Is computer-delivered education equivalent to one with a flesh-and-blood teacher and hands-on experiences?
Shannon Howrey is assistant professor of literacy education at Georgia Gwinnett College and parent of three school-aged children. In her second op-ed for the Get Schooled blog, she writes about the spread of MOOCs, massive open online courses delivered over the Internet to anyone who enrolls without charge.
MOOCs award students certificates rather than college credits.
The nation’s elite colleges are rushing to create MOOCs to enhance their brand and to be part of the most talked about innovation in higher education. At some point, colleges are expected to use the evolving and dynamic MOOC market to make money. Among the possible revenue sources: Data mining, selling the course material, selling sponsorships, charging tuition.
In her interesting piece, Howrey considers the future and benefits of MOOCs.
By Shannon Howrey
The AJC reported Monday that Georgia State University is entering the growing market of massive open online courses, better known as MOOCs, and plans to offer them free of charge in the near future. This is great news for students who are geographically or financially hindered from attending a brick-and-mortar school, and colleges everywhere are rushing in to get in on the action.
But philanthropy alone is not driving this initiative, and students with other no other educational options make up only a small slice of the marketing demographic.
Think of a MOOC like a printer. Printers are sold cheaply, sometimes at an initial loss to the printer company. However, to get any use out of the printer you have to keep purchasing the company’s expensive print cartridges, allowing them to recap the initial loss several times over.
Like a printer, the MOOC is offered “free” to the student, and the school invests a small amount of money for the course development, delivery platform, and maybe a real instructor. But, if a student actually wants to get any use out of the course, perhaps to gain a credential for employment, he or she will need to purchase some proof that the material has been mastered.
The “cartridge” in this case might take the form of a certificate of completion, computer-graded exam fee, or, if absolutely necessary, a professional evaluation of the student’s work. So, if the school attracts 10,000 students with a course that cost them $100,000 initially, and all 10,000 students pay the college $100 for the credential the school has netted $900,000. If the same class is offered more than once the revenue multiplies ad infinitum.
On paper this seems an ingenious idea. In what looks like a win-win situation, the college takes in millions. The students pay just $100 for credentials that would have cost several times more if offered in traditional format. And since they won’t need their summer jobs anymore to pay for tuition, they can earn an entire degree while sunbathing at the beach or sitting on the couch between video games.
This scenario will most likely draw in large numbers of newly minted high school graduates, and the MOOCs will be a big hit. But one consideration remains: Is a computer-delivered education equivalent to one with a flesh-and-blood teacher, reasonable class size, and concrete learning materials?
Every semester I ask my teacher education students to describe the teacher who had the most impact their education. Their responses are similar and usually fall into three categories: First, the teacher took an interest in them, as illustrated in responses such as, “inspired me to do my best,” “had confidence in me,” or “encouraged me to further my education.” Secondly, the teacher motivated them. These responses look something like, “She made class interesting,” or “He had us do creative projects instead of lecturing all the time.” Other comments referred to the teacher’s personal involvement in their success. These teachers “helped me when I didn’t understand something,” or “spent extra time tutoring me.”
Not surprisingly, the students’ comments echo research on how people learn. This research has shown again and again that students learn best by applying knowledge in a concrete way to a real situation. Further, their classroom environment includes opportunities for interacting with other students and a teacher who takes the time to work with them until they understand.
Learning in this way creates synaptic connections in multiple areas of the brain within and between the new concept and those learned earlier. These conditions stimulate the brain, thereby creating motivation to learn more, which creates even more connections. Those connections are the foundation of creativity and underlie every invention and original idea.
To illustrate this concept, think about an apple. To understand the concept of “apple” you could hear all about one from an apple specialist, you could see a picture of it, maybe read a chapter about it and even discuss it with people from all over the world. However, until you hold an apple in your hand, dissect it and take a bite you won’t know how to use the apple in any meaningful way. If you have trouble you could always observe your peers dissecting the apple, or the apple specialist could take the time to help you personally. Without this concrete experience and personal interaction you might retain a fuzzy idea of an apple, but you would probably not think to draw upon the apple to improve an old recipe or invent a new one.
