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First-Hand Observations on Tele-Course Teaching
But what of those courses (such as skill development courses) in which
continuous teacher/student interaction is key to learning? My
experience thus far is only with English 101. In spite of initial
apprehensions, I have found that in many ways this course was more
interactive than an on-campus course.
One cannot teach writing by lecturing, no matter how refined the
presentation technique. On campus, all my students write during a class
session while I tutor individually; when essays are returned, written
comments are minimal because I review the essay with the student face
to face. Continuous oral interaction makes the course successful.
In the tele-course, because of the presentation orientation of the
medium, oral interaction is limited (although the class did discuss
assignments and general principles of composition). Yet the written,
textual interaction is greater, in fact extensive. Because I cannot meet
remote students face to face, our communication is via the written word.
When people talk there is much less need to plan what to say; the
fragmented nature of conversation lets people sort of slide into an idea.
But writing, since an immediate response to a written phrase d'es not
occur, forces a person to establish a more ordered thought up front, to
focus upon the specific thought to be communicated, to develop a more
formal structure to the phrasing of an idea-which is precisely the skill I
am trying to teach! Teaching an English 101 tele-course demanded that I
re-learn a skill that had begun to deteriorate.
English 101 as a tele-course was successful because my students and I
engaged in not only the visual/oral interaction of the televised session,
but the multiple avenues of oral and primarily written interaction
provided by technologies available to us: fax, e-mail over the Internet,
postal mail and POTS (plain old telephone service). When these
avenues are utilized, the course breaks the bonds of the American
pedagogical paradigm (defined as x number of hours lecture or lab
equals x number of credits) and becomes more of the individualized,
tutorial type course in the Oxford tradition. The definition of "a course"
is broadened to include the fact that interaction is not so much between
the student and teacher, but between the student and the subject itself.
The above principles also apply to the concept of independent study,
for in essence, such a course is taught to individuals rather than to a
class as a whole. The re-design of independent study to make use of
multiple avenues of interaction can finally make such courses valid,
comparable learning experiences.
