I am still grappled by the notion that we can earn degrees and certificates online. I love that I get the opportunity but as I plan to become an online instructor at some point, I am weary about this "honor system" we seem to have online. Is your student "your student"? Can he/she not just have a friend join a conference or submit an online journal?
Yes on-ground students can have a friend do a paper and send in BUT the on-ground instructor has a reference in-class that is not afforded to the online instructor. I have my students write in-class, or work on design projects in-class so that I can monitor their skill and progress. This way, if they turn in any out-of-class work I have a reference to validate consistency of there aptitude to write or design. Is it written differently? Are there sentence structures and language not used by this student before? Is the particular design his/her style? Could the student demonstrate the technical aptitude in-class that I see performed on this out-of-class assignment? Well, I can check that on the spot and have them talk through their design to me.
At some point, as an on-ground instructor, I will be able to say, ahhh, THIS is MY student's work because I was able to see, touch and "smell" it. You can't do that online. So what can you do?
I am thinking of forming ideas for my dissertation (before I even get into my PhD program) around this subject and possibly one on cultural and social considerations for learning online. Any suggestions or resources would be helpful.
1 comment:
Tanacha
As previously mentioned, research is your best tool to weed out disreputable courses/institutes. I take courses on line to sample courses personally. As for whether one can tell if a student is doing their own work? Team members working projects bubble up fraudulent work from a team member faster than the instructor/facilitator.
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