In all the years I’ve asked the question not one student has ever said that the teachers who impacted their education most, “stuffed the most knowledge into my brain as quickly and cheaply as possible.” MOOCs are not an education. They are a means of increasing much needed revenue for colleges by leveraging their meager resources — revenue that is needed because Georgia taxpayers would rather not fund a real education.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
86 comments Add your comment
10:10 am
January 25th, 2013
12:53 pm
My apologies. As my wife’s learned commentary (Google “NEA” and “union”) is frequently delayed or disallowed—and in this case sat in limbo beyond 30 minutes—I reproduced it for her in my above post.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
12:54 pm
Pompano and 10:10 am obviously think that MOOCs are great ideas. Universities may too, for different reasons than the altruistic one of “extend[ing] the reach of formal education and provid[ing] opportunities to those ill-served by traditional providers.” Of course, MOOCs may mean that formal education is watered down and doesn’t mean much, and the “opportunities” won’t mean much either. Oh, and 10:10 am, Georgia’s K-12 educators don’t belong to teachers’ unions, and Georgia’s professors SURE don’t belong to any such union or to PAGE or GAE either.
There are wider problems connected with a large state University deciding to give credit for MOOCs. What will this do to the enrollments of the state’s two-year colleges, that also offer introductory courses? Or to the state’s tier 2 and tier 3 four-year colleges? Won’t their students prefer to take introductory MOOC courses offered by Yale or MIT and have those on their transcripts instead?
For that matter, what will it do to the sponsoring University’s own doctoral programs? Usually the introductory Core courses are taught by a department’s doctoral students with MAs who are Part Time Instructors (PTIs). If these courses are suddenly available through MOOCs, many of those doctoral students will out of a job. So they won’t be taking graduate courses…and the graduate faculty won’t have as many students in their classes…and, since most PTIs rely on those courses for an income, many may have to drop out…so the University’s graduate programs could well suffer.
But the MOOCs do bring in more money for the schools that can offer them, and in these days of never-ending budget cuts, you do what you gotta do.
Tinkerella
January 25th, 2013
1:02 pm
@ Steve W….Sorry is right. You don’t know what you are talking about and obviously are missing out on good, talented people. I interact with my professors more so online than I did when I was in a class of over 200 people at a brick & mortar.
I know a lot of people who have an elitist attitude because they don’t understand the technology or are just bitter that they had to pay for all the unneeded stuff you have to sign up for at a traditional college. I will say it isn’t for everybody, but don’t knock what you obviously don’t know about. Whether you like it or not, it is the future. Take the time to learn about it. It might surprise you who are the professors.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
1:04 pm
I see evidence here for what I’ve always suspected: “Google ‘NEA’ and ‘Union’” and “10:10 am” are one and the same. Their identical entries at 12:06 pm and 12:26 pm prove this. And 10:10 am, why can’t your “learned wife” write posts for herself in her own words?
Mary Elizabeth
January 25th, 2013
1:05 pm
Paulo977, 11:51 am
“Mary , this applies also to all the subjects in the curriculum …Engagement , engagement engagement , !!!’
============================================
Paulo, I agree with you. The Assistant Principal who evaluated my instruction when I was an active teacher complimented my rather unorthodox style. I incorporated my prepared lecture with questions (sometimes spontaneous questions) and answers from students, often as I walked throughout the classroom sizing up each students’ degree of absorption of the literary ideas being discussed. I also encouraged students to ask and answer other students’ questions pertaining to their ideas being expressed, if they were highly motivated to do so and were effectively engaging in the ideas being discussed. This physical activity of walking throughout my classroom gave me the opportunity to encourage increased engagement through my physical proximity to students, as well as to “set up” engagement for those students who were not overtly engaging by directly asking those students questions (and questions, btw, which I thought the student would be able to handle successfully, thereby encouraging more overt engagement from that particular student in the future).
