I often meet with college administrators to discuss either implementing or expanding online class offerings. One of the major issues is how to ensure the quality of the online classes. This is a very real and legitimate concern. Schools live and die by their reputation. The schools that I work with do not want to be seen as a correspondence school, where you send in money and they send you a degree. Nor do they want to be seen as a diploma mill.
I agree with their concerns and so do my three daughters, Alexis, Ashleigh and Blayze and my son-in-law, Robbie. I can tell they care about quality because of their choice of schools. Each picked schools based upon their reputation and how a degree from the school would help them along their career path. They did not want to spend thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands for Alexis’ JD/MBA, Ashleigh’s MSW and Robbie’s Ph.D.) to have a degree from a diploma mill. (Blayze’s bill is not that high yet, but she is only a freshman at a state school – thank you, Florida Prepaid and Bright Futures)
It not only hurts the school’s reputation, it hurts students’ reputations for their school to be considered a diploma mill . I know when I hire people, I always look at the schools they chose to attend. If I feel the school is a diploma mill, it raises questions of their judgment. How did they spend their time and money? How did they wish to be perceived? There is usually some explaining to do.
When I talk to a school administrator regarding the quality of online classes, I like to start the discussion by looking at their traditional classes. How do they ensure the quality of these classes? Can we build upon this same process for online class offerings?
If you had the chance to talk to a school’s chairman, dean, provost, vice president or president, what would they say about the quality of online classes?
Nyles
www.socrategy.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Absolutely. As I watched my undergraduate institution grow and grow and grow, I became progressively worried that perception of my education could be downgraded. This isn't a fate anyone wants for a degree they've worked so hard for.
ReplyDeleteI don't think a dean/provost/chairman what have you could HONESTLY say that online courses (the way they are presented now) are on par with face to face class room time. They'd more then likely say that it's a "very effective way to bring education to more people and provide access to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to get an advanced degree." I think they'd present it as an adaquate solution to a very real problem - access.
This is not to say that there isn't a place for virtual classrooms in the future. All of the online classes I've ever taken (all for my psych degree, biology didn't offer any) have been the same model: Read a section, post a discussion topic for the class to read, write a paper, get a grade. This isn't nearly as productive as "read a section, show up to class and discuss it". Is this to say that in the future virtual classrooms with interaction couldn't be an effective way for students and teachers to "meet"? Absolutely not. "Face to face" interaction can mean many things, especially with the type of technology we have available.