Laura,

Thanks for alerting us to this!

I sent around the following email to my class; it will be interesting
to see how they respond.

PEACE
Kerry



Hi everyone,

You may have noticed an OU Daily editorial against online courses:
http://tinyurl.com/yfgp5q

The article contains this indictment:  "The concept of online
education is rife with inconsistencies, and although plenty of
regular OU classes fail to connect with students, the best
experiences that Internet courses can offer can never equal the value
of time spent with good professors who operate instructional
classrooms."

One online instructor here at OU who is a very close colleague of
mine has replied to the article (see text below).  I would add to her
remarks one more point:  that I tried to design this course to
maximize student-to-student interaction, which I believe is as
important a factor in effective learning as interaction with the
professor.  (Maybe few professors want to admit this?  It does run
contrary to traditional views of the teacher as the hub of the wheel,
where all communications between students run like spokes through the
teacher as the center and omnipresent mediator.)  To the contrary of
the article's assertion quoted above, I believe that the real
potential of online courses comes from the ways they can give every
student a voice, and elevate the role of student-to-student
interaction in learning.  My professorial interaction is more subtle
and less authoritarian than in a classroom.  So whether student-to-
student interaction was effective, and how to improve it, would be my
chief concern about the effectiveness of this course.  What do you
think?  Reading this article might jog your thoughts as you approach
your final reflections essay for this course.  I would be very
interested in your reaction to this article if you want to
incorporate any comments in your final reflection.  Thanks!

PEACE
Kerry

----------- reply by Prof. Laura Gibbs -------------
As often, the OU Daily editorial pontificates with confidence,
without actually supplying any information to support their claims.
For example, you state that "the concept of online education is rife
with inconsistencies," without even explaining what this means. What
inconsistencies? Online education is innovative, and it is indeed
different from classroom-based learning, but I would argue that the
innovation of online education is extremely beneficial, promoting
much more sustained and in-depth learning than is possible in
traditional classroom encounters.

Far more troubling is this bald assertion: "the best experiences that
Internet courses can offer can never equal the value of time spent
with good professors who operate instructional classrooms." Now how
on earth can you support such a claim? As someone who has taught both
in the classroom and online, I am absolutely certain that my online
courses are far superior to the classes I taught in the classroom.
This is because the Internet provides a far richer, more stimulating
and more challenging learning environment than the bare walls of a
classroom where students, for the most part, sit silently, staring
into space.

As I warn the students in my online classes every semester, a well-
designed online course is far more demanding in terms of time and
personal responsibility than a classroom-based course. Instead of
just being required to sit themselves down in a classroom and keep
their eyes open (hopefully) for less than 3 hours per week, my
students do active, engaged work for 6 to 8 hours per week, every
week. If people who have never taken an online course are interested
in learning more about how they actually work, all my online course
materials, along with students projects, are available at http://
mythfolklore.net. I am incredibly proud of what my students
accomplish in these classes. I challenge the OU Daily to demonstrate
that the work the students do in these classes does not equal or
exceed the quality of work produced in classroom-based General
Education courses at this university.

The future of online education is an important issue for schools and
universities across the country. It is a shame that the OU Daily
could not do a better job of promoting a better-informed discussion
of this topic here at OU.








On Dec 6, 2006, at 4:45 PM, Gibbs, Laura K. wrote:


> hello everybody, I don't know if it has shown up in the print
> version of the Daily yet, but the online Daily has published an
> editorial denouncing online courses. here is the comment I have
> submitted in response to the article; I wanted to let everyone know
> about this in case you are interested in sharing your views, too. I
> find it really shocking that the Daily would assert that all online
> courses are substandard in quality. that is unfair  both to the
> instructors and to the students who put a lot of effort into these
> courses! anyway, here's a link to the online editorial, and I've
> pasted in the comment I submitted below.
>
> link to the OU Daily article:
> http://tinyurl.com/yfgp5q
>
>
> As often, the OU Daily editorial pontificates with confidence,
> without actually supplying any information to support their claims.
> For example, you state that "the concept of online education is
> rife with inconsistencies," without even explaining what this
> means. What inconsistencies? Online education is innovative, and it
> is indeed different from classroom-based learning, but I would
> argue that the innovation of online education is extremely
> beneficial, promoting much more sustained and in-depth learning
> than is possible in traditional classroom encounters.
>
> Far more troubling is this bald assertion: "the best experiences
> that Internet courses can offer can never equal the value of time
> spent with good professors who operate instructional classrooms."
> Now how on earth can you support such a claim? As someone who has
> taught both in the classroom and online, I am absolutely certain
> that my online courses are far superior to the classes I taught in
> the classroom. This is because the Internet provides a far richer,
> more stimulating and more challenging learning environment than the
> bare walls of a classroom where students, for the most part, sit
> silently, staring into space.
>
> As I warn the students in my online classes every semester, a well-
> designed online course is far more demanding in terms of time and
> personal responsibility than a classroom-based course. Instead of
> just being required to sit themselves down in a classroom and keep
> their eyes open (hopefully) for less than 3 hours per week, my
> students do active, engaged work for 6 to 8 hours per week, every
> week. If people who have never taken an online course are
> interested in learning more about how they actually work, all my
> online course materials, along with students projects, are
> available at http://mythfolklore.net. I am incredibly proud of what
> my students accomplish in these classes. I challenge the OU Daily
> to demonstrate that the work the students do in these classes does
> not equal or exceed the quality of work produced in classroom-based
> General Education courses at this university.
>
> The future of online education is an important issue for schools
> and universities across the country. It is a shame that the OU
> Daily could not do a better job of promoting a better-informed
> discussion of this topic here at OU.
>
>