One of the key components to the online learning experience discussed by Moore, Downing & York in their study included in the text The Perfect Online Course is the differing organization in online courses versus face to face courses. As mentioned in the article, since there are no face to face instructions or introductions accompanying the distribution of the syllabus or class assignments in an online course, often many more questions are generated that necessitate email exchanges between the students and instructors. Furthermore, one of the more frustrating experiences for students lies in the need to unlock each instructor’s particular organizational schemas at the start of each new course to find necessary documents for the course. “Students are often required to decode dramatically different course content categorization schemes for each instructor’s Web site” (Orellana, Hudgins & Simonson, 2009, p.344). I couldn’t agree more! Even when using the Angel platform with a structured template the beginning of each course is like a treasure hunt only we are still learning to decode the map. However, over time one learns to be less anxious, more patient while delving into a new person’s system, and more intuitive from previous experiences.
As an online student I have found that every single course is structured differently, not just in the number or breadth of assignments, which is expected, but in the manner the documents are labeled and filed away online. Just this month I experienced frustration in a course that I am taking through another university when trying to discover when assignments are due. The professor announced at the beginning of our short four weeks together that she had not assigned any hard due dates, but rather had some suggested ones for the assignments. However, I was not able to find these due dates anywhere! They were not on the syllabus, in the announcements, or included on the assignment documents. Another classmate mentioned the suggested due dates on a discussion post and I became even more frustrated! Where could these elusive due dates be? I started my search all over again. Finally, I looked in the only place I hadn’t looked, the folder titled “DocSharing”. Most instructors in this particular program I am enrolled in use the folder for uploading previously completed example assignments to clarify assignment expectations. This folder is where I found the document the instructor created with the due dates for the assignments. Due to the quick turnaround in courses, a new one every four weeks, the syllabi and assignment documents are not updated with new due dates for each session, but usually the information is posted in each unit or week’s folders. This professor chose the last place I ever thought to look that made no sense to me intuitively and did not fit my previous experience with the program of study’s online courses. In this circumstance my previous knowledge worked against me in trying to ferret out the information I was seeking.
If this professor and I were in the study discussed by Moore, Downing & York, we would definitely not have categorized that document in the same way. According to the above mentioned article, Organizing Instructional Content for Web-Based Courses, “categorization is a vital component of navigation for online courses” (Orellana, Hudgins & Simonson, 2009, p. 343). This example is one of many that I could give to illustrate this point quite clearly. The professor created that document and wanted a place to post it to share. I wanted the document categorized not by the action “DocSharing,” but by the contents of the document itself, which pertained to assignments and thus I felt should have been posted somewhere that discusses either all assignments or individual assignments.
Although there are several other important issues that result in the removed environment of online learning, such as a disconnect between classmates, the need for quite a few email exchanges between instructors and students or between student and student to clarify simple items that might take a matter of seconds to iron out in a face to face environment, it is helpful to remember that online learning is here to fill a need. The flexibility for people to meet and share ideas that would never meet in an ordinary classroom setting due to how far apart they live from one another is just one positive aspect of online learning that I think helps to balance the scales in this relationship with technology (that and getting to type up this blog from my computer at home while wearing my pajamas and shouting out for my daughter to get ready for bed!). :-)
References:
Orellana, A., Hudgins, M., & Simonson, M., eds. (2009). The perfect online course: best practices for designing and teaching. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
The story that you relate about the course you are taking at another university and trying to discover when assignments are due does a great job of demonstrating the issue of organizational schemas. Although there are some similarities in terms of a rough template, it usually takes me a week or two at the start of each semester before I feel confident in my understanding in the schemas of the courses that I am enrolled. I have one professor this semester that places course information on Angel and on Web her site on Senna. Although this replication of course information in different formats took some time to get acclimated to, it has been helpful for me as the semester has progressed.
ReplyDeleteAgreed agreed agreed! It really is a matter of getting into someone else's brain to understand the organizational mode and process that they've chosen to structure *both* the course content and infrastructure. The Angel site, though somewhat of a standardizing template, can be manipulated and personalized so many different ways by different instructors that there is quite a bit of anatomical exploration necessary prior to even delving into the curriculum (who knows what Desire 2 Learn will bring?).
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of the transition from one technology to another that both Courtney & Amie have raised in different contexts, it seems to me that the university's switch to this new online instructional platform is a reflection of our ever shorted and more tempestuous love affairs (or flings) with different technologies. We have hardly figured out how to assume control over and acquire confidence with one technology before something better, faster, or perhaps less expensive comes out to replace it. I agree with Courtney's contention that one of our jobs as teacher librarians is about providing students with the skills to adapt continually to new learning experiences and platforms, but I wonder where content goes in these situations, and whether true immersion in experience & phenomena (which is a prerequisite for reflective teaching & learning) is losing out to the domination of so many realms of human affairs by technological innovations and fluctuations....
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour experience finding suggested due dates sounds, not only frustrating, but so familiar. Online learning seems to involve a process that is a bit like a treasure hunt-- constant searching through leads trying to determine the location of the prize. Thus, your comments on the organization of content (in an online class)bring to mind an important role of the instructor. It is an instructor's job to make sure that content, expectations, and feedback are all logically arranged. As much as our conversation has covered the importance of organizing the content and also of providing feedback, I feel as if we haven't yet discussed the organization of instructor feedback. It seems to be one aspect of a class that instructors tend to neglect to discuss. Yet this is the only way that students are actually aware of how they are performing. I have had a number of classes where I would find a grade, but not be aware that comments were available, but located in a different place. Being as online students crave some sort of affirmation that they have been successful, I think instructors should include that information with the course syllabus.
ReplyDelete