September 2004 — Web/Net
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Why I Teach Online
While distance learning is not for everyone, the flexible education alternative provides teachers and students with many advantages.
A colleague once asked me why I teach online. After several seconds of thought, I realized how that answer has changed over the last 10 years. I first began teaching online because it allowed the students to use the current technology to their advantage and have a little flexibility in their schedule. In 1991 that flexibility was limited, and compared to now, the technology was even more limited.
My first class had four students, and we meet in class once a week and online three times a week. I needed information online to help the students understand the assignments, so I taped my class lectures and reduced them to the primary points. Then I wrote those points into ASCII text files, which I set into a scrolling file that the students could read from their computer screens. Of course, the students could only go forward - no jumping around or going backward. As the semester progressed, we learned ways to perfect the information and add some uniqueness to the class presentation. By the end of the third semester of offering online classes, I had found ways for my students to communicate with each other and with me through a discussion board within the bulletin board. I also discovered hypertext that allowed the students to move around in the assignments area with a greater amount of ease. Links could be made between subjects, and concepts could be associated with a variety of topics. The power of technology began to become more apparent to me as I played with ways for the students to learn what they did not know and bypass that information which they did not need to learn.
Much of the information I covered in the physical class was necessary for some but not for all; however, everyone was exposed to the information because I rarely gave a lecture to small groups within the class. Online, I could build a series of lecture-styled information for everyone, and each student could assess his or her needs and learn the material appropriate to fulfill individual needs. Individualized learning had always been a desire of mine; now I was beginning to see ways to make it happen. Upgrades to the bulletin board system provided more speed and a prettier appearance, but added few options for presentation. Students could hand in their papers, leave a comment for peers or for me, and read assignments. However, graphics were not possible and file postings were slow to load.
Dealing With Student Identity and Plagiarism
By about 1996, we moved to the Internet with Web-based software. The first classroom setup was via free software called Nicenet. It allowed for discussion, interlinked assignment information (i.e., students could read a document that had links to other documents or definitions), links to other Web sites, and a dated calendar that organized the material for students. Images were still not possible with this Web site, but the growth of technology was very helpful to the students. At this point, student numbers had grown to about 70 per semester in my three sections of composition. Because some students were not on campus (prior to this time about 90% of the students were enrolled for convenience), I began to have concerns for such things as identity of the students and plagiarism.
