Comments on: Traditional Schools Cannot Adjust http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/ A doctoral learner's journey Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:51:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Mike’s Doc Blog » Blog Archive » Did the Chronicle Hear Me? http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/comment-page-1/#comment-12181 Mike’s Doc Blog » Blog Archive » Did the Chronicle Hear Me? Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:15:17 +0000 http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/#comment-12181 [...] A few weeks ago, I blogged about the inability of traditional schools to adjust to technology and the Chronicle of Higher Education’s bias against distance learning; Traditional Schools Cannot Adjust. [...] [...] A few weeks ago, I blogged about the inability of traditional schools to adjust to technology and the Chronicle of Higher Education’s bias against distance learning; Traditional Schools Cannot Adjust. [...]

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]]> By: mike http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/comment-page-1/#comment-12167 mike Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:51:18 +0000 http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/#comment-12167 Joel, I agree. What I know of your level of schooling and UOP is that those courses, and a growing number of courses, are limited to the instruction given to the facilitator. Even at the doctoral level instructors are provided lectures. Some classes include them, some instructors write their own, some do a combination of both. All in all, this is not the way it used to be. In my Master's program the instructors had a tremendous amount of latitude to instruct and meet the goals of the course. That seems to have changed, and not in a good way. I understand the need to standardize content when you have over 17,000 instructors. However, the problem is, as you stated, one of moderators, or worse robots. This movement at UOP will likely end up causing more problems. In the beginning it will be frustrated and confused students, in the middle it will be a faculty recruiting and retention problem, in the end it will be the recruiting and retention of students. When I was an adjunct, I enjoyed the creation of the course, the instruction, and the flexible interplay of faculty and student. Moving forward into the Gen Y population, it will be more important to address this matter. This whole issue is made worse with bad instructional design. You and I both know that there are obvious errors and some crummy instruction at UOP from time to time. This might be a problem with a homegrown instruction design team...I am not sure. Joel,

I agree. What I know of your level of schooling and UOP is that those courses, and a growing number of courses, are limited to the instruction given to the facilitator. Even at the doctoral level instructors are provided lectures. Some classes include them, some instructors write their own, some do a combination of both.

All in all, this is not the way it used to be. In my Master’s program the instructors had a tremendous amount of latitude to instruct and meet the goals of the course. That seems to have changed, and not in a good way.

I understand the need to standardize content when you have over 17,000 instructors. However, the problem is, as you stated, one of moderators, or worse robots. This movement at UOP will likely end up causing more problems. In the beginning it will be frustrated and confused students, in the middle it will be a faculty recruiting and retention problem, in the end it will be the recruiting and retention of students.

When I was an adjunct, I enjoyed the creation of the course, the instruction, and the flexible interplay of faculty and student. Moving forward into the Gen Y population, it will be more important to address this matter.

This whole issue is made worse with bad instructional design. You and I both know that there are obvious errors and some crummy instruction at UOP from time to time. This might be a problem with a homegrown instruction design team…I am not sure.

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]]> By: Joel McDonald http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/comment-page-1/#comment-12164 Joel McDonald Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:23:55 +0000 http://mikeberta.us/blog/2007/11/09/traditional-schools-cannot-adjust/#comment-12164 I LOVE the image you used for this post. I got a good chuckle from it. While I love the idea of online learning, I have my issues with UoP. I selected them because I thought they were ahead of the curve with their online program. Now, after having completed an academic year and being a bit into my second, I don't think that's saying very much. It seems that my instructors are robots confined to a script and very little creativity is able to be applied to teaching. Actually, I don't feel my instructors are instructors at all. It's more like they are forum moderators. Part of the issue is the OLS software. Frankly, it sucks. UoP is behind the curve with the types of software that could be applied to classes. I think you're spot on with UoP needing to incorporate podcasts, collaborative technologies, social networking, and new interface for collecting information. Instructors should be given an opportunity to actually instruct, and students should be able to discuss, collaborate, and network easily. There seems to be a chasm between F2F schools and UoP. Available technology easily bridges this gap. UoP needs to do so to survive, and the sooner, the better. I LOVE the image you used for this post. I got a good chuckle from it.

While I love the idea of online learning, I have my issues with UoP. I selected them because I thought they were ahead of the curve with their online program. Now, after having completed an academic year and being a bit into my second, I don’t think that’s saying very much. It seems that my instructors are robots confined to a script and very little creativity is able to be applied to teaching. Actually, I don’t feel my instructors are instructors at all. It’s more like they are forum moderators.

Part of the issue is the OLS software. Frankly, it sucks. UoP is behind the curve with the types of software that could be applied to classes.

I think you’re spot on with UoP needing to incorporate podcasts, collaborative technologies, social networking, and new interface for collecting information.

Instructors should be given an opportunity to actually instruct, and students should be able to discuss, collaborate, and network easily. There seems to be a chasm between F2F schools and UoP. Available technology easily bridges this gap. UoP needs to do so to survive, and the sooner, the better.

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