I have written frequently that excellent teaching is as much an art as a science. The nonverbal assessment by the teacher of what is going on within the instructional, emotional dynamic of his/her entire classroom, as well as within the minds of each of his/her students, simultaneously, is part of the art of teaching. Students, likewise, learn not only from the sequential comments made either by the teacher or by the students related to the content, but they also learn from the overall classroom dynamic, i.e. from the rapid overlapping of dialoque by students about ideas to which they are highly motivated (as dialoque among characters in movies is often filmed in an overlapping, not in a purely sequential dynamic) or from the nonverbal reactions of other students to controlled or spontaneous academc encounters among all who are within the classroom.
10:10 am
January 25th, 2013
1:15 pm
Obviously “Prof” is in fundamental disagreement with the National Education Association. On its own website the NEA declares itself to be “the largest union in the country”:
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
All members of that union’s local manifestation, the Georgia Association of Educators, are dues-paying members of the NEA whether they like it or not. Furthermore, the extra $168 they pay yearly for that “honor” funds the NEA’s union & partisan-Democrat politics:
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ and http://goo.gl/bNdPt
living in an outdated ed system
January 25th, 2013
1:30 pm
I think that Ms. Howrey is not framing the MOOC issue correctly. First of all, there is no reason to think that online learning is not equivalent to a teacher in a classroom. We are not talking about replacing teachers, but rather enriching the learning experience through the interactivity of digital media while also offering students access to a quality teacher or quality content, should that not be readily available in their school or university. Secondly, I can say unequivocally that an online teacher can have the same impact on a student that Ms. Howrey insinuates may not be possible without the physical presence of a classroom teacher:
1. Most virtual teachers take a personal interest in their students. I would like to think that all teachers take such an interest, but we know this is not true with both classroom teachers and virtual teachers.
2. Virtual teachers motivate their students. The problem with many classrooms is the lack of intrinsic motivation. Motivational psychologists will tell you that you need the following elements present: autonomy, competence and relatedness. This is all possible regardless of there the teacher may reside.
3. Ms. Howrey is insinuating that you cannot interact with other students in a virtual environment. Per Ms. Horey: “Further, their classroom environment includes opportunities for interacting with other students and a teacher who takes the time to work with them until they understand.” Has she ever taught a virtual class or webinar? Many of the online schools have conducted virtual classes in a group setting. There are also many technologies that facilitate learning in a virtual world. My friend/colleague Tony O’Driscoll at Duke University wrote a book about this, called “Learning in 3D.”
Of course, this is still a relatively new area of learning. But before we try to state that the only reason MOOCs are forming is for additional revenue, I think we should all be open minded and take a fresh look at what is really going on here and the rich learning opportunities that are emerging from this new learning trend.
1.
Mary Elizabeth
January 25th, 2013
1:48 pm
I want to state that I am not necessarily against online instruction. My purpose in posting was to offer perhaps additional insight into the unique value of traditional “in the flesh” instruction.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
2:04 pm
@ 10:10 am. I don’t care what the NEA claims on its website. Georgia professors don’t belong to ANY union. GEA draws its membership from K-12 educators and administrators. And if you don’t know the differences between K-12 educators and college/University professors, I’m not going to waste my time spelling them out.
Kat
January 25th, 2013
2:08 pm
For the most part, I think the effectiveness of online courses, like face-to-face courses, depends largly on the instructor (assuming a motivated student). For example, last sememter my daughter took US History online. The instructor was clear on his expectations, the syllabus was straightforward, and the instructor was easily accessible and gave useful feedback on assignements. This semester she signed up for the next online course in the series. The instructor was vague, the syllabus was vague, the assignments unclear. Two weeks into the course she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing, so she wisely dropped the class and added a traditional face-to-face class. Having said that, MOOCs sound like a waste since the students don’t come out of them with college credit. Employers either require a college degree or they don’t; I’ve never heard of one being impressed by a “certficate” from a free online class.
Mary Elizabeth
January 25th, 2013
2:27 pm
From the NEA website:
“The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education.”
The Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), a branch of NEA, is not a teacher’s union. GAE is a “professional employee organization.”
