Online+Education

=Online Education: Now and the Future= By Ben Spencer

For my presentation, I wanted to focus on something that is relevant to nearly every student at ASU: Online education.

Most ASU students take an online class in some form or another. For some students, like myself, their degree is entirely online.

I've compiled a few interviews from experts in the field. Some are names you might have heard of like Udacity and Codecademy. Others include faculty at ASU.



I had the opportunity to chat with Irvin Hwang, who is an engineer at Udacity.
What has been your experience with online education so far? I started working in online education with [|__ai-class.com__] (the predecessor to our current courses).

Have you taken any online courses yourself? I've viewed some of our courses since we started and MIT's open courseware before that, but never really took a full online course.

What do you like about the online experience? With our courses I like how it's more like a tutoring session than a lecture and how often there are small questions in between explanations.

What do you dislike about the online experience? I think the tools and technology can be improved for checking for deeper understanding (especially for courses outside of computer science).

What is your opinion about the online education market? I think we're at the beginning of a really exciting time for online education and we'll see a lot more activity in the market.

How well does our current technology serve online students? I think it's good enough replace lectures, but there's still a way to go to really determine if a student understands a subject.

Do you think it is as effective as in class learning? I think it can be more effective than large lectures.

What do you think is the best way to learn online? Through Udacity :-)

What do you see in the near future for online education? In the near future I see more and more classes being offered at the higher educational level. I also think there will be more use of analytics with the data generated to determine the most effective teaching methods/personalize the learning experience.

How do you see online students learning in 5 years? I think the experience will become much more personalized and efficient where a student can say "I want to learn how to do X" and a set of courses specific to that goal can be laid out.

What process is there to develop online learning materials? We have professors come in and record videos for a short course in a style that's pretty different from a standard lecture. Our video editors smooth things out along with the TAs. Our engineering staff helps develop tools professors need for specific classes and improve the platform based on student needs. There are some other aspects I don't know too many of the details of, but it's a real team effort.

How have you contributed to that process? I was the first employee so I've been involved in a lot of different aspects, but now I'm mainly programming working on tools for creating/editing courses.

If you could change anything about online education, what would it be? I'd probably make the experience more social and make it easier for people interested in learning the same things to connect and help each other out.

Do you have any additional comments or ideas? Thanks for your interest in Udacity!



==Codecademy was created by two guys who were frustrated with learning how to code. They have teamed up with the goal of helping people learn how to code. I spoke with Katie in customer service who said:==

Thus far, we are aiming to revolutionize online education by creating courses that are both fun and approachable - we feel that many past companies failed to achieve this and we are filling in the gap. The company started because Ryan one of our cofounders was teaching our other cofounder (Zach) how to program and Zach continues to expand his programming abilities by completing the Codecademy courses. We've contributed to online education by providing a free and fun resource for learning how to code.

Personally, I've gone through some of the courses at Codecademy. They are going to be a company to watch, as they develop their own unique style of teaching.



Sherry Feng, the instructor for Computer Literacy said the following:
What has been your experience with online education so far? Online teaching is quite different from in-class lectures. For a fully online course, students don’t have the chance to discuss a question with the instructor face-to-face, this poses a great challenge to the instructor and the instructor need to be very careful when presenting the course materials, generally speaking, it takes much more time to prepare the course material in an online course than an in-class course. Also, for an online course, the instructor will receive much more emails from students asking about questions.

Have you taken any online courses yourself? No, but I took some online trainings, such as ASU Fire prevention training, etc.

What do you like about the online experience? The flexibility where you can learn a topic anywhere & anytime.

What do you dislike about the online experience? Lack of face-to-face interaction with students.

What is your opinion about the online education market? For economic reasons, more courses will be put online in future.

How well does our current technology serve online students? Okay, but can be improved, for example, adding more interactive course contents so that the course contents’ delivery accommodates to a student’s learning level.

Do you think it is as effective as in class learning? To be honest, I don’t think so.

What do you think is the best way to learn online? Don’t know. (Sorry no answer)

What do you see in the near future for online education? As I answered in Q5, this is a trend in education.

How do you see online students learning in 5 years? More students will take online courses and more courses will offer online sections in next 5 years.



Paul Amato, who teaches online classes in Daoism and Asian Religious Traditions, had the following to say:
What has been your experience with online education so far? I have personally taught online sections for REL 343 Daoism and REL 345 Asian Religious Traditions. I have helped to develop and implement online sections for REL 351 Buddhism and REL 100 Religions of the World.

Have you taken any online courses yourself? No.

What do you like about the online experience? The ease of sharing readings and media (film clips, examples of liturgical music, photos of relevant material culture (religious art and artifacts, temples, etc.). The ability to keep tabs on student progress via Blackboard's Grade Center function.

What do you dislike about the online experience? It is impersonal. It is difficult if not impossible to get to know the students individually when teaching online. There is no way to substitute for in class lectures and discussions.

What is your opinion about the online education market? It seems to be the way the wind is blowing.

How well does our current technology serve online students? Certainly better than it did, say, five or six years ago. There is still room for improvement.

Do you think it is as effective as in class learning? Absolutely not.

What do you think is the best way to learn online? Through peer directed discussions of readings and other materials.

What do you see in the near future for online education? Gradual improvement in real time interactivity.

How do you see online students learning in 5 years? Hopefully the technology will soon reach a place where real time interaction is easily facilitated...something better than IM, more like Skype.

What process is there to develop online learning materials? Well, at ASU, the ability to develop online materials is hemmed in by a) the necessity of using Blackboard and b) the limits of an individual instructor's facility with the technology.

How have you contributed to that process? I've taken a number of the workshops offered for instructors and found them to be quite helpful.

If you could change anything about online education, what would it be? Not to sound like a broken record, but I find the lack of real time, face to face student/teacher interaction to be the single greatest drawback to online education.

Do you have any additional comments or ideas? Broadly speaking it seems to me that online education has risen to a place to prominence prematurely. That is to say, the technology isn't adequate to the task yet but online courses are a reliable revenue generator for universities (I'm speaking in general and not just about ASU) and so have been embraced.



As you can see, not everyone is 'sold' about online learning. There are many important questions to answer. For instance:

 * 1) How can we evaluate online students effectively?
 * 2) How can we ensure online learning is as in-depth as in class learning?
 * 3) How can we compensate for the lack of face to face interaction with students?
 * 4) How can we combat cheating?
 * 5) How can we improve professor and student interaction?

There are many benefits to online learning. Cost, flexibility, and remaining gainfully employed are the big ones for me. Online learning also lends itself well to technically focused degrees. But what about other fields like music, art, or dance? Certainly, the translation to online learning becomes more difficult.

Site References:

Udacity Codecademy