What do you think will change in online (and face-to-face) education?

[marshwiggle]

I'm starting a new thread for this, becuase whether or not covid makes major changes to higher education, (and education at all levels, for that matter), it's likely to have a lot of long-term smaller effects.

• All kinds of technical problems should be improved by the massive testing this situation produces.
• Some platforms and technologies will become big winners via natural selection. (Zoom?)
• Even technophobic instructors (and students) will have to become minimally proficient in various things.
  Saying something is "just too complicated" won't fly as much.

Care to speculate?

[downer]

My FB feed is full of teachers of F2F classes remarking how much work it is to do an online class. So there may be some more respect for the effort that those who teach online put in.

But there will also be more awareness of the dangers and problems of online teaching. Especially with students cheating in one way or another. There will be more calls to have policies that prevent that.

For a good many classes, and definitely places where there is a P/F option, many faculty will just pass all the students they can. I guess that happens already at a lot of places. But there will be a sense that this semester does not really count as regular teaching.

However, a lot of students are just going to drop out or are going to do badly at keeping up with deadlines. There may be more awareness that many students are badly suited to online classes. So there might be more effort to filter out those students who are badly suited -- they not only need to have ability to use the technology, but also need to be self-disciplined and self-motivated.

On the other hand, many students who were previously wary of online classes will discover that they like it, and will sign up for more of them in the future, and will recommend them. It does seem that online teaching will grow significantly.

[tuxthepenguin]

The effect I've noticed most (admittedly from a distance) is faculty learning about technology and how to use it. The tech itself might be relatively simple like building a website. The important thing is digging in and learning to use it in a way that helps students learn. Students will be giving faculty much more feedback than usual.

Something that has always bothered me about educators is the tendency to focus on the tools and the features of the tools rather than how they should be using them. You get grants for the tools, but it's not the tools that help students learn. Using an iPad in every lecture means nothing without appropriate content.

My prediction is that there will be a shift back to focusing on content rather than delivery method. At first I thought it would be the opposite, since we're moving to a new format, but then I realized in my own teaching that I first had to think about the content and the delivery method was of lesser importance.

[mamselle]

More "niche" offerings by independent scholars could happen.

I'm finding, as I teach my online music students, that I see ways to be a little bit entrepreneurial about offering some classes on topics I care about and have worked hard to develop, but have not found places to teach them with any regularity.

With the potential for online payments, or even checks mailed that I deposit by mobile means, I don't need a school to set up my courses and pay me. I did at one point look into running a small "school" in the parish hall of a nearby church, but the rent was prohibitive, so I let it go.

I have often pondered this in a "what-if" way, but I'm seeing how it could work practically now that I'm doing it with my students. We're going to run a test-drive for the next couple weeks on theory and music appreciation to see how it goes: I've always included elements of these in my lessons but the chance to do a developed class for four upper-level students is appealing to me--and to them, it seems.

My liturgical arts work has very occasionally been taken up by nearby seminaries, but theological schools have had a rough time in the past few years, so that umbrella seems to be folding.

If Abelard could do it, why can't we?

M.

[Hibush]

I'm starting a new thread for this, becuase whether or not covid makes major changes to higher education, (and education at all levels, for that matter), it's likely to have a lot of long-term smaller effects.

• All kinds of technical problems should be improved by the massive testing this situation produces.
• Some platforms and technologies will become big winners via natural selection. (Zoom?)
• Even technophobic instructors (and students) will have to become minimally proficient in various things.
  Saying something is "just too complicated" won't fly as much.

Care to speculate?

1. Agreed. Some technical previous annoyances will now become big obstacles to basic operations. We will benefit from having that cleaned up.
2. Selection will be strong. Like the dominant social platforms of the day (remember Friendster?) success depends on being the platform everyone uses. The winner-take-all aspect will increase inequality.
3. Some who have resisted will now be motivated to learn new tech. Especially those with an inclination but who have lacked the time, or have not seen enough return on the time investment. However, selection will also come into play. Those who are not willing or able to connect will be isolated. That will increase inequality as well.

