Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 22:55:29 -0400 (EDT)From: Alan Sondheim<[log in to unmask]>
To: stuff <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The demise of "on-line" learning institutions
I must say I've taught online for years, on and off, and it's been for
the
most part extremely successful. It takes a lot of wear and tear for
the
instructor, who must type, collocate, revise, reply, and prepare
documents
on a fairly constant basis; when teaching Experimental Writing for the
trAce (sic) online writing community, I tend to check in twice a day.
Software remains a huge issue; a fair amount of time has been taken up
with the mechanics of what ordinarily would be face-to-face
presentation.
Depending on the system, access can be arcane; instructors can also
get
lost in the huge number of options available in something like WebCT.
I was briefly involved in Adult University, which was a mess. But I
taught
in the DIAL system at the New School (now New University) and that was
relatively lean and worked well. There are always problems in terms of
payment; AU wanted to have this directly related to the number of
students
and to have the course run with just 1 if need be. trAce is much more
professional, with standard payments and students, etc. I tend to use
email by the way in addition to whatever the course software is.
The experience can be one in depth and heartening. I see two types of
courses working well - those that, like accounting and calculus, have
definitive answers to definitive questions - and those like creative
writing, that involve no specific answers or perhaps even questions -
but
emphasize instead the intimacy of reading and writing.
The intermediary courses, for example, anthropology, between fuzzy and
exact, the "human sciences" etc., seem to me to be the most difficult.
On
the other hand, I've taught Internet Community and Culture online -
very
successfully I think - since the resources are _present_ and
up-to-date.
Finally, in all of these cases, it's necessary to have motivated
students
- and that's the real problem; without them, it's far too easy to
kludge,
fall through the cracks...
Alan -
Internet text at http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt
Partial at http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html
Trace Projects at http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm
CDROM of collected work 1994-2002 available: write [log in to unmask]
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