Background
My transformation to a virtual professor and involvement in distance education began as a matter of necessity. Immediately after completing my doctorate at the University of Alberta (in 1978), I went to the U.S. and took a job as an instructional psychologist. I also started to teach evening courses at local universities in their graduate education programs. (Experts in computer based instruction and instructional design were rare in those days).
Like most people with real jobs, I had to travel a lot which meant that I was frequently out of town on the nights I was supposed to be teaching. So I had to develop some strategies for coping with this problem. One was to participate in the class via an audioconference. I would have someone set up a speakerphone in my classroom and call in from wherever I happened to be. I could give lectures and engage students in discussions. It worked quite well.
Another strategy was to ask colleagues to "cover" for me by going to the class and giving a guest lecture. I would pick out people with expertise on the topic to be taught so their contribution to the class was usually very worthwhile and enjoyed by the students. I found that having 5 or 6 guest lectures in a course made it much more interesting to the students than being taught by a single person.
The third strategy involved the use of computer bulletin board systems to provide a way for students to contact me and each other via email and online conferences. Not only was this useful for me, but it was helpful to the students as well since many of them also traveled a lot and this gave them a way to keep up to date with course work.
As time went on, these three "coping" strategies became the core of my approach to teaching...to the point where I could successfully run a course at distance without the need for any on-site classes. Audioconferences could be supplemented by instructi onal tv with telephone call-in, or two-way videoconferencing. Online guests could participate this way as well or online. Finally bulletin board systems were replaced by the internet and web with more sophisticated capabilities for information distributi on and interaction.
Many people ask me whether I find the lack of "personal" (i.e., face-to-face) contact a significant drawback to distance teaching. The truth is that I find it a big advantage. First of all, I now find traditional classroom teaching to be very ineffici ent and ineffective (as well as boring). I can cover a lot more material, with a very high level of class interaction (including a great deal of "personal" contact) using online methods than is possible in a traditional classroom setting. Secondly, I find that online teaching is free of many distractions and prejuidices that exist in face-to-face settings (such as physical characteristics, speech/language idiosyncracies, or environmental annoyances). Thirdly, I relish the capability to have online guests (and students) from all over the world participate in my classes as well as having easy access to an enormous amount of multimedia materials to use in teaching via the web. While there are some benefits to the face-to-face contact of traditional classrooms, they are minor in comparison to the many advantages of the virtual teaching/learning environment.
A Day in the Life
In 1989 I joined the School of Education & Human Development at the George Washington University and began to teach in their <Http://www.gwu.edu/~etl Educational Technology Leadership (ETL) program. This is a Master's degree program in which all courses are delivered at distance. Teaching in this program allowed me to develop and polish my distance teaching skills and ideas.
The typical kind of model I used for my courses involved asking students to complete weekly assignments (usually questions or problems) and to post their responses to a conferencing area specifically for that course. Since everyone could see everyone else's responses, students could learn from each other. Indeed I would actively encourage this by assigning some portion of the grade for explicit comments relating to other students' responses. I would also have students work on assignments in small groups or teams to increase the amount of student interaction.
Major assignments involved projects, case studies, and reviews that were turned in initially as files and later on in the form of web documents. So all coursework was done electronically. Feedback and grades were sent to students via email. In addition, status of assignments, identified by student numbers, was posted regularly so students could be sure that their work had been received and was being graded.
Like many curriculum areas, some of our courses involved hands-on work with specialized equipment (e.g., multimedia authoring hardware/software). Since we can't provide this in an on-campus setting, we adopted another approach; students are responsible for finding whatever equipment/facilities they need in their own locality. This means that students have to seek out individuals or organizations in their area with the necessary hardware/software and make arrangements to use this on some basis (usually as a partnership or internship). Since locating technology resources and creating partnerships are both relevant skills to our program, we felt this was a highly appropriate approach. Futhermore, we often encourage students to locate individuals/organizations through their afflications with professional associations (e.g., AECT, ISPI, ASTD, etc.) which is a further goal of the program. So lack of on-campus labs for hands-on activities has never been a problem in the ETL program; indeed, our approach to this requirement has added benefits in terms of satisfying program goals.