10:10 am
January 25th, 2013
2:43 pm
@ “Prof”
Need my wife and I point out to you that online instruction is likewise offered to Georgia public high school students, and that Georgia student teachers are routinely “encouraged” by their college Education professors to join the local NEA affiliate?
We will assume you meant no slight to women with your comments regarding my wife’s 12:06 p.m. post.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
3:05 pm
@ Kat, 2:08 pm. MOOCs are a bit more complicated… these courses were originally offered free by top-notch Universities who hoped to draw students into taking more courses from them and enrolling. Now other schools, such as GSU, are trying to work out ways in which–presumably in some sort of financial alliance with the original school–they can allow their own students to count those MOOCs for credit, for a fee.
@10:10 am. It seems that you were the one slighting women by usurping the post by your “wife” and posting it under your own name.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
3:07 pm
P.S. to Kat: To me, MOOCs seem like an elegant form of outsourcing by the schools who didn’t originate them.
Pompano
January 25th, 2013
3:10 pm
UnProgressive Humanist – you don;t seem to grasp that successful Corporations are always are always adapting and taking advantage of advances in technology while the Educational system resists.
If you took a Secretary from the 1950’s and placed them in an office today, they would not be able to do the job due to advances. Take a teacher from the 1950’s and place them in a classroom today and they wouldn’t miss a beat
Old Dawg
January 25th, 2013
3:11 pm
It is hard to stop cheating in the classroom but almost impossible online. Students can collaborate on tests, moms can take the test for the children, second computers can be open to course information.
Remember the online sites where students can buy term papers? Now there are sites that for a fee will take a course for a students.
10:10 am
January 25th, 2013
3:20 pm
@ Mary Elizabeth:
Alas, for the National Education Association (and therefore GAE), the threat presented by broadening education choices is very real indeed: http://tinyurl.com/a9ens7g
@ “Prof”: Are you truly so rude as you insist on sounding?
Prof
January 25th, 2013
3:34 pm
@ Kat. Mea culpa. I evidently was wrong about GSU charging a fee for these MOOC courses. I went back to the original AJC story last Monday: “…Just like other transfer credits, students would not have to pay for them and there would be limits on how many credits students would receive.”
As to your expressed fear that students wouldn’t get any credit for taking MOOC courses, GSU apparently will count them as transfer credits toward a degree.
However, the rest of my criticisms stand, about the pernicious indirect effects that accepting MOOC courses could have for a University….it seems worse to me if the University won’t even get any fees for using the MOOC course. What is that old saying from Genesis: selling your birthright for a mess of pottage?
@ 10:10 am. The pot calling the kettle black! Your constant posts with their false claims that Georgia teachers belong to unions—which even Maureen took the trouble to deny since it is illegal in Georgia for workers to belong to unions– are rude, rude, rude.
Progressive Humanist
January 25th, 2013
4:15 pm
Pompano,
You don’t seem to grasp that those corporate employees who you seem to worship because they are “adapting and taking advantage of technology” were educated in the school system that you deride and that those technologies likely originated in that same school system, at research universities. And without having gone to those universities, those employees wouldn’t be so adaptable or have the technical know-how. You also might want to consider that business majors tend to have among the lowest scores of any subject area, so please don’t try to pretend as if business people have some sort of intellectual superiority. (They tend to score below average on both verbal and quantitative measures if I recall correctly.)
So you think teachers in the 1950’s were using smart boards, having their students conduct research via the internet, having students create prezis, etc.? I don’t walk into a k-12 classroom today without seeing the use of technology that wasn’t even available 10 years ago in the classroom. I’m starting to get the impression you haven’t been in a classroom since to got your high school diploma way back when.
As an aside, I keep wondering why you capitalize random words in your writing- Secretary, Corporations, Educational, Academic, Economy, Gov’t, etc. It’s quite odd. Could it be due to a lack of education? Certainly a successful businessman wouldn’t write like that.
