Abstract:
Closed campuses, working remotely, and physical distancing have changed the way we work, teach, learn, shop, attend conferences, and interact with family and friends. But the Covid-19 pandemic has not changed what we know about creating high-end online education. Two decades of research has shown that online education often fails to fulfill its promise, and the emergency shift to remote instruction has, for many, justified their distrust and dislike of online learning. Low interactivity remains a widely recognized short-coming of current online offerings. Low interactivity results, in part, from many faculty not feeling comfortable being themselves online. The long-advocated for era of authentic assessments is needed now more than ever. Finally, greater support is needed for both underrepresented students and for faculty to move beyond basic online instruction to create a strong continuum of care between the teaching and learning environment and the student support infrastructure. For those who have been long-term champions of online education, it has never been more important to confront the three biggest challenges that continue to haunt online education – interactivity, authenticity, and support. Only by confronting these challenges squarely can instructors, educational developers, and their institutions take huge steps towards better online instruction in the midst of a pandemic and make widespread, high-quality online education permanently part of the “new normal.”
LAK13 is an open online course (meaning no fee and you're free to participate as you find most helpful). To be successful in this course, we estimate that you will need to spend between 5 and 10 hours per week involved in discussions, readings, and live lectures. However, the structure of the course is such that you can set your own standards of success and participation. For example, if you are not interested in working with analytics tools (starting week 3), you will spend significantly less time on the course. If you are fairly new to analytics tools, but would like to learn, you may find that it will take more time for you to get comfortable with the tools and methods of analytics.