rethinking the
(student-centered) classroom: reasons to open up online spaces
Who we are:
- Oldest private military college in the country.
- Student body is approximately 70% Corps and 30% "Civilian" students.
- Students who choose the corps lifestyle are required to live on campus.
- A new civilian dorm is being completed as we speak, so, as of Fall 2014, all civilian students will be required to live on campus as well (Currently: 86% for all four years).
- Online graduate school and degree completion programs.
- Some departments offer a few hybrid courses at their own discretion.
Arguments Against teaching online:
- Unnecessary
- Undermines our value
- Monologue vs. Dialogue
- Less work for faculty (work ethic)
- Student's lack of discipline
Photo Source: Golen West College
"A truly memorable college class, even a large one, is a collaboration between teacher and students. It is a one-time-only event. Learning at its best is a collaborative enterprise, something we've known since Socrates. You can only get knowledge from an Internet course if you're highly motivated to learn. But in real courses the students and teachers come together and create an immediate and vital community of learning. A real course creates intellectual joy, at least in some. I don't think an Internet course ever will. Internet learning promises to make intellectual life more sterile and abstract than it already is--and also, for teachers and students alike--far more lonely."--Mark Edmundson, "The Trouble with Online Education," NYTimes
The sloan-C report, 2011
Nursing
"Student responses to the use of technology validated that readability and productive use of time met the framework benchmarks. The students described how educational practices, such as active learning, time on task, meaningful feedback, positive student-faculty interaction, collaboration with peers, respect for diverse ways of learning, and high expectations of the courses,helped achieve outcomes of learning. The convenience, access, feeling part of an online community, and increased sense of professionalism were reported as additional positive aspects of online learning." --Fearing and Riley (2005)
ENgineering
"Both parties indicated that they not only liked this type of discussion added to the course, but they also felt that this particular item helped to engage the students even further in the course. What’s more, student comments in this area supported this as well: “helped us get more in touch with ethics, other students’ opinions, and thoughts”; “it is the only way to engage in an online class”; and “allowed us all to get involved with each other and get other points of view.”--Feldhouse and Fox (2013)
Maximize inclusion
"'Noisy
learners' are those who are active and creative in the learning process. 'Noisy learners' often dominate a traditional
F2F classroom. We’ve found that introverts become much more active in a virtual
learning environment because they can take more time to think out and craft
their response and prefer a ‘quiet’ environment."--Nipper
"Some students that they appreciated the potential that many to many communication offered. The access to other students' ideas and opinions, the fact that everybody had equal access to "the floor," and the importance of interaction and feedback were cited by many students as positive impacts." --Bullen (2008)
Student-Centered
"Today it is possible for anyone to become an information provider for others, thereby democratizing information access and enabling new roles for network users. In the most successful online courses, students assume some of the roles that traditionally belong to the instructor. Individually or in groups, they develop expertise on a topic and present their knowledge to the rest of their learning community."--Harrison and Stephen (1996)
Technological literacy
"Learning
through the use of technology allows participants to explore its use in more
general terms. Students participating
regularly in an online course cannot help but improve their ability to use
technology with confidence."--Palloff and Pratt
"Students who take online classes become more proficient and comfortable with using computers. Through assignments, discussion forums, and group projects, students can learn to connect with one another online and with information in meaningful and useful ways. Skills like these are in demand by employers."--Cain 2013
WRITING INTENSIVE
"Online writing instruction provides the opportunity for not just a different approach, but a progressive approach to the way teachers of teach writing --an evolution of sorts in writing instruction. This belief stems from several factors inherent in the OWcourse. One is the sheer amount of writing exchanged among students and the teacher in an OWcourse; few onsite courses offer the chance for this amount of writing. Second is the number of opportunities that open up when students create so much writing, much of it informal and developmental. The third is that because the interaction in OWcourse format […] are almost entirely written, students are faced with a unique educational challenge/pressure to write to communicate everything in the course."--Warnock (2004)
rethinking the (student-centered) classroom:
By Dalyn Luedtke
