A recent study reflects faculty members' anxieties and doubts about online courses.
Online education continues its meteoric rise on college campuses, and
many faculty members are frightened by its growth and prevalence, notes
a recent study by Inside Higher Ed and the Babson Survey Research Group, which has spent more than a decade studying online education.
The report, which surveyed 4,564 faculty members, reveals that 58
percent of respondents "described themselves as filled more with fear
than with excitement" over the growth of online courses within higher education.
The fears of college faculty are sustained by the consistent rise in popularity
of online education during the past decade. The number of college
students enrolled in at least one online course increased for the ninth
straight year, with more than 6.1 million students taking an online
course during fall 2010—a 10.1 percent increase over fall 2009,
according to a separate Babson report.
[Read about free online education programs that are flooding the market.]
While some of these fears could be attributed to professors not
seeing the benefits of digital education, others may worry that
instructors could be replaced altogether by online courses, says Dan
Johnson, a senior lecturer at Wake Forest University.
"It's the idea of being able to do with technology what has been done
with people in the past," Johnson says. "There is a very real fear that
this will be cutting into the education system and actually not just
supplementing instructors but replacing them."
Although opinions differ between professors who have worked with an
online component and those who have not, 66 percent of all faculty
members surveyed say that the learning outcomes of online courses are
inferior, compared to traditional courses. Among faculty members who
teach online courses exclusively, 39 percent note that online courses
produce inferior learning outcomes.
[See how online education may transform higher education.]
But instead of making comparisons on learning outcomes between online
courses and classroom courses, educators should base opinions on the
actual course design, says Diane Johnson, assistant director of faculty
services at the Center for Online Learning at St. Leo University.
"It's all based on how the course is designed," she says. "You can't
compare one course with another without looking at instructional design,
whether it's face to face or online."
Wake Forest's Johnson agrees, noting that educators are making
judgments and comparisons between traditional courses and online
courses, when each requires "different assessments and evaluations."
"I could easily put together a series of assessments that would look
at online [courses] versus brick-and-mortar [courses], and you would see
much better outcomes for online," he says. "I could also create a
different set of evaluations, and we would clearly see better benefits
in a brick-and-mortar environment. We just don't know what we're looking
for."
[Explore five tips before you pursue an online education.]
The future of online education looks bright, though, according to
some full-time professors—which accounted for roughly three-fourths of
all faculty surveyed. Forty percent reported that online courses have
the potential to match in-class instruction for learning outcomes.
But, much like in face-to-face learning environments, the success of
the course is dependent on the quality of the instructor, notes Julanna
Gilbert, executive director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at
the University of Denver.
"For the future, it's about getting enough people enough professional
development so they can also teach high-quality online courses,"
Gilbert says. "You still need a faculty member because you still need
feedback."
[Discover four technology must haves for online students.]
In order for faculty members to fully embrace online education in
traditional settings, though, they must stop resisting these changes in
technology, Wake Forest's Johnson says.
"We can argue against it all we want," he says. "But if we're
spending all our time arguing … we lose the ability to help shape it so
that it goes in the direction that's helpful for the students. We can
turn online learning into a marvel of the 21st century, or we can turn
it into a horrible mistake."
Source : usnews.com