Progressive Humanist
January 25th, 2013
4:34 pm
Prof,
10:10 seems like a simple binary thinker, unable or unwilling to contemplate detail or nuance. They take a single concept like “government” or “unions” or whatever else, and decide that it must be either the source of all evil in the world or the savior of all of humanity. Apparently these days the free market, capitalism, choice (for schools but not for pregnancy) are the holiest of human inventions, while government, unions, healthcare, etc. will bring the apocalypse. So if something has a minor trait in common with the diabolical unions, then that other thing also becomes a union, regardless of other distinguishing features that differentiate it from a union. It’s just a way to fit everything into a simple binary world view. I guess teachers are the worst because they have some overlapping features with both unions and the government, and of course we all know that prayer is no longer allowed in school, so therefore education must be abolished because Satan wants to destroy democracy and take your guns. Pretty amusing, indeed.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
4:44 pm
@ Progressive Humanist. Or 10:10 am is a paid out-of-state hack hired by ultra-conservatives to constantly pump anti-Democratic messages.
10:10 am
January 25th, 2013
4:46 pm
@ “Prof” You shame yourself, sir.
Prof
January 25th, 2013
5:54 pm
10:10 am, 1:15 pm: “All members of that union’s [NEA] local manifestation, the Georgia Association of Educators, are dues-paying members of the NEA whether they like it or not. Furthermore, the extra $168 they pay yearly for that “honor” funds the NEA’s union & partisan-Democrat politics.”
If you are still stating that Georgia teachers belong to unions, you must live out of state and do not know–as has been pointed out to you many times on this blog–that here unions are illegal. “Democrat” is a negative, ultra-conservative term for “Democratic.” Given that you have posted some variant on this message on nearly every Get Schooled blog-thread for months, you must be paid. There’s certainly no point now, after the election.
You shame yourself, sir or madam.
10:10
January 25th, 2013
6:37 pm
“Prof,” I guess new readers will decide whether to believe the National Education Association itself … or you … when it comes to their union status.
As for where the union’s political cash ends up …
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
Jerry Eads
January 25th, 2013
7:40 pm
Sorry to get here so late. First: It’s an honor to work with Shannon. She is a wonderfully caring and dedicated teacher of teachers to be.
There are many variations on the “not in person” theme. As Shannon notes, the assessment of learning from the MOOC approach would be a profitable enterprise. The problem would be with the quality of the measurement of the learning. Would an online multiple-guess test suffice? Would a potential employer of a MOOC graduate be satisfied with a passing score from same? Perhaps.
While it may not be common knowledge outside the higher education community, brick and mortar institutions do not seem to be disposed toward hiring faculty who have received advanced degrees from online institutions – the reasoning is that the work required from online instititions is perceived to be less rigorous than that from traditional “brick and mortars.” That said, there may well be some online degrees that required more rigor than some degrees from some “brick and mortars.” My experience is that those who have received degrees from “lesser” sources assume that their experience was the same as individuals who earned their degrees from “greater” sources. Many would argue – and I would be one of them – that such is usually not the case, but most folks only discuss this issue behind closed doors.
Jerry Eads
January 25th, 2013
7:40 pm
Sorry to get here so late. First: It’s an honor to work with Shannon. She is a wonderfully caring and dedicated teacher of teachers to be.
There are many variations on the “not in person” theme. As Shannon notes, the assessment of learning from the MOOC approach would be a profitable enterprise. The problem would be with the quality of the measurement of the learning. Would an online multiple-guess test suffice? Would a potential employer of a MOOC graduate be satisfied with a passing score from same? Perhaps.
While it may not be common knowledge outside the higher education community, brick and mortar institutions do not seem to be disposed toward hiring faculty who have received advanced degrees from online institutions – the reasoning is that the work required from online instititions is perceived to be less rigorous than that from traditional “brick and mortars.” That said, there may well be some online degrees that required more rigor than some degrees from some “brick and mortars.” My experience is that those who have received degrees from “lesser” sources assume that their experience was the same as individuals who earned their degrees from “greater” sources. Many would argue – and I would be one of them – that such is frequently not the case, but most folks only discuss this issue behind closed doors.
