Many people consume their online education modules with a second computer humming off to the side, for boredom-abating interventions. They remind me of the comment by Miss Manners, asked to opine on the propriety of knitting in public gatherings, that she’d knitted throughout her classes at Wellesley … and ended up with an education and sweaters that were both serviceable but smaller than she’d hoped.

HA-ha! But did you feel ripped off that the lectures hadn’t been changed in FIFTEEN YEARS?!?! I think I’m just rounding the corner on my fifteenth year of teaching, and I’d have to stick my head in an oven if they didn’t change a LOT since 1995.

It’s other folks here who have pointed out that teaching well and effectively online isn’t a cost savings. I completely understand that. Thanks to everyone for complicating my own views of online ed. (But I’m still NOT volunteering!) I love your point, Janice, that you repeat yourself overnovernover again even more online. That makes complete sense to me.

Thank you, Historiann, for pointing out that doing online teaching well is usually difficulty, extremely time-intensive (for both instructors and students) and, thus, very expensive.

All of my courses are as hybrid as my cautious department will allow. I love teaching online, but to do that 100% requires extremely capable students, teachers and a comfort-level with the technology that few possess.

Let’s also be honest that even with form-letters and cut-and-paste super-skills, I spend a lot more time repeating myself online than I do in the classroom. I’d have to say that I couldn’t support as many students in an online-only course as I do in a mostly-traditional class. Careful hybridization might work best, but that’s not going to save much money or provide an instant solution.

Aw, heck. Let’s just watch some TV online. That’s good enough, eh?

I consider it quite relevant that MIT is giving away a huge amount of course material–lecture notes, problem sets, videos of lectures, etc–on the Internet for free. They obviously don’t think this is going to in any way, shape, or form dilute the value of the real education they provide on campus in their classrooms, nor do they think it is going to make it more difficult for them to charge their tuition to eager highly qualified students.

This “distance” “on-line” shitte is just a fucken scam to squeeze money out of both the pockets of non-wealthy people and the federal government who supports their education. Elites recognize the scam for what it is, and will sure as fucke continue to pay extravagant tuition to send their children to elite universities. This trend will lead to an increase in educational inequaility that parallels the current trend in increasing financial inequality, and will further solidify the class distinctions in the United States that are getting stronger and stronger.

That said, the difference between content delivery and skills development is huge and when folks talk about distance learning they are usually only talking about content delivery and not at all about skills development.

Someone I know who ran an on-line course that sounded both rigorous and interesting was on a round-table with me about teaching at a history conference (we were the alternative practitioners). She talked a lot about how many of the people in the class (mostly non-traditional students) were more engaged in the on-line classroom than the traditional classroom because they were less intimidated. But she also spent a fair amount of time talking about the hard work involved in creating the right kind of on-line environment that could be successful. Among the more interesting insights, students had to do a mandatory post each week on a question that had nothing to do with the course such as “what is your happiest memory, what is your favorite food.” These posts helped people connect to each other and kept discussions from devolving into hostile finger pointing by reminding folks that everybody in the class was a real person. The actual academic discussions were better when they had these mandatory posts then when they didn’t, even though the posts had nothing to do with the course.

Of course, it’s very labor-intensive. Even when it’s something she’s taught before, so that the materials are already set up, she easily puts as much effort into it as into a meatspace class. It couldn’t be packaged and taught by a drone. Her institution does this not to save money on faculty (she is TT and this is part of her normal teaching load) but to serve their student population. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Not just because it’s a CC: being able to communicate well in an on-line environment is a useful skill and
probably students at all institutions could benefit from the experience of having to do so in an intensive way.

And Historiann and Notorious–I’m so old that when my undergrad university was touting its shiny new initative in distance education (i.e. videotaping faculty lectures), it wasn’t when I was a student, or junior faculty, but at my 20th reunion.

We teach courses that by and large follow a textbook. Such courses can be online. I usually tell the student in class that I’ll try to add to the text; just teaching the text in class is pointless.

We also teach courses where we have to repeatedly explain, demonstrate and solve problems. Such courses will never be taught online. The exchange, the glazed student eyes, the absorption of the solution are all personal and quite difficult. We must be there.

Online courses for *some* Master’s programs might make sense because people admitted to those programs have already proved themselves successful with undergrad level work. Western Dave’s example of using online college courses to complement a meatspace elite private school curriculum is less offensive to me too, because of the supervision his students will get. Where I see real problems with this is in taking students who haven’t yet proved they can read, write, and work independently and putting them into online courses. Quixote’s point about online working only when there’s also significant meatspace interaction too sounds right on to me. But discussions of online education rarely offer this kind of nuance (including discussions here, I will admit.)

As for me, they’ll have to take me out of the classroom in a box before I’ll teach online. I’m with Jonathan that what’s in my brain is not “content,” students are not “customers,” and going whole hog in for online education might ease even more of us out of secure jobs. (And it’s not like the profession hasn’t been eroded away as it is for 40 years!)

I hate to say I told you so, but who am I kidding? I LOVE to say that!!!