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I’ve
been teaching online at our CC now for a number of years. I decided, a few
years ago, that some of our courses could be adapted to the online environment
while others were best left as face-to-face courses. The courses we teach
online are:
Earth’s
Atmosphere & Oceans – An introductory Earth science course for nonscience
majors covering weather, climate, and some physical oceanography.
Weather
& Climate – A lab course for science majors
Geology
of the National Parks – An introductory course for nonscience majors.
These
seem to work OK because there are so many online resources we can tap into for
them. If we actually lived closer to some national parks, I probably would not
offer this course online since we’d go visit them!
Other
classes we don’t offer online, nor do I plan to, include:
Planet
Earth – Introductory geology for nonscience majors
History
of Life – Introductory course for nonscience majors
Physical
& Historical Geology – Lab courses for majors
Geology
of NY State – Course for majors (has geology prerequisite)
That’s
because in those courses, we examine rocks, fossils, and minerals; work with
maps; and take local and weekend field trips. I strongly believe that looking
at an image of biotite on the computer is not the same as holding a piece in
your hands (and peeling it apart). Minerals and rocks and textures, sounds
(tap a shale and a slate), and even smells that can’t be conveyed in an online
environment. Teaching students to read maps online is sometimes an exercise in
frustration (I have enough problems in the Weather & Climate class where
students have to interpret maps with isobars, isotherms, etc. And there’s
simply no online replacement for the experience of placing your nose against
the outcrop and looking at real rocks.
As
to the student misconceptions, it is my experience as well that students often
believe online classes to be easier or self-paced and they’re neither. Online
classes require more reading, writing, and time than a face-to-face class. I
have an extensive syllabus which explains “the facts of life” to the students
and have strict weekly deadlines for assignment submissions but still have a
high attrition rate due to students falling too far behind.
As
for my side, I find online courses far more time-consuming to teach and grade
(I don’t use automatically graded assessments). Given the heavy CC teaching
load, I often wish I never got into online education! Our administration,
however, loves it and sees it as a cash cow.
-
Steve.
________________________________________________
Steven
H. Schimmrich, Professor & Department Chair
Math,
Physical Sciences, Engineering, & Technology
SUNY
Ulster County Community College, 491 Cottekill Road
Stone
Ridge, NY 12484 845-687-7683; FAX 845-687-5083
http://people.sunyulster.edu/schimmrs
Education
is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance
>>>
Frank Granshaw <[log in to unmask]> 02/25/10 10:16 AM >>>
Hello
everyone...
For
the past four years I have been attempting to develop a fully
on-line
earth science sequence for non-science majors. In our system
we
call it the general science sequence. At the end of this year I will
be
"retiring" from teaching distance courses and making the
recommendation
that we stay with a hybrid sequence (on-campus lab)
rather
than attempt to go fully on-line. As a point of closure I would
be
most interested in hearing from some of you that have been involved
in
similar efforts. In particular I would appreciate hearing about how
you
have dealt with the following issues or if you know of research
dealing
with these issues.
Encouraging
inquiry and problem solving in on-line environments - My
experience
has been that the on-line experience is a highly scripted one
that
doesn't lend itself easily to the kinds of flexibility and
open-endedness
that is a hallmark of inquiry-based instruction. This
scriptedness
also makes teaching earth science on-line somewhat
problematic,
since the earth sciences are a bit "messier" than math,
physics,
chemistry, or accounting.
Providing
the kind of near instantaneous, social trouble shooting that
is
part of an on-campus course - The asynchronous aspect tends to slow
down
many activities quite significantly. We have tried
video-conferencing
options such as Elluminate, but this adds a level of
technical
complication for students who are still struggling with basic
technical
tasks such as sending an attachment to an email.
Coping
with student expectations about distance courses - I sense there
is
a certain amount of scuttlebutt amongst students (and maybe even
advise
from college counselors) that if you are looking for an easy way
to
fill a requirement take an on-line course. Students seem to arrive
in
our courses with the illusion that they will be spending far less
time
completing an on-line course than they will its on-campus
equivalent.
They also seem to arrive with the impression that the
experience
will be a canned, "work-at-your own pace" experience.
Coping
with student frustrations - For much of the past four years,
we've
spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to
deal
with the many frustrations students have expressed on-line. While
many
of these frustrations are rooted in the all-to-common technical
difficulties
that come with teaching on-line, my own hypothesis is that
many
more of these frustrations stem from students finding on-line
science
different from their expectations, trying to work alone without
the
support of instructors and other students, and their own discomfort
with
science (e.g. "Science isn't my thing"). Add to this the anonymity
of
email communication and you often get students expressing themselves
in
ways that they would not do in a face-to-face encounter.
Again,
I am quite interested in hearing from any of you who have had
experience
with these issues or know of research dealing with them,
especially
as I make my recommendations to our DL folks and the
instructors
who will inherit these courses.
Cheers
Frank
G.
Frank
D. Granshaw
Earth
Science Instructor
Portland
Community College
Sylvania
Campus
Portland,
OR
503-977-8236