I recently had some conversations with a small university that is starting up a new distance learning program. The university president is convinced that the two-hour intro course provided by eCollege would be enough for professors to get up to speed on designing and teaching online. This sounded pretty far out-of-whack to me, so I decided to check around at some schools that have successful programs with multi-year track records. As a sample, the New School for Social Research apparently requires new online teachers to attend a six-week course in which they are online at least four days a week before they are allowed to teach their first class. (Returning teachers apparently “only” have to attend a four-week three-day-a-week refresher course.) The Borough of Manhattan Community College requires professors to attend a full semester training course, and all online course curricula have to be approved by a panel of distance learning administrators and designers before the course can be taught.
What it comes down to, I think, is that not everybody believes that there is such a thing as pedagogy. If you believe that teaching is just pouring content into empty vessels, like Charles Dickens’ Professor Gradgrind, then what’s there to learn about distance learning besides which buttons to click?
I wish that the professors at Macquarie had training like that suggested by your post. As it is the online component is essentially only a venue to ask questions of the professor.
The university is using webCT and underutilizing its potential. I am currently in my seventh and eigth classes none of the courses have done more than post the course content (which is also sent via courier) and have a 2-3 discussion per semester. The discussions have a very low participation level as they are not assessed and the professors basically do nothing to encourage them.
I realize how much work is involved in teaching online as I have previously used a hand-coded site with my students but from this semester (August 30) I will be using moodle which has involved a lot of time in planning and I am sure will take a lot of my time during the semester, but I am also equally sure that the benefits will be worth the extra effort.
Too bad my professors do not see that.
I don’t think that programs that don’t train teachers well will last. Right now, the situation in higher ed online learning is analogous to Internet ecommerce circa 1998. There’s very little competition relative to the demand and practically anybody can pull in students. But that won’t last. With online learning, it’s much easier for students to sample courses or even entire degree programs and dump them if they stink. There’s no geographical limitations to keep them from shopping around and very little in the way of having to rearrange schedules. At some point soon, schools are going to have to start competing seriously on the quality of the virtual classroom experience.
So hang in there!
Dear Michael
I Study Master Of MBA-IT,I have a project about ODL Business , I need some information but can not reach any of them is it possible to guide me to find my questions?
1.How long does it take to develop ODL
2.How long would lecturer usually take uses ODL
3.What category of students take up ODL (Oil & gas, IT, hospitality)
4.When is the best time for intake in the university
5.When is the best time to market postgraduates
6.What is the first important thing to implement
7.Who is the benchmarking university
8.What is after ODL
Your sincerely
Samouelo Rinoti