Technology in the Internet Classroom

The number of college classes available through distance learning and the internet has grown dramatically in the past years. With the growth of the internet and the number of students that don’t have the time or ability to attend college in the traditional way the online format has been a good answer. These classes offer the student benefits including flexibility, availability of courses and varied schedules. One of the drawbacks of these courses is that they lack the some of the personal interactions between students and the instructor that occurs in a group setting. Even with this drawback the communication level between students and instructor is high due to the increased level of email communication and the participation between students on group discussion boards. However, these courses can be difficult for those students who favor the auditory learning style. These students tend to grasp more when there are verbal discussions. They also retain and understand concepts more thoroughly when the explanation or discussion is given verbally. (Child & Family Canada, 2000)

In the standard online class at Baker College the format consists of a list of expected assignments and readings that will go on through the course. The information is expected to be learned through reading the material, lecture handouts and sometimes a simple power point presentation. Discussions and all communications are through a written format, primarily though posts to the blackboard system. This format is passable but it has its drawbacks and limitations. For many students and some instructors this can lead to a dry and monotonous tone. You are not able to see or hear the other participants, so inflection, tone, and body language can not be determined. This can lead to misunderstandings between students and instructors due to one student commenting in a serious manner when the other comment was made in a light-hearted way or visa versa. Another and more serious problem is that students might not state their opinion to a comment or discussion for fear of it being taken in the wrong manner.

Granted this format was as the forefront of technology when the online class format was getting just beginning. In 1981 Andrew Feenberg was starting an online class format for the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California. The equipment issued to the students to access this online class consisted of Apple IIE’s with 48k of memory and a 300 baud modem. (Feenberg, 1999) The price for these computers and modems would have been out of the price range for most students at that time so the university purchased the equipment to test the online format. As time passed and technology advanced, the speed of computers and their capacity doubled at a rate of once every eighteen to twenty four months. (Moore, 1965) As a result the cost for computers has decreased while the availability has increased at dramatic rates. In addition the speeds available to consumers to connect their computers to the internet have also decreased in price while increasing in availability and higher bandwidth. The online format of many Baker online courses would still run adequately on the machines that Andrew Feenberg used in 1981.

As a result of the increased power of the average computer and the availability of reasonably priced connectivity to the internet it would follow that the online class format would have grown as technology has. This unfortunately is not the case at Baker College. The format for the most part has stayed in the format of text based communication with little improvement. Colleges and Universities that offer online classes should take advantage of the power of technology and available resources. The online format needs to include more than text and typing. At a minimum there needs to be a requirement that instructors should make their lectures available in a video format available either live or recorded and available for download to supplement the text version. The course content should also be updated to include either audio or video explanations or comments from the instructor or book publisher about the material being covered. This could be as simple as the instructor explaining a case study in the book to a professional video produced by the book publisher covering a specific topic. The students should also be required to leave some explanations or questions in an audio or video format.

Although there would be some cost associated with implementing these requirements it would be minimal. For the students it would be a one time