STUDENT: I'd like to get in to your _________ class. [The blank is to protect the innocent and/or the guilty).
ME: Wow. It's a bit far into the course. We've already covered quite a bit, and it might be difficult for you to catch up. Why do you want in now?
STUDENT: Well, I signed up for two online courses, and now I'm done. So I need to add more credits.
ME: What courses did you complete so quickly?
STUDENT: _____________ and _______________. [Again, blanks to protect... Both the courses would be considered solid, transferrable academic courses.]
ME: Ok. Could I ask how you were able to complete them so quickly? [At this point, I'm trying to hold back my shock... it must have worked.]
STUDENT: You could take the tests as many times as you wanted. They were automatically graded. I just kept taking the tests until I got the grade I wanted, then I moved on to the next one.
ME: So how much did you really learn?
STUDENT: My high school speech teacher said if you remembered something for 48 hours then you "learned" it. I think I learned most of it.
ME: [Several moments of silent, but disguised, disbelief.] Well, I guess. Let's at least get you the syllabus and the first few assignments. If you can't catch up, there is no shame is dropping the course, right?
STUDENT: Yeah.
The student is struggling in my course. They are dedicated, but probably won't be inducted into the Mensa Society anytime soon. But how they are doing in my course isn't what is gnawing at me.
At the rate the student completed those online courses, they would be able to obtain their entire Associates Degree in just over one semester; their full Bachelors degree in a year and half a summer--in about 1/4 of the time a full-speed ahead undergraduate could complete their studies. This entire scenario raises some serious questions for me:
- How much learning took place as this student completed a 3 credit claas in a week?
- Could a student (this student also has a family with a young child, and commutes quite a distance) even complete the required reading (and really READ it) in a week?
- What were the quality of these online courses?
- Is setting up an online course for such "rapid completion" really doing our students any favors? [Sure, they can check of the "required course" box and move on, but is that really the goal of higher education?]
- Is this typical of the design of our online courses? How effective is this for students' LEARNING?
- Are students taking more online courses because they are "easier" and "less challenging" than face to face courses?
- Is convenience King? [I know, that's snarky and facetious, but I do wonder!]
- Is anyone monitoring the quality of the online courses at Yavapai College?
- Is anyone else alarmed?
I'm very alarmed! I've found that students learn and retain things about as long as it took us to study them. A few concepts are so vital that we cover them nearly every week and by the end of the semester they've seen them for 32 class periods in one way or another. By the end of 32 beatings, students have learned something that sticks with them for at least 16 weeks, sometimes if you get them to learn something that sticks with them for that long, it will pass the required threshold and actually pass into long term memory and be retained, at least summarily, for forever. And, if nothing else, they will have at least learned something about HOW to learn a language in those 16 weeks. Now, if my students only got two weeks of my time, then, I'd say they really truly learned nothing. Think about it, would you rather prepare for your trip to Spain with 16 weeks of solid serious hands on instruction, or two weeks of robo-graded exams. Which model would help you feel more prepared to step off that plane in Madrid? Long story short, yes, I'm very alarmed. Can we get quality control up in here!? Or at least Quality Matters?
ReplyDeleteThe key is that instructors have to WANT to provide quality instruction--whether online or face to face.
DeleteI think everyone can agree, cramming is no way to learn (though we still stage things like the "cram jam" here).
ReplyDeleteAnd there is some chagrin by the Student Development folks over the name! (To their credit! :)
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