Real talk about virtual courses

Assumptions about online learning exist: it’s a passive experience, with little participation; it’s difficult to access courses and materials, and there’s no collaboration between students.

What’s the truth? We asked John Sample and Peter Easton, faculty members in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Neither had experience with distance-learning courses, until they recently developed the online graduate program in Human Resource Development.

Active and Participatory
“Online learning is writing intensive. Compared to face-to-face courses, it’s more exacting in terms of the ability of students to express themselves in writing,” says Sample. “Student participation is even more critical. In face-to-face courses students can get lost in the crowd and not really say that much—but in online courses that won’t work.”

Apparently, participation of instructors is also enhanced. “I’ve learned something that will stay with me the rest of my career,” says Sample. “If you don’t ask good questions on the online Discussion Board, the questions just aren’t heard; they fall on deaf ears. So, I have really improved my ability to craft questions that energize students into wanting to participate, to share their information, and to get others to comment on their remarks. Taking myself out of the limelight, as the primary person to direct learning, and putting that responsibility more on each student in a learning community group is absolutely critical.”

Easy and Broad Access
There are some technology issues instructors must “keep an eye on,” says Sample. “Students may have difficulty initially adjusting because the program is computer-based, or they may not even apply, thinking ‘I don’t know if I can do that.’ So, you have to try to think of better ways to orient new students and ways to bring in those who may be hesitating to apply and integrating those who hesitate to participate once they are in.”

But, he quickly adds, it’s really easier than it looks. “Just knowing how to use the Internet for e-mail or to purchase something on eBay is enough to become a distance-learning student, because Blackboard is so well developed. If we do our job right in developing the course, then students should have no problem.” 

The online format benefits students in ways that a face-to-face program cannot. Sample notes, “We are extending the borders beyond the regional impact we’ve had in our traditional Adult Education program. We now have students from Phoenix, New York City, and Korea.”  Kenneth Bull, the program’s Academic Coordinator, has noticed, “more military personnel are applying; students who must travel—to Germany, Iraq—but who still want to continue their education.”  Now, they can.

Collaborative and Innovative
Sample and Easton faced an additional challenge in offering a professional certificate and master’s degree where, as Sample puts it, “a lot of learning must be hands-on; students are learning how to do something, not simply how to talk or write about something. When I first got into distance learning, I had some qualms. For instance, would you want your critical care nurse to have received her degree online? Distance learning is forcing us to find ways of looping in actual practice, things students must learn to do on their own. We had to find people who actually do the task, then find people who can monitor students doing it, videotape their actions, and then send us the videotape.”Collaboration, however, is a gift students give in return. “In Adult Ed many students bring their previous experience,” says Sample, “so what they study is not just in the textbook; it’s coming out of their lives. The online medium enables them to pool their experiences.” He explains, “With businesses and organizations changing so rapidly, learning within those organizations becomes critical. Employees must renew themselves by taking on new responsibilities. That’s what we end up doing in this program—preparing people from many backgrounds who can assume new or increased responsibilities for staff training and development in businesses, public agencies, non-profit organizations and educational institutions.”

Adult Education and Human Resource Development Program
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
114 Stone Building - Tallahassee, FL 32306-4452
Phone: (850) 644-8165 ♦ Fax: (850) 644-6401
E-mail: adult-ed@garnet.acns.fsu.edu