Online Courses: What to Expect and What Needs to Change
Written by Meltem Cana Etiz
@meltemcanaetiz
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
Online courses already have or are going to become a reality for most of us returning to school for Summer and Fall courses. Many students appear to have concerns about workload, timing, engagement, focus and formatting of course delivery, all of which are valid and vital institutional factors. If you are a student who is feeling anxiety creep up because
You do not know what to expect,
The online half of Winter 2020 was a bad experience,
You have a learning disability,
Your equipment and WIFI connection aren't reliable,
All of the above and more, then please keep reading.
The road ahead is full of hopeful cautions.
My Experience (Winter & Spring 2020)
I want to begin by letting you know that I am (perhaps) an odd duck who loves learning above all. When the subject is enjoyable, I am generally successful, but I grind my teeth when it isn't. I make an effort to be interested in the material, and I work hard and earn decent grades.
Ending the last month of the Winter semester in a remote learning environment was difficult for me. I was not ready to manage the sudden shift between in-person and online delivery of courses and incorporate this change into my daily schedule.
I have only taken one online course in my three-year experience at SMU. Fast forward to Winter 2020, and I was going into the online experience with fear, unpreparedness and laziness: the trifecta of procrastination at a level of professional excellence.
I managed to get my work done while in lockdown with others who were driven to "get this over with." By the end of the Winter term, no one wanted to learn any more; we only cared about our GPAs and making the Pass/Fail cut. We would isolate ourselves for a few hours to focus, then regroup for breaks and chat online. Our work suffered, as did our group's mood. We became more pessimistic in our interactions. Our conversations about our professors changed too. We no longer evaluated them based on their lecturing abilities and comprehensiveness. Instead, we praised professors who showed compassion (i.e. those who extended deadlines, re-evaluated rubrics, showed leniency in necessary cases) and criticized those who did not. I should note that I did, in fact, emotionally and mentally survive the semester despite doubting myself the entire time.
In May, against all instinct, I decided to proceed with the three courses I had registered for the Spring semester. I knew the new semester was going to introduce new challenges for four reasons: the condensed timeline (the two-month learning window instead of the three and a half), not buying required online textbooks (hard to read for some), professors who were not accustomed to online delivery having to adjust with their students and an unstructured environment's effects on the ADHD brain. The semester lived up to and surpassed my expectations of difficulty. Although there were trivial differences, I did not find that stress was more of a concern than an on-campus semester.
Observations
Throughout the Spring 2020 semester, I collected some information on how classes operate and the impact of structure and idiosyncrasies of courses on the learning experience. As a person who struggles with attention dysregulation, I want to share my perceptions and experience with hopes that it will inform and/or relieve some of you.
The following are the various online-delivery formats that came up more frequently:
Photo by Ulrich Wechselberger on Pixabay
Pre-recorded video lectures:
Generally longer than other forms (over an hour per recording)
Slides included within recordings are not detailed and are hard to access without skipping through the video lecture, which makes it time inefficient
The ideal format for podcast-listeners or people who like to busy themselves with other tasks in class (e.g. house chores, hairstyling, cooking etc.)
Professors have more time to explain concepts and elaborate on topics without interruption
No peer/professor interaction "in class," with the exception of emails and sometimes discussion boards
Pre-recorded audio lectures with slides:
Lectures are usually around an hour
Talking speed of professors vary, and if slides are posted separately, students will most likely need to pause audio recordings to take adequate notes
Suitable for fast note-takers and those trained in dictation writing
Maybe hard to follow if one is not entirely focused
No peer/professor interaction "in class," with the exception of emails and discussion boards
Similar to pre-recorded video lectures, with easier access to slides for reading and note-taking
Slides with supplementary aids (e.g. videos):
Very time-efficient and dependent on self-regulation
Slides need to be detailed and comprehensive; supplementary aids need to be checked for quality and availability on free, accessible and international platforms for student success
Subjective interpretation may be an issue for many
No peer/professor interaction "in class," with the exception of emails and discussion boards
Supplementary aids may or may not be reliable or necessary to the learning process
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Real-time virtual classroom:
Usually takes place in the official time-frame for the course; may take the full time or end earlier, depending on your professor
Good for routine-based learning, because it creates structure and a sense of collective interaction
Opportunity to ask real-time questions
Communication is mainly through the text-based chat feature, though this may change for seminars and smaller class sizes
Minimal peer interaction, with the exception of chatting in lecture
Most similar to the traditional classroom environment
Understanding differences between the formatting options is pertinent to both the choice of classes during registration and the ability to complete them successfully. As a result of this mass-scale switch to online platforms, our traditional idea of academic settings is eroding (e.g. in-class/in-person and crowd-based learning). We are now responsible for our own motivation and self-efficacy. However, this does not eliminate the responsibility our institutions and faculty members have of providing an accessible, cost-effective, and student-centred education.
In addition to our responsibilities as students, which are first and foremost self-awareness and respect for our learning processes, there are a few changes I would personally like to highlight that would be beneficial to the online learning process as a whole.
Proposals:
A buddy-system: I am suggesting that professors of all faculties and departments be encouraged to audit other professors' courses to observe teaching quality and style, allowing for non-grade motivated criticism for every online course. If all professors, even briefly audit one another, I believe (loosely-based on the Panopticon phenomenon) that teaching quality will improve significantly. Auditing another professor's course would not only be beneficial for course quality and fairness, but also for interdisciplinary communication.
Monetary subsidization: Many students are not incredibly pleased with the lack of change surrounding tuition for online courses. Everyone wants to save money. I have to bring up the issue being more significant for lab and hands-on students, especially those with limited resources (e.g. functioning computers, WIFI access, etc.) since they are likely unable to make the most of the courses they are paying for. While understanding that lower tuition and fees may not be an option for all, we need to acknowledge that courses offered to students who need applicable skills suffer a greater loss of their tuition. We all (should) want quality education that is affordable, and the way to ask for it reasonably is by starting with asking for reduced costs to those who need it.
Several options of delivery: As mentioned above in the Observations section, several options of delivery and early notification of the format for courses need to be offered so that students can decide whether they can learn within a specific delivery format. This information should be clearly presented in the course syllabus, if not sooner by the professor. As I implied earlier, the teaching method makes the difference between a D and an A, not to mention the difference between a pass and a fail.
Professors' understanding: This is perhaps the most critical proposal I have. In the time of a worldwide pandemic, uncertainty and maladjustment, the empathy from a professor can genuinely change a life. The value of extended deadlines, listening and working with students’ needs and limits is priceless. I stated how I spent the Winter term viewing compassion as the central factor of a good professor, and I haven’t changed my mind. In challenging times, the failure of students is often the failure of professors.
With such realizations and improvements, the Fall term, while possibly still challenging, will see a smoother transition. Hopefully, we can all appreciate the collective effort poured into post-secondary education by Saint Mary's University and work to achieve a student-centric environment for the next few months.