[Caracal]

I'm starting a new thread for this, becuase whether or not covid makes major changes to higher education, (and education at all levels, for that matter), it's likely to have a lot of long-term smaller effects.

• All kinds of technical problems should be improved by the massive testing this situation produces.
• Some platforms and technologies will become big winners via natural selection. (Zoom?)
• Even technophobic instructors (and students) will have to become minimally proficient in various things.
  Saying something is "just too complicated" won't fly as much.

Care to speculate?

Maybe, but from a personal standpoint, I can't say I'm doing anything in a particularly systematic fashion, or a fashion that I'd care to repeat. I decided that given the kind of place I teach it was a bad idea to try to have "live classes," so I've been uploading lectures. I just found the simplest thing the school has for doing that. Predictably, it is pretty annoying to manage, especially because my internet speeds at home have really plummeted, but the last thing I want to do is switch and try something different now and confuse myself and the students more. I'm just not finding this to be a particularly fertile ground for innovation. I'm supposed to be teaching a summer class and if that runs online as well, I might actually be able to figure out some ways to make it work, but I haven't learned much from switching in the middle of the semester, other than that it is as unpleasant as I imagined it would be.

[mamselle]

I'm starting a new thread for this, becuase whether or not covid makes major changes to higher education, (and education at all levels, for that matter), it's likely to have a lot of long-term smaller effects.

• All kinds of technical problems should be improved by the massive testing this situation produces.
• Some platforms and technologies will become big winners via natural selection. (Zoom?)
• Even technophobic instructors (and students) will have to become minimally proficient in various things.
  Saying something is "just too complicated" won't fly as much.

Care to speculate?

Maybe, but from a personal standpoint, I can't say I'm doing anything in a particularly systematic fashion, or a fashion that I'd care to repeat. I decided that given the kind of place I teach it was a bad idea to try to have "live classes," so I've been uploading lectures. I just found the simplest thing the school has for doing that. Predictably, it is pretty annoying to manage, especially because my internet speeds at home have really plummeted, but the last thing I want to do is switch and try something different now and confuse myself and the students more. I'm just not finding this to be a particularly fertile ground for innovation. I'm supposed to be teaching a summer class and if that runs online as well, I might actually be able to figure out some ways to make it work, but I haven't learned much from switching in the middle of the semester, other than that it is as unpleasant as I imagined it would be.

Just curious, what system are you using for recording your lectures (if you can say)?

M.

[TreadingLife]

For what it is worth, I am using Zoom to record lectures asynchronously. I like the ability to share my screen and pop back and forth to the main web camera. We have Canvas at my college and you can use the Studio feature to record, but I'm not sure if you can toggle the screen view to the camera view as easily as you can in Zoom. At this point it works well enough.

[Caracal]

I'm starting a new thread for this, becuase whether or not covid makes major changes to higher education, (and education at all levels, for that matter), it's likely to have a lot of long-term smaller effects.

• All kinds of technical problems should be improved by the massive testing this situation produces.
• Some platforms and technologies will become big winners via natural selection. (Zoom?)
• Even technophobic instructors (and students) will have to become minimally proficient in various things.
  Saying something is "just too complicated" won't fly as much.

Care to speculate?

Maybe, but from a personal standpoint, I can't say I'm doing anything in a particularly systematic fashion, or a fashion that I'd care to repeat. I decided that given the kind of place I teach it was a bad idea to try to have "live classes," so I've been uploading lectures. I just found the simplest thing the school has for doing that. Predictably, it is pretty annoying to manage, especially because my internet speeds at home have really plummeted, but the last thing I want to do is switch and try something different now and confuse myself and the students more. I'm just not finding this to be a particularly fertile ground for innovation. I'm supposed to be teaching a summer class and if that runs online as well, I might actually be able to figure out some ways to make it work, but I haven't learned much from switching in the middle of the semester, other than that it is as unpleasant as I imagined it would be.

Just curious, what system are you using for recording your lectures (if you can say)?

M.

