Confessions of an Online Skeptic
Joseph Lowman
Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Education, Innovate, Collaborate: A Faculty
Showcase
Center for Faculty Excellence, ITS
November 4, 2011
Introduction
• Increasing numbers of published evaluations of
online teaching and learning
• A number of informal comments among faculty,
parents, and in newspapers
• I will confess to having been skeptical about
online teaching since I first heard about it
• Today I’ll talk about online instruction generally
and my own experience as I planned for and
taught my first two online summer classes
Basic Terms and Models
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Distance Education
Computer Based Instructional Materials
Internet versus Print Research
Hybrid Formats
Synchronous versus Asynchronous Formats
Internet-Based Online Courses
Distance Education
• Correspondence courses
• TV teaching
• Filming and broadcasting of lecture courses
or seminars
• Interactive Seminars with Students in
Different Locations
Computer-Based Instructional
Materials
• Repetition and drill exercises
• Problem sets
• Simulations
Internet versus Print Research
• Alternative ways of finding information:
– Text
– Photographs
– Videos
– Personal communication
Hybrid Formats
• Face-to-face classes using:
– PowerPoint with text and images
– Real Life and YouTube Videos
– Email communication with students
– Discussion Boards or Forums
– Blackboard and other support systems
Synchronous versus Asynchronous
Formats
• Real time versus non-real time
A MAJOR distinction
Internet-Based Online Courses
• Because of the power of The Internet, these
require much less equipment, support staff,
and technological sophistication than older
formats
• Can involve synchronous or asynchronous
activities
• The course I’ll be describing is an
Asynchronous Internet-Based Online Course
Diverse Opinions/Attitudes about
Online-Instruction
• Effective versus Non-effective
• Positive versus Negative
Positive Opinions/Attitudes
• Sweeping and strongly optimistic:
“These new techniques will radically transform how
faculty teach and how students learn.”
• Administrators encourage faculty to record
courses or adapt for online formats
• Administrators see them as a great moneysaver on staff and buildings
• And as a way to serve more students from a
larger geographic base
• Students can individualize their schedules
and work demands
Reality Check
• Faculty resist redoing their courses or sharing
their materials for possible use by others
• Administrators realize class size is smaller in
online classes and that they need more
rather than fewer faculty
• Financial incentives come from attracting
different kinds of students from a larger area
• Students still need to do work on a regular
basis even if they have flexibilty about when
they do their work
Negative Opinions/Attitudes
• Online courses are impersonal, one-way lectures
that ignore individual student needs and interests
• They use all sorts of fancy technology to simulate a
face-to-face class
• Such instruction focuses mainly on information
transfer and ignores higher level objectives
• These courses are cold, boring, anti-intellectual, and
inconsistent with goals of a liberal education
• Students (and their parents) don’t want to pay for
an impersonal and assembly-line education
Reality Check
The numbers of schools offering online
instruction and students tasking has grown at
a high rate since 1995-2000
They are now taken by students on traditional
campuses as well as non-traditional students
The primary motivation for most institutions is
not to save money (as comes from scheduling
larger sections) but to open up options for
existing students and faculty and to bring in
new students
Empirical Evaluations of Online
Courses
• Victoria Simpson Beck (2010). Comparing
Online and Face-to-Face Teaching and
Learning. Journal on Excellence in College
Teaching (21) 95-108
• Dropout Rate:
– 60% online courses with lots of non-tradititonal
students
– 11% for traditional ones
• Most studies have not used adequate
methods
My Initial Attitudes and Recent
Experience
• As a great believer in the interpersonal dimension
of college teaching I was skeptical of online courses
• In spite of hearing many presentations on online
instruction and reviewing a few online proposals for
UNC’s Continuing Education Division…..
• I was a moderately well-informed skeptic
• I didn’t really want to change what had worked well
for me over 40 years of college teaching
• I love performing and didn’t want to give up the
stage the chance to get to know my students
What Changed?
• I applied to teach a five-week summer section of
Abnormal Psychology, a course I’ve now taught two
times
• I participated in a training program that involved
taking two online education courses focused on
online instruction
• I met with consultants on the design and
implementation of my summer course
• My two online sections filled up quickly (20
students) (most of whom were regular UNC
students living at home or elsewhere)
Why Did I Do this?
