Response to a student's view of online courses
Yesterday I was grading outlines for persuasive speeches for my freshman public speaking class. I have taught this class for 40 years and still like doing it (but only one section at a time). She was arguing against students taking online courses and was trying to persuade the students not to choose that option. It was a speech an 18-year-old would give, and these were my comments.
I have been teaching online since 1998 and started doing it before it was cool because I saw it was the future. I am a certified peer reviewer a national organization and have designed several courses. So I would be the hostile person in the audience. And I agree with you.
Also, you could add that online courses are more expensive (we charge an extra fee for them here, you should look into that because you could use more arguments). I am not sure about the retention rate (people who pass with a C in the course) here but it's definitely not better than the regular classes.
I would not say the classes have more busy work. It's necessary for there to be more reading because there is often no lecture. Another argument is, from my perspective as a trained person in this field, that it is a huge amount of work to create, design, and teach an online course (it takes much more of my time than a regular course, the only difference is I can do the work at my own time rather than meeting the class) and that's why I've taken a break this year from it and am not teaching online now. I got burned out.
Just because a class is online doesn't mean it's a good class, or well designed. It could be a mess, and often is, and the instructor may not be very good at it. Of course, in Georgia, if you teach for ecore or emajor, which I have done, they really keep tabs on you. Finally, I would say that a lot of the places like X University and Y University are not entirely honest about what they provide and are very expensive.
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I consider myself an expert in online education. And I don't think it's always the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I have been teaching online since 1998 and started doing it before it was cool because I saw it was the future. I am a certified peer reviewer a national organization and have designed several courses. So I would be the hostile person in the audience. And I agree with you.
Also, you could add that online courses are more expensive (we charge an extra fee for them here, you should look into that because you could use more arguments). I am not sure about the retention rate (people who pass with a C in the course) here but it's definitely not better than the regular classes.
I would not say the classes have more busy work. It's necessary for there to be more reading because there is often no lecture. Another argument is, from my perspective as a trained person in this field, that it is a huge amount of work to create, design, and teach an online course (it takes much more of my time than a regular course, the only difference is I can do the work at my own time rather than meeting the class) and that's why I've taken a break this year from it and am not teaching online now. I got burned out.
Just because a class is online doesn't mean it's a good class, or well designed. It could be a mess, and often is, and the instructor may not be very good at it. Of course, in Georgia, if you teach for ecore or emajor, which I have done, they really keep tabs on you. Finally, I would say that a lot of the places like X University and Y University are not entirely honest about what they provide and are very expensive.
_____
I consider myself an expert in online education. And I don't think it's always the greatest thing since sliced bread.
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