Kaltura. I can't tell if the software just sucks or if it is just that the combination of my internet being slower than usual and their servers being overloaded. It is taking foooooreeeeeeeevvver to upload stuff. Should I switch to Zoom?

[pgher]

I'm finding that I think more seriously about learning outcomes in assignments. Especially for exams. I couldn't figure out a good way to proctor exams, so I'm going to open book. That reflects the post-class reality that students will just look stuff up, so the question becomes, what do they actually need to KNOW that can't just be looked up. Some questions don't change but others do.

[writingprof]

One thing I've considered, and am kind of sad about, is that the years I spent gaining experience as an online teacher and course-designer will henceforth be a much less compelling part of my CV. 

"You have lots of online experience?  So now does literally everyone."

[marshwiggle]

I'm finding that I think more seriously about learning outcomes in assignments. Especially for exams. I couldn't figure out a good way to proctor exams, so I'm going to open book. That reflects the post-class reality that students will just look stuff up, so the question becomes, what do they actually need to KNOW that can't just be looked up. Some questions don't change but others do.

Not speaking to you specifically, but to academia in general:

It's about friggin' time!


Since Google has been around for more than two decades,  it's amazing how slow the education system has been to adapt to the reality that grading students on their ability to regurgitate searchable factoids doesn't really have much value. (Not that there isn't more value than students realize in having all kinds of facts memorized and ready-to-hand; just that information unconnected with insight in how to apply it is virtually useless.)

In STEM fields, "word problems" have been a common way to address this. ( Weak students have trouble and just try randomly plugging numbers into whatever formulas they can find.) I'm always interested when people talk about how they do that in other disciplines. One I can recall is in courses with lots of readings, having students compare how two or more readings deal with some issue. Unless that particular question involving those two particular books is a common thing, it wont' be googleable.

[lightning]

 . . . . that anything tangential to the direct learning/teaching that happens between teacher and student will be exposed as tangential or even expendable.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. After completing my first week in this new reality, I've realized that I've spent the majority of my time on actual teaching. All those other things like superfluous meetings, public events, admin-busy-body activities created only to justify someone's frivolous job, extracurricular things that I get guilted into, etc. were all canceled because their delivery was face-to-face. And, you know what, it's starting to become obvious that all that stuff was unnecessary in the first place.

[spork]

. . . . that anything tangential to the direct learning/teaching that happens between teacher and student will be exposed as tangential or even expendable.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. After completing my first week in this new reality, I've realized that I've spent the majority of my time on actual teaching. All those other things like superfluous meetings, public events, admin-busy-body activities created only to justify someone's frivolous job, extracurricular things that I get guilted into, etc. were all canceled because their delivery was face-to-face. And, you know what, it's starting to become obvious that all that stuff was unnecessary in the first place.

+ infinite

I would love to see line item billing of students for services that aren't directly teaching/learning-oriented. Universities already charge for housing and food. You want to play a sport in college? Excellent, you pay an extra $12,000 per semester. Campus entertainment? Either you subscribe by semester for an extra $1,000 or you pay $75 at the gate for every event.

A natural consequence of the above would be the elimination of a large portion of staff and administrators.

[dismalist]

. . . . that anything tangential to the direct learning/teaching that happens between teacher and student will be exposed as tangential or even expendable.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. After completing my first week in this new reality, I've realized that I've spent the majority of my time on actual teaching. All those other things like superfluous meetings, public events, admin-busy-body activities created only to justify someone's frivolous job, extracurricular things that I get guilted into, etc. were all canceled because their delivery was face-to-face. And, you know what, it's starting to become obvious that all that stuff was unnecessary in the first place.

+ infinite

I would love to see line item billing of students for services that aren't directly teaching/learning-oriented. Universities already charge for housing and food. You want to play a sport in college? Excellent, you pay an extra $12,000 per semester. Campus entertainment? Either you subscribe by semester for an extra $1,000 or you pay $75 at the gate for every event.

A natural consequence of the above would be the elimination of a large portion of staff and administrators.

Absolutely, Spork! It's even got a name: Unbundling.

[Bundling is a symptom of insufficient competition, not a cause.]