Here’s how I spent my summer vacation: I took my first online course at Portland State. The class was Nonverbal Communication—online. That was irony number one. “I’m taking Nonverbal Communication,” I told friends, “with all the nonverbal cues removed!”
As expected, the online “classroom” was devoid of nonverbal cues. There were weekly textbook assignments in D2L and multiple-choice exams. The weekly “discussion groups” featured classmates simply typing to each other in D2L threads, but at least we could see each other’s lovely D2L photos. We had PowerPoint lecture slides—without the lecture.
In the class, we learned that 66 percent of all human communication is nonverbal. That was irony number two. This class used none of the classroom simulation technologies like chat, audio or video that would increase nonverbal cues.
Later, I was astounded to learn that university faculty does indeed have access to classroom simulation technologies. D2L’s “Collaborate” tab allows teachers to present video lectures. Even better, Google Hangouts, a part of the university’s Google+ account, allows any instructor to have up to nine students and the teacher on live video at the same time. Yet many professors are ignoring these tools.
Interaction with our professor was minimal. He monitored our discussions, graded our tests and sent a weekly encouraging message. I would much later learn what a brilliant professor he actually is, but squeezed into that online box, he was like a study hall monitor.
There’s more: While chatting with two students at the Viking Court café, I learned that we are charged an extra $240 in online fees for four-credit online courses. The fee is being reduced to $160 this fall.
It turns out that some of those online fees were used last spring to fund the Provost’s Challenge, a program of $3 million in grants to professors and departments to come up with more uses of technology, including more online courses.
It seems like PSU online courses are the gift that keeps on taking! Less live teaching, hologram classmates, nonverbal communication removed, perfunctory technologies used while ignoring better ones and extra fees for the privilege of less, which can then be used to create even more online courses. What the heck is going on?
Talks with students indicate that many PSU online courses are conducted in a manner similar to my experience. Several students related their own unhappy memories with such courses to me, and their objection to the technology fee.
One student had a good experience with a math course. No doubt, there have been other students who have had good online experiences. But for many, the experience has been poor. And the Office of Information Technology’s fee for these courses has been the PSU administration’s most cynical ploy in my nearly three years here as a student. Overall, students are not getting enough bang for their online bucks. They are paying more for less.
Jeanne Enders, executive director of online initiatives in the School of Business Administration, and Samad Hinton, director of online business education in the SBA, demonstrated Google Handouts’ video component to me. Samad went into the next room. Jeanne put my image and hers on a screen. Samad’s face soon showed up on the screen, too, from his computer, and we all chatted.
It seems stupendously obvious to me that this technology would restore much of the 66 percent of nonverbal classroom communication lost with online courses. The SBA has debuted three fully online bachelor’s, master’s and certificate programs, with two more due out soon. Other departments zooming ahead with fully online degree programs include the Graduate School of Education, the Division of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the School of Social Work. Departments like these are availing themselves of all existing online tools and getting ready for new ones for mobile devices.
Enders is keen to show me that the trend in online learning at PSU and the Provost’s Challenge are about merging technology, creativity and pedagogy. “The dialectic is not face-to-face vs. online,” Enders insists. “It’s about “increasing passion, training faculty and engagement.”
Sukhwant Jhaj, vice provost for academic innovation and student success, points out the volatile national trends that PSU is responding to. While there is a 2 percent increase coming in students matriculating to college, there will be a “double digit” increase in requests for online courses, he said.
According to a special report in the August 2013 issue of Scientific American entitled “Learning in the Digital Age,” institutions like PSU are under increasing pressure.
More and more students are pursuing higher levels of education at a time when budget-strapped principals and universities cannot hire the staff they need, the magazine said.
But I’m not convinced that we might not be losing something important, even if we gain the experiences, pathways, engagement and passion that Jhaj and Enders suggest.
While some voices in the Scientific American report, like Salman Khan of the Khan Academy in California, believe digital tools can “reimagine education entirely,” others caution against the loss of real human interaction, including those nonverbals.
Kathleen Nicoll, associate professor of geography at the University of Utah, said human interaction is fundamental to learning and online forums and discussion groups are no substitute. “It’s kind of like the difference between having a real friend and a Facebook friend,” she said in the magazine.
Why does the university say that online courses are more economically efficient, then turn around and charge $160-240 extra for each course? “That’s a great question,” said Sukhwant Jhaj.
“I’d say that for a period of time we collected a lot of money and subsequently cut back on service,” said Jeanne Enders.
The administration was able to implement the expensive online fee outside of the supervision of the Student Fee Committee, where elected students oversee the fees under the “student fee” umbrella. The administration charges it because they can get away with it.
The $160 online fee should be reduced to $0. OIT has been overcharging on this fee so much, there was apparently $3 million lying around for the Provost’s Challenge to gobble up. Or, alternatively, if a small fee is still required, there’s no reason why OIT’s fees cannot be placed under the purview of the SFC.
It is hard to find a central authority at PSU that has been responsible for monitoring the growth and direction of online classes the past 15 years. Basically, each department has been responsible for its own online offerings, and the results have not been coordinated.
Supposedly, that is about to change. The former Center for Academic Excellence, which assisted faculty with course resources, has been combined with the former Center for Online Learning to create the new Office of Academic Innovation, freshly minted in June. Jhaj and Enders, among others, are very keen on the potential of the OAI to take technology, pedagogy and creativity at PSU to a new level. Jhaj will supervise OAI.
Here’s hoping that with the OAI, and a new awareness, PSU is turning the corner on online course quality.
“It is pretty clear that we’ve done some questionable online teaching,” said Enders. “So what are we going to do about it?”
Theo Burke hosts The Raging Moderate, a news and talk show, Thursdays at noon at KPSU. org.