• I teach a required course on college teaching for all
psychology graduate students who plan to teach
• Increasingly, our graduate student instructors are
asked to teach online courses for financial support
• I realized I needed first hand experience to best
prepare them for their teaching careers
• I enjoyed the challenge of seeing if I could offer a
course that would be up to my standards
• I’d recently purchased a home in the NC mountains
and wanted to spend the summer there and bet
getout of hot Chapel Hill
Goals for my Five-Week Course
1. Offer a challenging and engaging course that
helps students connect the human side of
abnormal psychology with the diagnostic
system and research findings, as usually
covered in face-to-face settings
2. Use the same writing intensive assignments
and evaluation methods I use in my face-toface classes
3. Motivate students to work as hard as in a
typical semester or summer class
Goals for my Five-Week Course
(Continued)
4. Educate students before the course began
about the amont and type of work to be
required of them to counter the attitude an
online course would require little of them
5. Make the course so interesting students
would be motivated to do the work
6. Promote the same intrinsic motivation I’d
seek in a regular face-to-face course by
avoiding specific participation points
Specific Techniques
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Email Bombing
Discussion Forums
Open-Book Essay Exams
SuperShrink Computer Case Simulation
Email Bombing
• Began sending email messages two weeks before
course began, three or four per week
• Communicated positive expectations about the
course and gave examples of items in the news that
were relevant to our subject matter
• Sent copies of the syllabus and highlighted dates of
the four exams and the due date for the term paper
• In a non aversive way pointed out how much work
would be required in a typical week with the daily
forums and posts
• Aimed for a relaxed and personal communication
style in my written documents and email messages
Discussion Forums (Class
Meetings)
• Designed for each of 15 text chapters one or more
Forum Assignments involving one or more video
case examples (30-60 minutes each)
• Assigned a 1-2 page critical thinking and writing
assignment (higher level objectives) for each set of
videos from the text publisher or YouTube
• Asked students to post their writing and also one
followup post within 24 hours (left Forums open for
another 24 or so hours)
Evaluation of Discussion Forums
• Did not assign points for each discussion forum
posting or follow up posting or impose late
penalties
• Even though I was taught to assign points and to be
very strict about deadlines
• Told students all their posts would be consolidated
at the end and evaluated on overall quantity and
quality of ideas with a single grade counting 15% of
course grade; I called this the Participation Paper
• My objective was to encourage them to avoid
aiming for a minimal level of posts
Open-Book Essay Exams
• Used 2 five-essay exams during the term and a
similar final exam for a total of 3 counting 20% each
• Essays were similar to the integrative/application
writing topics assigned for Discussion Forums
• Mailed out Exam Questions at 9:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m.
or 7:00 p.m. and asked for their return within four
hours
• Told students they could use any materials they
wished but that they had to write the essays alone
• Wrote comments and grades using Track-Changes
and Returned within one week
SuperShrink Computer Case
Simulation
• Originally created in the 1980s using text to give
students two in-depth cases to diagnose and apply
course concepts
• Converted to video using actors in the mid-1990s
and used with CDs
• For my online course staff converted CD video to a
web-based version housed on a UNC server
• Students interviewed one of two cases online and
wrote and submitted Diagnostic reports (25% of
course grade)
Students’Evaluation of My Online
Course
• Alas, only 7 of 18 students who finished course
submitted online evaluations the first time and 8 of
17 the second time
• Almost all said they communicated “often” with
instructor via email and thought the amount of
individualized email was “Just Right”
• About half said their understanding of course
material was “enhanced” by instructor
communications and “strongly agreed” that the
instructor clearly communicated concern for
learning and enjoyment
Students’Evaluation of My Online
Course (Continued)
• About 2/3 reported their understanding was
enhanced through discussion forums believed the
amount of posting was “just right”
• One or two in each course thought it was “too
much”
• Almosts everyone reported enjoying the
SuperShrink interviewing a “great deal” and
thought they learned a “great deal” from the
interviewing and writing assignment
Student Ratings of Bloom’s Levels
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Memorizing (a few rated “Some”)
Applying (Almost all rated “Very Much”)
Analyzing ( “Very Much”)
Synthesizing ( “Very Much”)
Evaluating ( “Very Much”)
Student Performance on Exams
and Papers
• Overall quality of essays and papers seemed
comparable to other summer classes
• 1 or two students each summer did not post more
than four or five times and received an F on the
Participation Paper
• 2 or 3 others each summer did not post regularly or
usually posted late and received D’s on participation
• Posting seemed to be highly correlated with
performance on essay exams
• Final Grades: A (6,6) B (9,7), C (3,2) (FA (1)
»
Changes Over Time
• Use only publically available video cases
• Post video overviews of each chapter rather
than post the written versions to allow more
of my personality to come through
Skeptic’s Overall Conclusion
• Because of more experience with case analysis and
writing assignments my students got more out of
my online class than my face-to-face students
• Students spent more time watching extended
videos of actual cases than would ever happen in a
face-to-face course; chould be called “Laboratory in
Abnormal Psychology”
• The majority who took it seriously seemed to be
very engaged with the content and with me and to
have enjoyed it as well
• Next time I teach it face-to-face I may ask to offer a
Hybrid that meets only once a week
Possible Changes Next Time
• Fewer Tests (two mid-terms and a final versus
three mid-terms and a final)
• Wider range of videos (MTV’s “Real Life” in
addition to You Tube)
• Use of occasional video messages using Flip
Video
• E:\DCIM\100VIDEO\VID00002.MP4
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