The workload for such a highly interactive course is very high for both students and teachers. Students often complain about this in the beginning until they began to appreciate the value of all this effort in terms of how much they were learning. For the instructor, it means many hours reading through student responses and grading them. There are various strategies that can be employed to reduce this workload, such as having students evaluate each other's work, grading/responding to team/group efforts, using standardized responses, or having teaching assistants (TAs). We used the latter strategy with our large enrollment introductory classes which would often have 100-150 students. These large classes would be d ivided into sections of 25-30 students, each with a teaching assistant. We normally hired graduates of our own program to be teaching assistants which meant that they were familar with the content of the courses and had a lot of online experience. In this setting, the instructor would supervise the TAs and only grade final projects or disputed assignments.
While my main preoccupation is with my own classes, it has become increasingly common for me to be a guest participant in courses and programs at other institutions. Typically, I will join a class for a week or two and respond to email questions or re ply to comments posted in an online conference during this period. Alternatively I may join the class via audio or videoconference for a brief 1-2 hour discussion. I will often create a web page to support these activities that provides links to references or resources for the topic at hand.
Impact on Teaching and Learning
Teaching (and learning) in an online environment is quite different than a traditional classroom setting. First of all, the teaching process is spread out over time instead of being restricted to a specific time slot on a certain day. So there is no need to try to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. Furthermore, online teaching does not involve a presentation or performance like classroom instruction. Instead, it involves the organiza tion of the class, definition of assignments, responding to student questions and grading their work, and troubleshooting technical problems. There is a lot of one-on-one discussion with students about their work and the course content via email.
I believe that the online learning experience is much richer for the student than traditional classroom settings. Since students are required to write responses to questions/problems on a regular basis, as well as read the responses of their classmates, they spend a lot of time thinking about the subject matter. In a classroom setting, if I ask a question, I might get 3-4 students to respond with their spontaneous ideas. In the online environment, students get a chance to think about the question and compose their response over a long time period (hours/days) -- and every student makes a response. Not only does this encourage reflective thought, but it also accomodates students who have difficulty expressing themselves in a spontaneous classroom setting (especially if they are foreign students with limited English proficiency).
Furthermore, it is my belief that online learning increases the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of students. Having to read and respond to the views of their classmates requires students to evaluate different many views on a topic or issue. Figuring out how to deal with the inevitable hardware and software problems that arise, as well as the complexities of networks and telecommunications, requires a lot of troubleshooting activity. While the latter may be an undesirable characteristic of online activities, it is nonetheless a reality of computer use at this stage of development. However, neither my course evaluation data, nor research in general, shows this as an outcome of online learning environments -- probably because these type of skills (i.e., critical thinking, problem-solving) are not directly measured by the typical ways we grade assignments and exams. I think this is an aspect of online learning that deserves much more research.
The Pros & Cons of Online Education
The obvious benefit of online education is lot it allows both teacher and students a lot of flexibility in terms of schedule and location. While there are deadlines for completing assignments in my classes, they allow plenty of time (i.e., days or weeks) to do the work. Being able to participate in classes from any location where there is a phone line, accommodates travel (although it requires ownership of a laptop). While online activities do increase the workload of teachers and students, they also make it possible to be much more efficient in terms of getting work done. In the space of 2 or 3 hours online, I can usually accomplish all my daily teaching and professional responsibilities, leaving me free to pursue other interests for the rest of the day.
The fact that online education allows intensive interaction among students, as well as with the instructor, is probably the single biggest benefit from an instructional perspective. Its difficult to imagine how this could be accomplished in a traditional setting, except perhaps with very small class sizes. Furthermore, it is easy to include others (such as guest experts or students from other institutions) in an online class -- as well as allow students to access resources and information anywhere in the world. Online education really does remove the boundaries of the traditional classroom
Finally, one of the benefits of being a virtual professor is that you are sheltered to some degree from the political and organizational turmoil of educational institutions. Many of the issues that result in heated disputes (e.g., facilities, staffing, supplies) are often not relevant to someone who teaches online and has no physical presence at the institution. Indeed, the virtual professor has a fairly weak allegience to particular institutions, although a very strong connection to students and the profession. In fact, your level of online involvement with colleaques at other institutions is quite likely to be greater and more intensive that with those in the institution you "belong" to.
