, since they've gotten away from research and the lecture hall, they don't even know much, as compared with an education specialist in the college of ed or a strategy prof in the business school about the latest developments in pedagogy or management theory.

    That said, I totally agree with you in that faculty senate decisions can be perfectly asinine--but at least they're the product of a somewhat democratic process.
     
  11. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    By the way, Neuhaus, if I sound cranky, it's because currently we have a dean whom we strongly suspect of being a conscienceless narcissist. You get a few of those climbing the ladders out of full time academia into administration, and they invariably think they're Jack Welch or some superstar management guru and make life hellish for the faculty. So it's not like I'm really all that hip on administration at the moment.
     
  12. RAM PhD

    RAM PhD Member

     

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