What lies across the bridge?
Radio and television commercials rarely close without a mention of it. It's surprising to see printed advertising that doesn't include one. On business stationary, especially personal business cards, it's as common as the traditional name, address, and telephone number. Unless you have been in hibernation during the 90's, you immediately recognize that I'm referring to an email address. If an email address is a key to a gate, what lies beyond the gate?
You swallow a dose of reality, with equal parts of peer pressure and curiosity, and get your license to access the information superhighway: you are the captain of your vessel, with a login name and password that you alone control. Your abilities to correspond effectively on the Internet will be judged differently based on your audience. Do you know what the most powerful social tools are today? Do you have the skills to navigate the vast territory known as "the web," and know how to use those tools? If you know the answers to these questions, you also know that constant nurturing is required.
The college experience is intended to develop individuals into valuable members of society, and students must complete specific courses that, together, achieve the intended goal. Each college student should be required to take at least one online course.
It's been decided: every college student should be required to take, and pass at least one online course. All that is left to implementing this new requirement is changing a small amount of text in college catalogues, adding a few new classes to the schedule, and assigning teachers to the new classes. Or is there more to consider?
Difficulties encountered in implementing "change" can range from simple to complex, and the latter is highly likely if a change in behavior is required. "Change" is good, especially if the change is a response to a specific need. For example, a person might express a desire to attend college classes but cannot make a commitment to attending classes at a specific time each week. This limitation in availability can be caused by different factors. There may be a larger population with identical limitations.
Colleges provide a "service," and service providers should be cognizant of the changing needs of the people they serve. Academic administrators should also be aware of evolving technologies that can be used to enhance the service offering, and determine which teaching methods are appropriate for a given subject. This is not to imply that a teaching "method" is the sole ingredient for academic success: the primary components of learning are the teacher, the student, and the media used.
Is there something different than the traditional class meeting that a college can offer a group of people who are challenged with overlapping commitments to a job, family, children, community service, or other obstacle? Are these challenges unique to adults in modern society? The answers are simple. Colleges that are willing to change and adapt to modern needs may benefit from their commitment with increased enrollment. Students who take advantage of new opportunities may benefit because of skills or behaviors that are intrinsic to the new setting. Challenges caused by personal restrictions have been, and will continue to be present.
Responses to the kinds of problems described earlier were considered innovative at their inception. During earlier times in this century, correspondence courses, television, and radio were used. The major component lacking in each of these media was two-way communication between teacher and student. Recent technological advances provide a broad base of distance learning possibilities. Of these possibilities, online courses that use email as the primary communication method are probably the most adaptable for teachers and students. There are also several remarkable benefits to this form of distance learning.
Now that I've isolated my study to one distant learning method, online courses, it's necessary to develop a plan for implementation. The simplicity of implementation I described earlier is not feasible: there are important considerations that cannot be ignored if the plan is to be successful.
I'll begin with a review of program design, with a focus on which courses can be offered as online courses, and the issue of interaction. The goals, needs, and characteristics of teachers and students have to be considered when evaluating the feasibility of a course for online applicability. Another important building block in this foundation of program design is the ability for interaction between teacher and student. Studies indicate students who do not have access to the teacher will suffer and drop out of the class. The ability to interact with other students can be beneficial also. A well-defined schedule of due dates for papers is an example of encouraging interaction between teacher and student. Students also become less vulnerable to procrastination with this condition.
Let's assume that we have crossed several hurdles in our examination:
Are there any other issues that restrict a student's ability to enroll in one of the online courses that I suggest as a prerequisite to getting a college degree? The most common restriction would be the lack of access to a computer and/or the Internet, followed by limited-or-no skills using a personal computer. Don't despair: these restrictions are not insurmountable!
Prices for personal computers continue to lower, as does the cost to access the Internet, which is likely to account for the increase of U.S. households that have access to the Internet between 1997 and 1998. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports an increase from nineteen percent to twenty-six percent during that one-year period.
A demographic study reveals that access to the Internet differs based on ethnicity:
Let's assume that you are not among the growing number of PC owners with access to the Internet, but you have learned some PC skills. Chances are high that the college you are attending will have PC's with Internet access that you can use for the online class that you must take. If you need to develop your PC skills, classes are available for all levels of learning needs.
On this journey of validating the value that you will reap from the online class experience, let's add to our list of obstacles, and assume that we have overcome them:
The path has been cut and you are enrolled in an online class, but you are not convinced that this experience will be enjoyable or rewarding. You are reasonable in your apprehension, so let's look at some advantages and disadvantages of this new adventure, starting with the advantages.
Advantages
With so many advantages, can there be any disadvantages of significance? I can only think of one: There is no live, physical interaction. Social interaction, face-to-face or otherwise, is required and cannot be avoided. This is true in positive and adverse conditions. In face-to-face interaction, body language and voice inflection add dimension to the words that are spoken. In a telephone conversation, voice inflection, again, provides an additional dimension to the spoken word. When the dynamic elements of live voice and body language are removed, leaving only the written word to be judged, the true intent of a message can be lost because of poor written communication.Various results are possible.
An online course, especially one that measures the effectiveness of communication, will develop and reinforce abilities that can be used for a lifetime. Imagine that you are responding to an employment ad, and you are told to send your resume via email. Along with your resume, you are told to include a short summary about yourself. Can you write a short piece that describes your character, so that someone reading it could see you from the inside? You would want to do your best work in this example.
You say that you want to be treated like an adult. An online course should suit your needs well! You will be given a schedule of deadlines for assignments, and will not be reminded periodically as a due date approaches. I just described an adult concept that is used daily by creditors worldwide: pay your debts on or before the due date to avoid negative consequences.
I've shown that the advantages of participating in an online class outweigh the disadvantages, particularly based on the needs of the student. Flexibility is the cornerstone of the concept. Do not overlook the flexibility that an online course allows a teacher to enjoy also: teachers are able to "teach" from virtually anywhere that a telephone line exists. The teacher can break from teaching to take walks, do household chores, or a variety of other tasks he/she might not be able to accomplish in a traditional setting. If happy students are likely to be effective students, it's reasonable also to conclude that happy teachers are likely to be objective teachers. Students and teachers both win!
Our culture is no longer a state or national culture, but a world culture. Our society operates on a 24x7 clock. To declare that people are always available is a truism, but in a virtual sense. If you need to convey a message to someone in our modern society, you can do so in your unique style, at any time, provided you both have access to email. But will your message be understood correctly? Allow yourself the opportunity to be evaluated by instructors who recognize a student's desire to improve. The virtues of an online course can be rewarding for a student who is committed to personal time management, meeting deadlines, and a positive attitude toward achieving communication excellence. These are virtues of quality that will be useful in achieving life success.
Reference
McKinney, Brian. (Instructor, Diablo Valley College). Classroom lecture. 23 Aug. 1999. Personal interview. 8 Sep. 1999
Munroe, Tapan. "Society has to bridge the Net gap." Contra Costa Times 9 Sep 1999, sec B: 1, 5
Sherry, L. "Issues in Distance Learning." International
Journal of Educational Telecommunications I (4) (1996): 337-365
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Questions? Brian McKinney (bmckinne@home.com)