Of course there are disadvantages to not having a physical presence at an institution, such as being left out of meetings and other events that involve on-site interaction. Futhermore, interaction with individuals via online means restricts the bandwidth of communication -- which may result in relationships which are less rich or sophisticated in nature. However, this is another area where research is needed; the psychological and sociological implications of electronic relationships are largely unknown.
Implications & Conclusions
There is no doubt that being an online teacher or student emphasizes certain skills and abilities. Online interaction requires good communications skills (especially writing ability). Good computer skills are also needed, although this does not need to be at a highly technical level. The ability to learn to use new computer software and troubleshoot problems is undoubtedly the most important technology-related skills required. There are certain personality characteristics (such as patience and independence) that seem important in an online teaching or learning environment which some teachers or student may lack. However, we don't really know a lot about the attibutes of successful and unsuccesful online teachers/learners.
A very important aspect of online learning/teaching are the implications for the nature of educational institutions. Since virtual professors (and their students) don't need classroom or other facilities (e.g., auditoriums, cafeterias, gyms, housing, parking lots, etc), what exactly is the role of the institution? Obviously, the provision of computing facilities is critical -- although these could be obtained privately. Libraries that can get materials out to students are needed, although an increasing amount of current technical/professional literature is becoming available via the web. At some point in the not too distance future, traditional libraries may only be needed for reading older literature.
Educational institutions have two functions that are still needed in online education: administration and accreditation. Administration includes the processing of admissions, course registrations, fees, scholarships, and grades. While all of these administrative functions can (ultimately) be done online, they require staff and management. Accreditation in higher education is something done at the institutional rather than individual level (unlike teacher credentialing in K-12). So both of these functions create the need for a virtual professor to have an institutional affiliation. However, it is conceivable that online teachers could operate through small professional corporations, similar to physicians or lawyers, which could address the administrative and accreditation needs without requiring the large-scale institutional infrastructure of a university, college or school system. Indeed many of the new "virtual" colleges that are beginning to appear are following a model like this, except at present they are operating without accreditation, or within the juristriction of their "parent" institution.
It should be clear that the practice of online teaching and learning is going to bring about significant changes to our educational system. Some will be good, some bad, and others will just be different. My experiences over the past two decades as a virtual professor have been overwhelmingly positive in terms of the being able to teach more effectively and efficiently. Whether this will be true for most other teachers remains to be seen. However, I believe most will find this a compelling way to teach, and prefer it over traditional classroom settings.
Bibliography
Bates, A. (1997). Restructuring the University for Technological Change. [ http://bates.cstudies.ubc.ca/carnegie/carnegie.html ]
Daniel, J. (1996). Megauniversities and Knowledge Media. London: Kogan Page.
Gurwitz, C. & Van Sickle, J. (Oct 1997). "Virtual Instruction: Experientia Docet" , THE Journal.
Hiltz, S.R. (1994). The Virtual Classroom: Learning Without Limits via Computer Networks. Norword, NJ: Ablex.
Kearsley, G. (1997) A Guide to Online Learning & Teaching. [ http://fcae.nova.edu/~kearsley/online.html ]
Noble, D. (1997). Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education
Rheingold, H. (1993). Virtual Communities: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Some Relevant Links (Virtual Teaching Institutions):
Knowledge Media Institute at the UK Open University [ http://kmi.open.ac.uk ]
DIAL/New School (New York) [ http://www.dialnsa.edu ]
Univ Phoenix Online [ http://www.uophx.edu ]
National Technological University [ http://www.ntu.edu ]
Microsoft Online Learning Institute [ http://moli.microsoft.com ]
Motorola University [ http://www.mot.com/MU ]
McGraw-Hill World University [ http://www.mhwu.edu ]
U.S. Dept Agriculture Graduate School [ http://grad.usda.gov ]
International University Consortium [ http://www.umuc.edu/iuc ]
Open Learning Agency [ http://www.ola.bc.ca ]
World Lecture Hall [ http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/world/instruction/index.html ]
Sprectrum Virtual University [ http://www.vu.org ]
California Virtual University [ http://www.virtualu.ca.gov ]
Michigan State Virtual University [ http://www.vu.msu.edu ]
Virtuelle Universitat (Germany) [ http://virtuelle-uni.fernuni.de]