Bruce and/or Others that have taught online classes: Just curious to what you thought of the teaching experience online. I have taught about 10 semesters of undergrad and MBA classes locally, but looking to try online teaching. Also, what's a good guideline for finding a decent place to teach? I want to try it, but I think it hurts my credentials if it is a marginal university. The ones I am currently looking at are: Florida Metropolitan Phoenix Online Empire State Arkansas State -Berbee
Florida Metropolitan - Uses E-College, which I've found to be very user-friendly once you get the hang of it. You can import grades directly from the submission area to the gradebook, which is a huge time saver. 12-week courses (except for mini-terms) at the undergrad level. UoP Online - Uses Outlook Express newsgroups, which can seem a bit dated, but it does work. Grading assignments and doing weekly feedback for each student can be a bit tedious. 5-week courses at the undergrad level. There are things about both I really like, and things about both I don't like. What I know I do like is not having to drag myself into a classroom anymore. I thought I'd really miss the face-to-face interaction with students, but I've found the relative anonymity of being online encourages people to be more open about themselves, and as a result, I probably "know" my online students a lot better than I did my classroom students.
Online Thanks Bruce; Good insight. UOP is full right now, but I understand they have a fair amount of churn, so I can wait, will get to work on the others. Looking forward to trying it. I live in a rural area, with only a JUCO in town, so I am only offered Freshman classes, usually the same one as an adjunct. I was driving 75-100 miles round trip to teach night classes for the other universities just for the opportunity to teach different courses. One follow up question: Are there any interaction mechanisms that I should avoid like the plague? Blackboard looks good, ECollege too.
When I was teaching online, the only thing that didn't work out very well was the whole notion of marking based on participation with others in the class, but I know someone there who had success with that. I think this had more to do with the active-duty nature of the students, and the period I was there (just as everyone was deployed into Iraq), since perhaps it was difficult for them to coordinate common times to participate. The mid-term exam, mid-term paper, final (proctored) exam, and final paper format worked well with the kinds of students I had (like I say -- most were active duty, and in the middle of "about to be deployed" or "sitting in a ditch in Iraq reading my Internet readings, which I had to print"). I didn't like the software they used for the classrooms -- setting up the exams online was a major pain if something got gerfutched halfway through the process.
Re: Online I only have experience with E-College and the UoP newsgroups, although I've heard good things about Blackboard. When I was going through online faculty training, I remember a few people really complaining about one format, I can't remember the name. I'll go back through my notes & see if I can find it.
I hated teaching for UoP online (Flexnet, actually). Squeezing the dynamics of a classroom into discussion threads and e-mail is like sucking an elephant through a straw. Also, I felt like a clerk, tracking the number of times someone posted something substantial. Finally, while I felt there was a lot of learning going on, I felt distanced from it. It was hard to verify in each students' case, which can partly be blamed on UoP's aversion to examination. Plus, I really cherish the classroom dynamics, which were significantly diminished in the asynchronous, virtual environment. Other than that, it was okay.
But Rich, with UoP, everyone has to answer discussion questions. I don't miss the blank stares of classroom students when I'd propose something for discussion.
Blank Ah, the blank stare. I am sure I looked like that when I was 19. Traditional students have always been more interesting, because they have been out there and I end up learning alot about specific industries I haven't been exposed to. If anyone is interested in the results of what can be found in 25,000 applicants re: the validity of their degrees, drop me a Personal message and I will respond when I get the results.
I'll grant you that. I guess like anything, it depends on the students you're working with. You have no way of controlling that, and it varies from class to class. There's a whole lot of personal preference involved with this topic--something both students and faculty should weigh carefully before choosing a learning paradigm for their studies. (Anyone interested in what I think about UoP's on ground approach should search the threads. I've been--and remain--highly critical of some aspects of admissions and the entire learning team approach. I still teach a couple of classes a year, but I'm building commitments elsewhere that may even endanger that.)
