E–Education
Online courses give students a broader range
of opportunities
by marion harmon
E-mail, instant messaging, online purchasing—the Internet
is all about saving time. But when it comes to teaching and learning,
it’s all about timing. And new technologies are giving California
State University, Chico teachers and students more options about
when and how they learn. Online courses provide students and faculty
greater flexibility, more efficient access to information, and a
wider variety of ways to communicate.
CSU, Chico has a long history of leading the way with educational
technology. The university entered the electronic age with its distance
classes in 1975 and has been recognized nationally and internationally
as a pioneer in distance education. It was the first university
in the world to deliver a graduate degree program via satellite
and one of the first to demonstrate video-streaming as an educational
delivery system.
“The Chancellor’s office wanted to have more entry points
for students within the CSU system,” says Patricia Smiley,
a physical education and exercise science professor who was one
of the first faculty to offer an online class at CSU, Chico. “Having
taught through the microwave tower and television, I thought that
for single mothers, returning students, those with second careers,
people at a distance—this is a much better way to deliver
instruction through a live connection with a faculty member.”
Smiley, who has taught on campus for 30 years, has developed a fully
online course on introduction to dance. It utilizes all of the tools—writing,
chat, discussion boards, and online testing—of WebCT, the
software program that CSU, Chico uses for online instruction. Smiley
says that working with the new technology has made her teaching
more exciting and more challenging.
“You’ve got to be precise,” notes Smiley. “You’ve
got to know exactly how to convey the instructions to students,
anticipate student expectations, and come up with new ideas when
new technology comes out.”
Chico professors can choose the tools they feel will work with their
curriculum and teach either partially or fully online courses. “All
of my courses, whether they meet face-to-face or not, make use of
the WebCT online environment for resources and 24/7 information,”
says arts education professor Cris Guenter. “I like it because
it’s a framework, and I can be creative in using audio, video
clips, and other features.”
Some teachers are dubious that online instruction can offer all
that a traditional classroom setting can, especially human connections.
But Guenter is quick to point to its benefits.
“People make the assumption that the technology is dehumanizing,”
she says. “I would gently ask that they stop and think about
how it’s being used, because humans are the ones using the
hardware and software and making the connections that will be meaningful
to others.”
Instead of being alienated and alone at the end of a phone line,
online classes can create close connections among professors and
students. “I don’t just walk away and say you’re
on your own,” says Smiley. “I’m constantly giving
them updates, feedback, e-mailing information. I think it actually
goes beyond what happens in the classroom because the students are
all interconnected.”
Faculty meet with most students (unless they’re in another
location like New York) the first week of class to go over how it
all works. Students can review the lectures and online chats with
the class as often as they like. Some professors also include periodic
live sessions, such as in Guenter’s class where every other
week students can see her lecturing and type their responses. Guenter
and her students also engage in conference telephone calls every
few weeks, and students post discussions in an online forum.
“In the forum, those thoughts are recorded and students can
come back to them, reflect on them, and two months later, it’s
still there in text format so they can add to it and cite each other,”
says Guenter. “Those ideas become richer and allow for more
investigation.”
Class discussions occasionally extend beyond the end of the semester.
“Some faculty have told me that their WebCT course discussions
still happened months after the course was done,” notes Kathy
Fernandes, director of academic technologies.
Students sharpen their computer and organizational skills in an
online course. “It enhances student learning because they
have to become more computer literate,” says Smiley. “They
have to learn to work independently, write well, and make quick
decisions, which the workforce will ask them to do.”
M.B.A. student Sonja Arnet said she took Smiley’s introduction
to dance class two years ago because she was curious about what
an online class had to offer. “Online classes give you the
flexibility to complete the course work at times that work best
for you,” says Arnet. “Also, online instruction really
opened my eyes to the vast resources of the Internet. I had no idea
how easy it would be to communicate with my classmates and professor
over the Internet.
“During our real-time chat sessions, we would discuss upcoming
projects or even study for midterms together. Although we did not
meet often in person, I really got to know my classmates and Dr.
Smiley through our frequent online communication.”
Janet Green, a graduate student in education, enrolled in Guenter’s
fully online arts curriculum development and instruction class last
spring to foster her interest in technology and to avoid the commute
from her home in Yuba City.
“During the semester we were looking at streaming video of
dance performances, listening to music, visiting online museums.
Cris really worked hard to create an online community,” says
Green. “We all interacted with each other and looked forward
to those one-hour live online meetings. We also submitted a lesson
plan to the Kennedy Center for possible online publication and chatted
with two people from the Kennedy Center.”
Over the last four years, Guenter estimates that at least 15 of
her students’ lessons have been published on the Kennedy Center’s
ArtsEdge Web site. Paula Johnson, a graduate student in education,
has her integrated arts lesson at artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2343,
for which she received compliments from the curriculum staff at
ArtsEdge.
Of course, online instruction is not all a bed of roses. It helps
if the professor is technologically savvy and motivated and has
a good support system. CSU, Chico’s Technology and Learning
Program offers training sessions and individual consultations to
faculty preparing online courses. Some faculty find that they need
a graduate assistant with Internet skills to make their online courses
successful. Students must be self-motivated and able to work independently.
Those without good typing and computer skills can have a difficult
time keeping up. There are also technical glitches, like getting
bumped offline during a live session with the professor and having
to reboot and thus missing some of the class.
“It’s been relatively trouble free,” notes Guenter.
“The biggest problem that my students have experienced is
staying connected, and it’s not because of the course but
rather the phone line connections.”
When students get disconnected, they can review the portions of
the sessions that they missed through a direct link on WebCT. The
campus has also recently addressed this issue by purchasing a server
dedicated to the online courses.
With about 700 courses currently incorporating some level of online
technology, CSU, Chico students and faculty continue to explore
the benefits and flexibility provided through online instruction.
Technology Meets Pedagogy
In the summer of 2002, 14 faculty and staff at CSU, Chico discussed
issues related to how students learn, particularly in an online
environment. These meetings resulted in the creation of a Rubric
for Online Instruction, which not only promotes an ongoing discussion
about the nature of student learning, but also helps faculty develop
and evaluate both partially and fully online courses.
The rubric is a framework that guides faculty in creating exemplary
instruction based on criteria in six categories, including instructional
design and delivery, learner support and resources, and faculty
use of student feedback. In spring 2003, they offered the rubric
to the campus community and invited nominations for recognition
of online courses. Six faculty, among them professors of education
(Guenter), physical education (Smiley), plant and soil science (Bellaloui
and Altier), and political science, were recognized by the Center
for Excellence in Learning and Teaching with exemplary online instruction
awards.
About 25 institutions of higher learning have expressed interest
in using the rubric, and it has been recognized by the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation and EDUCAUSE. The rubric has provided faculty not
only with guidelines for developing their courses but also with
opportunities for sharing their online instruction ideas with other
faculty. “I have faculty coming into the lab starting the
redesign process of their own courses based on what they’ve
seen from others and from looking at the rubric,” says Laura
Sederberg, manager of the Technology and Learning Program. “The
rubric is really helping to define some tangibles about when we
say online, what does that mean? What is a high-quality learning
environment? I think it’s been a good start for a lot of people
to understand technology and pedagogy coming together.”
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