I will be the first to admit that I do not have everything all figured out at this point when it comes to online teaching.  One thing I have probably struggled the most with is assessment.  I have written about this before on my blog because I do not use proctored exams in my online courses, and I am not altogether convinced that proctored exams are the way to go.  I can certainly see why others feel they are necessary, and I definitely feel we need to do what we can in order to quash the opinions that some people hold about the quality of online courses.  Most of all, I think when you teach online, you have to carefully re-evaluate your thoughts about assessment.  I’m still very much in that re-evaluation stage.

Perhaps it is because of my own beliefs and my own uncertainty that the following article from The Chronicle of Higher Education got me so riled up this week.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-courses-should-always-include-proctored-finals-economist-warns/31287

The headline for this article is “Online courses should always include proctored finals, economist warns.”  To me, this is a very strong statement, and I feel it is rather misleading, especially given how the study described in the article was conducted and how the online courses in question were actually structured.  Basically, it was observed that online students who took proctored final exams in particular economics courses performed worse than their classroom counterparts (and also worse than online students who took non-proctored exams).  The exams appeared to consist entirely of items from the test banks of textbooks.  Further, from an examination of the actual study, it sounds like the online courses were self-paced and that students could finish assignments at any time, as long as they completed everything by the end of the term.  The author of the study–Cheryl Wachenheim–noted that many online students completed a large number of chapter exams (which they needed to complete after reading each chapter in their textbook) during the LAST WEEK OF CLASS.  No wonder they did not do so well on a proctored final exam, especially if their classroom counterparts were completing similar assignments in a more timely manner throughout the term.

I have always felt it was important to provide students in the online course with some flexibility while still ensuring that all students move through the course at a similar pace.  For my courses, this is especially important since students complete many discussion assignments along the way and have to be prepared to talk with their peers.  From what I have read about this study, it doesn’t sound like there was much–if any–peer-to-peer interaction in the online economics courses.  Instead, students simply worked through chapter exams and homework assignments, and then completed a comprehensive final exam.

Before we jump to the conclusion that students in the online course are more prone to cheat and we need to make sure ALL exams are proctored in the online environment, why not see if others can replicate these findings in different contexts?  For example, I would love to see a study where the online course is much more structured AND the exams are not simply a random selection of questions from a test bank.  Would cheating be less likely in a situation where a student has to carefully explain his or her reasoning on an exam?  Would students be less apt to even try to cheat in an online course if they knew that the instructor could easily review many other samples of their written work (e.g., from discussion assignments) in order to better determine if the responses they give on exams are actually in their OWN words?

Do you ever sometimes wonder how your life might have been different if the technologies we have now had been around when you were growing up?  I do.  In some ways, I’m very thankful that Facebook and Twitter were NOT around when I was younger because I think they would have taken too much attention away from my studies.  However, upon reading the following article from The New York Times, I find myself intrigued by the power of social media and the possible ways it can be used in educational settings.  In particular, I like the thought of giving a voice to students who don’t always feel they have a voice in the classroom.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/education/13social.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=speaking+up+in+class&st=cse

I was one of those students who never felt comfortable speaking up in class, and I often think that I didn’t find my “voice” until well into graduate school.  I was very shy growing up, and even today, I still struggle when it comes to knowing just when to speak up.  Sometimes, it’s just a matter of not having much to say, or not being able to think quickly on my feet, but other times, I think I worry too much that my own ideas and opinions won’t be shared or valued by others.  I admire those people who can easily speak their minds and who don’t seem to care what others think of what they have to say.

Now that I’m a teacher, I think a lot about the students in my classes who have so much to contribute but who don’t always feel confident enough to share their thoughts and ideas with their peers.  It excites me to think that social media might give these students a platform to participate more fully in classroom discourse and to ensure that their voices are heard.  As the above article states:

“…social media, once kept outside the school door, can entice students who rarely raise a hand to express themselves via a medium they find as natural as breathing.”

I have been thinking a lot lately about giving my online courses a make-over, and one thing I’ve thought about is adding more audio and video to the courses.  I would not go as far as to video tape what I do in the classroom (mostly because I think that would be challenging since I’m not “lecturing” the whole time when I meet with my students), but I’ve thought about adding more personal touches, like a video introduction, or short video demonstrations, to accompany certain activities and assignments.

After reading this, however, I’m re-thinking things:

http://chronicle.com/article/Videos-Ripped-From/127319/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

How can we best ensure that if we create videos for our courses (or if students record US in the classroom), those videos or audio recordings will not end up being used for purposes we did not intend?