New here but this thread caught my eye.
One of my courses is required and is now entirely online. The school got a grant to do some changes to the curriculum and picked my class to place online. Last semester I made it a hybrid so I could test out some items. For the most part it seemed to work okay. Online courses take more work for all parties and some students hated it. Some loved it. The major compliants were along the lines of "I paid good money to go to school here and should have face to face classes". At the level of these students (juniors), no other online courses are offered, even hybrids, in our program. I'm wondering if this was one of the problems...the newness of it all.
We'll see how this goes. I teach 3 courses in the fall and 2 are entirely online.
Blackadder, do the students get charged an additional fee for an on-line course?
No, they don't. I'm in the midst of a midterm anonymous survey about the course and here is one of the most well-thought out repsonses so far:
"People always think that the new generation needs technical advances in their education so they put together this online course, but it's horrible. We like things fast and easy. Not technical, confusing and time consuming. At this point of our education, I hate the fact that this was switched on us. When I came into the Basketweaving school, online class was not the case, and I hate how there is no choice. This is nothing less than making our lives more difficult. Good intent, but I feel like the sensitivity to the students are lacking."
Confusing I can fix. Time-consuming and technical..not so much. Online always seems to take much more time no matter how streamlined I make the assignments. And I refuse to lose the rigor and make it easier.
