Subject: Re: Does this "formula" work?
From: Rich VanAmerongen (rvanamer@orion.cc.pcc.edu)
Date: Tue May 02 2000 - 12:17:11 EDT
Wayne,
I am one of those “Distance Education(DL)” math types who has a variety of
delivery format experiences mainly due to administrative imposed delivery
software changes(“FirstClass - “Modem” system in 1995, now 1999-2000 on
WebCt - a messy subset of wordsmiths lovely prose). I only deliver two
transfer college courses in Statistics (200 level).
I must say I am NOT the most experience software mathematical faculty. I
am a former industry type and more willing to “risk” failure it seems.
Most Mathematics faculty turn their collective eye away and ignore these
efforts, period. It has not been easy or smooth going. I have avoided
evaluating the overall success as I believe these are primarily “pilot”
efforts on my part with minimal support (two single course release times to
develop each course) or intervention by administration. It is both a
blessing and a difficulty to be all in one for these students
(registration, software guru and instructor).
This is anecdotal at best, so I do not think it should be reflective of
other subject areas here or around the Northwest Colleges and Universities.
(This format of course delivery does attract students from outside our
Community College District. I have had students in Florida, Texas, and
even once one in Japan.)
I think you are both right and wrong! It is not a fair evaluation without
a larger commonality base of DL courses to judge success ratios of the
students enrollments. I am uncertain on so many points that I cannot give
you a definitive reply.
Rich VanAmerongen
Mathematics Instructor
Portland Community College
Portland, Oregon 97219
=====================================
At 10:47 AM 4/29/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Bret,
>
>The set of schools who set high standards first and then devote their
>efforts to increasing the success rate is NOT empty. I suspect that most
>efforts that fit this mold come from teachers and are implemented over the
>dead bodies of administrators but that may be a predjudice of mine. An
>example occurs to me that arouses my curiosity. How many teachers are
>implementing distance education courses because their administrations are
>insisting on it and how many are implementing it on their own to serve
>students? I'd be willing to bet that the former distance ed courses are
>much more expensive, have lower standards (if any), and are less successful
>that the teacher instigated ones even though they have to trick budget
>people to get money for theirs. Maybe some folks will write in and let me
>know how wrong I am.
>
>wayne
>
>At 06:18 PM 4/28/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>I'm just philosophizing here.
>>
>>Several years ago I heard a quote from some "business guru." Sorry, I don't
>>remember who. He said in oder for a business to succeed the basic principle
>>was simple: Quality, price, service; choose any two.
>>
>>Well, is the following principle true in education (especially for an
>>open-door institution): Standards, effort, success rate; choose any two.
>>
>>My point is, it is easy to get high success rates if you have either high
>>effort from students or low standards from the institution. But, do many
>>schools try and figure out how to have high standards and high success rates
>>while settling for low effort?
>>
>>Just curious.
>>
>>
>>Bret Taylor Lake-Sumter Community College Leesburg, FL John 3:30
>>
>>It matters not the subject taught, nor all the books on all the shelves.
>>What matters more, yes, most of all, is what the teachers are themselves.
>> John Wooden, UCLA
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>Wayne F. Mackey
>Director, MRTC
>University of Arkansas
>ScEn #301
>Fayetteville, AR 72701
>wmackey@comp.uark.edu
>(501) 582-3764
>
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