Kadar Lewis
January 25th, 2013
7:54 pm
Amen. Great crystallization of the issues at hand. Students need more personal/direct contact, not less in order to achieve.
Dr. Monica Henson
January 25th, 2013
11:29 pm
Mary Elizabeth posted, ““The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education.”
The Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), a branch of NEA, is not a teacher’s union. GAE is a ‘professional employee organization.’”
I have to throw the BS flag on both of these statements. The NEA counts among its members teachers, school secretaries, and other “education support personnel.” Translation: anyone willing to pay dues. It is most assuredly NOT a professional employee organization. It’s a union, pure and simple, and its membership isn’t limited to the college-educated.
GAE’s dues support the NEA because GAE is an NEA affiliate. Therefore, GAE supports a union.
Whether it admits it’s a duck or not, if it pays dues to the mother duck…
Prof
January 26th, 2013
1:41 pm
@ Dr. Monica Henson and 10:10 am: This point has been made many times on this blog.
The National Association of Educators (NEA) is indeed a teachers’ union, but GAE is NOT. NEA has a category for teachers in right-to-work states where unions are prohibited but who still wish to associate with other NEA teachers: state affiliates. The GAE is such an affiliate. From NEA’s website: “NEA state affiliates regularly lobby legislators for the resources schools need, campaign for higher professional standards for the teaching profession, and file legal actions to protect academic freedom and the rights of school employees.”
But these do not include the defining union activities: collective bargaining or strikes. The activities provided by these affiliates could be performed by the individual member without any intermediary group. THEY DO NOT INCLUDE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING OR STRIKES.
How hard is this to understand? Georgia’s “affiliate chapter” is not the union itself. If GAE members choose to support the NEA with dues, that’s their prerogative. But it does not prove that they are a union. I make contributions to the Atlanta Food Bank, but am not a member of that organization.
Pompano
January 26th, 2013
10:25 pm
Ahhh… UnProgressive Humanist is revealed as the Public School teacher they are – no wonder you demonstrate so much hatred at the corporate world in which you could never succeed. Guess I’d be upset too if my existence could be replaced by a computer program, a few Utube videos and a sixteen year-old with babysitting skills.
Progressive Humanist
January 27th, 2013
10:51 am
Pompano,
You’re not a very sharp one, are you? It was revealed early and often in this thread that I’m a professor at a state university. We should work with you on your reading comprehension. As a psychologist I could help you out with that, although I have a feeling your motivation is lacking.
I did work successfully in the corporate world for a while and found it unfulfilling, so I decided to do something more important and leave the “Corporate” world to pencil pushers like yourself who don’t have the intellect for more serious work.
10:10 am
January 27th, 2013
12:26 pm
Paying dues to the National Education Association and thereby bankrolling its liberal-Democrat politics is not optional if you belong to GAE. You will be assessed an extra $168 each year to pay for ….
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
Prof
January 27th, 2013
4:20 pm
@ 10:10 am. I guess that doesn’t bother the GAE members, obviously. Doesn’t the National Rifle Association help to “bankroll” conservative Republican politics? It’s a free country.
Is computer-delivered education equivalent to one with a flesh-and-blood teacher and hands-on experiences? | #MOOC: Massively Open Online Courses | Scoop.it
January 29th, 2013
4:04 pm
[...] Shannon Howrey is assistant professor of literacy education at Georgia Gwinnett College and parent of three school-aged children. In her second op-ed for the [...]
Is computer-delivered education equivalent to one with a flesh-and-blood teacher and hands-on experiences? | MOOC(Massitve Online Open Course) | Scoop.it
February 3rd, 2013
5:29 am
[...] Shannon Howrey is assistant professor of literacy education at Georgia Gwinnett College and parent of three school-aged children. In her second op-ed for the [...]
MOOC2Degree Offers Students Risk-Free Taste Of Online Education My Online Degree Tips
February 4th, 2013
1:56 am
[...] the MOOC model has its critics. In an op-ed for the Get Schooled blog, Georgia Gwinnett College assistance professor of literacy education Shannon Howrey questioned the [...]