Re: Web Courses
Kathryn Benjamin (nerdy@MAIL.IDT.NET)
Fri, 27 Dec 1996 12:13:00 -0800
Wayne Mackey wrote:
>
> >Please help!
> >My dean announced in a meeting on Monday that our VP is wanting us to develop
> >courses for the Internet. Now, I perfectly understand the concept of putting
> >the syllabus and the assignments on the web, but HOW do you explain concepts
> >on the printed screen? I may be old fashioned (yes, I wash my clothes on a
> >scrub board), but I still believe that an audible explanation is worth a
> >million written words. Do the students have ay sort of access to video
> >lectures? How do you write out explanations to topics such as factoring
> >trinomials? How is it any different from giving the students a book and a
> >syallbus and an assignment sheet and saying "Go home, read, and mail your
> >tests to me"? I guess I am a bit skeptical, Huh? I would be most
> >appreciative of what y'all are doing out there in webland. Lee Ann Spahr
>
> To all the old hands on this list
>
> Does all of this business of deans and vp's jumping on bandwagons and
> trying to drag teachers along sound familar? How many times have we seen
> this in the last 3 or 4 decades and is education( particularly math
> education ) any better off for any of them? To the teachers who are being
> pressured - just tell the deans and vp's that you will be happy to develop
> a very good Web course or anything else but that you need at least 2 years
> of 100% release time and $100,000 worth of equipment. Of course you might
> also mention that you could accomplish a lot more by just having a maximum
> class size of 5 students per year.
>
> My apologies for the sarcasm. I'm giving final exams and that always puts
> me in a foul mood.
>
> Wayne F. Mackey
> SCEN #301
> University of Arkansas
> (501) 575-7661
> wmackey@comp.uark.edu
I agree completely, although I too am undergoing the 'grading finals' foul mood.
Top-down changes are usually the kind that get funded, but are not necessarily
useful.
Furthermore, once an upper-level administrator decides some innovation is a good
idea,
the ball is tossed to over-committeed faculty members who are expected to
miraculously
come up with a plan that costs almost nothing, increases college profit and/or
FTEs, and
can be implemented within a year. Meanwhile, working clocks in the classroom
remain a
dream many of us hope for. Class sizes of 36 or more in rooms that comfortably
hold less
than 30 people, the reliance on adjunct instruction (sometimes over 50% of
classes) when
no office space (and hence office hours) can be provided for thee teachers and
their
students, lack of adequate support in terms of staff and equipment, reduced
hours at our
libraries and tutor centers: the litany of problems that are not addressed by
college
managers might just represent an infinite set! Enough sniveling for now: to be
continued.