I’ve finally reached the end of my online course (DM 529) and I’m left not knowing exactly what to think. I’m exhausted, and would be quite happy if I didn’t have to mark again for a very long time.
But I’m also already missing the provocative discussions, the different ways that members of the class thought about and understood Canadian defence and foreign policy, and the intellectual breakthroughs that took place for nearly every student at various times.
Online or in person, a positive learning experience creates a rush that is hard to match. And while I still prefer to teach students face to face, I’ve come to appreciate the opportunities presented by, at the very least, blended learning (a combination of online and in-person), and perhaps also by distance education.
Given that all of my posts to this point have come from the position of the instructor, I thought it would be worthwhile to finish with some comments from my students.
A couple of weeks ago, I invited those who were interested to provide some advice to future online instructors. Here are two of them:
- “I cannot over-emphasize the importance of an instructor’s ability to write in an online course. I think that a well-organized course is [still] nonsense if the writing is incoherent and superfluous.”
- “The real questions to ask are the ones we should ask in any course. Has the course been well-structured? Does it offer sufficient background material? Does it explore concepts and ideas that will challenge the student? Are the intellectual demands sufficiently rigorous? There’s a long list of such questions, all of which can be answered without regard to the method of delivery. At the heart of an online course, as for any course, is the professor. The classroom may well be the best vehicle to transmit a professor’s passion and discipline, and the student’s curiosity and enthusiasm, but if the supporting technology is capable enough to transmit those same qualities, then all else is in the detail.”
I thank you all for following this blog and for your comments. Hopefully, I will be able to meet some of you in late May at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in New Brunswick where I’ll be speaking about my online teaching experience as part of Career Corner.
