Online vs. face-to-face

U. Maryland College Park article on the Michigan State study: Officials dispute online education criticisms.

 

Gert - Can you try the link again - it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks - Andy

 

Best of Both Worlds!

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, University of Phoenix is advertising a hybrid. The bulk of the coursework is done online while there are a couple visits to a classroom. Maybe that's not a bad idea. Doesn't one of the bigger schools (perhaps NSU) do something similar?

Anyway, it would be interesting to do a study on if the combination makes a difference.

 

Sorry: Officials dispute online education criticisms.

 

I have just completed my study of distance vs. traditional learning outcomes. This was an exhaustive study of one student--me. Here is what I learned:

Distance study has some things about it I like. (Ex: not having to show up for a class where a third of the members are absent and not a whole lot gets done.)

Residential study has some things about it I like. (Ex: having to show up for a class where a third of the people are absent and not a whole lot gets done.)


Distance: was less expensive and vastly more flexible.

Residential: I really liked some of my professors.


Distance: I liked the ability of bringing something of the structure to the class, searching out, as it were, a direction for myself.

Residential: I liked the way the professors structured the class and all I had to do was follow along.

Distance: I liked that I learned a lot.

Residential: I liked that I learned a lot.

In other words, the paths are a little different. Both forms of education (delivery and learning) work. I doubt one can ever be proven better than the other. Perhaps the ideal education includes a little of both.

 

Please do not get me wrong!

I have been an “off-campus” university student since 1995 & I am currently studying an MBA by DL (at a leading Australian university)
But I do strongly believe that DL students (on-line on not) are disadvantaged & to some extend are the “poor” cousins of the on-campus students (OCS).
As a DL student I pay almost as much as an OCS, but what do I really get for it? A reading folder consisting of 12 reading chapter (totalling some 150 pages) and the primary textbook which I have to read from page to page (some 600+ pages).
Apart from the occasional general email/notice, I have no other contact with my tutor till examination day.
Where is the mentoring, where is the step-by-step support, where is the access to the fully stocked library, where is the human interaction and the transfer of knowledge/wisdom that comes with it?
Who is the better graduate – the DL or OC student? I’m not sure, but the odds are against the DL student.

I am beginning to believe that DL education is nothing more than a line/brand extension of a university’s primary product – On Campus Education.

CFr

 

If that is the way your classes are being taught (or not taught) then that is nothing more than a correspondence course. That is not the way interactive DL courses are taught. I have turned down DL teaching position offers simply because the classes are self-study and there is no interaction between students nor is there interaction between student/teacher unless the student needs help or until the teacher has to grade assignments and (hopefully) provide feedback.

I don't teach online that way. In my classes, interaction through participation in discussions (asynch) is a requirement.

That said -- I like TAKING both interactive and self-study courses. I'm an independent learner and I speed read and speed type -- so sometimes I prefer independent study with no holding back from classmates, instructor, or rigid schedule. But for some classes, interactive was the only way and was my preference. I have done both and it just depends on the class content.

Leslie

 

I have taken more traditional courses than non-traditional courses, and I can safely say that most of the bad courses and bad instructors I had were in the classroom.

Touro has been my first experience with online courses. I have to say that, in many ways, I prefer the independant study courses I have taken to both in class and on-line courses.

Tracy<><