Details
- David Syphers
- Inside Higher Ed
- February 3, 2022
Quotes
- “In April 2020, it was fair to say many of the “online” courses weren’t well designed. However, it’s rather bizarre to claim this in February 2022. If nearly two years of experience and training in how to design online courses, including universities making them all go through Quality Matters, doesn’t result in acceptable online courses, are we setting an impossible standard?”
- “What I’d like to see is proponents of online courses honestly confronting the fact that the format doesn’t work well for some students and for some courses. And I’d like them to throw out every study that didn’t randomize the assignment of modality.”
π thoughts
I’m no fan-boy of digital learning, but I have seen the high quality (and low quality!) that is possible with digital learning. How could he possibly say that he thinks current online courses are well-designed (and well-delivered, two very different things)?:
- The academy has had hundreds of years to figure out best practices for teaching face-to-face classes.
- A small percentage of professors apply best practices extensively when designing a class and actively seek feedback from specialists in order to improve in significant ways.
- The academy has had maybe 10-20 years with anything approximating the current technology stack when designing online courses.
- Best practices around online courses are far less known and implemented than their face-to-face cousins.
- Supporting wide-spread online teaching requires a pedagogical support staff that is extensive and up-to-date with their skills and has the time to spend on every online course (or, at least, those faculty who will accept them into their design process).
- This is definitely not the case today.
Call me back in 20 years and then let me know if this has changed. I bet the online courses will be much more engaging than they are today.
Also, of course online doesn’t currently work well for some students and for some courses! Face-to-face doesn’t work well for some students and for some courses, either. But it’s also the case that a course improves over time. Let’s not compare courses delivered by faculty online for the first time with courses that have been delivered by faculty face-to-face for decades. Give it time.
