April 2001 — Features
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Teaching College Courses Online vs Face-to-Face
Once the course begins, the long hours continue. Online instructors must log on to the course Web site at least three or four times a week for a number of hours each session. They respond to threaded discussion questions, evaluate assignments, and above all answer questions clearing up ambiguities, often spending an inordinate amount of time communicating by e-mail. The many instructor hours spent online create an "online presence," a psychological perception for students that the instructor is out there and is responding to them. Without this, students quickly become insecure and tend to drop the class.
This great amount of work sounds intimidating; however, most online instructors looked forward to their time spent online as time away from their hectic face-to-face jobs. One respondent commented: "This is why I like the online environment. It's kind of a purified atmosphere. I only know the students to the extent of their work. Obviously their work is revealing about them."
The Web environment presents a number of educational opportunities and advantages over traditional classes, such as many informational resources that can be seamlessly integrated into the class. Instructors can assign Web pages as required reading, or have students do research projects using online databases. However, it is important that the instructor encourage the students to learn the skills to differentiate valid and useful information from the dregs, as the Internet is largely unregulated.
Some instructors also had online guests in their classes (authors, experts in their field, etc.) residing at a distance, yet participating in online threaded discussions with the students in the class. All these things could theoretically be accomplished in a traditional class by adding an online component; however, because online classes are already on the Web, these opportunities are integrated far more naturally.
Other advantages of online classes result from psychological aspects of the medium itself. The emphasis on the written word encourages a deeper level of thinking in online classes. A common feature in online classes is the threaded discussion. The fact that students must write their thoughts down, and the realization that those thoughts will be exposed semi-permanently to others in the class seem to result in a deeper level of discourse. Another response stated:
"The learning appears more profound as the discussions seemed both broader and deeper. The students are more willing to engage both their peers and the professor more actively. Each student is more completely exposed and can not simply sit quietly throughout the semester. Just as the participating students are noticeable by their presence, the non-participating students are noticeable by their absence. The quality of students' contributions can be more refined as they have time to mull concepts over as they write, prior to posting."
The asynchronous nature of the environment means that the student (or professor) can read a posting and consider their response for a day before posting it. Every student can and, for the most part, d'es participate in the threaded discussions.
