(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Kaylynn.
- And I'm Adam.
- Welcome to What's Your Problem,
where we discuss current issues
in distance learning and education.
Today, we're talking about what is actually possible in
the distance learning environment.
You might be surprised how many different disciplines
have been successfully offered as online courses.
In this special episode of What's Your Problem,
we are not necessarily offering solutions,
but rather showcasing these instructors
who have overcome perceived obstacles
and developed online courses and disciplines
that may surprise you.
- Well, let's start by breaking down
a little history of distance learning.
Not long ago, the term distance learning
reflected a process where video tapes and a test
were sent out to students who would then
watch them at home and mail back the test.
Then, the internet happened,
and students could connect with their coursework online
and the online discussion board was born,
opening the idea of distance learning
up to instructors who valued interaction.
Many think this is where distance learning current sits,
and believe certain courses are just not possible online.
The incomparable Keanu Reeves may have been apt to agree
until he went into The Matrix and discovered
just how much potential there really is.
Well, this episode of What's Your Problem
aims to jump down that same rabbit hole
and demonstrate the latest advances in distance learning
with the help of some of Schoolcraft's own.
Adam?
- One of the least represented areas in distance learning
is vocational education.
The hands on nature of programs focused on
nursing, massage, welding, and similar fields
doesn't seem like it would work for
students in an online environment.
However, I sat down with Mike Harper and Liam Carroll
from Schoolcraft's Fire Technology program
to talk about how they've leveraged distance learning
to offer their students an advantage over
the traditional classroom experience.
Okay, so Liam, can you talk about what types of courses
the fire technology program is putting online?
- Sure.
One of the things that we're looking at is
besides taking the classes that we currently offer in
the brick and mortar institution,
and adding those to the online environment,
we're also looking at putting on an additional series,
essentially a whole new degree program
that would run parallel to our current degree
that's based out of FEMA,
and the program is called FESHE,
which is Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education.
It's an acronym, and that's geared on a national level for
those people who are in those industries
and want to promote or better educate themselves for
career movements.
So, it would be a series of about 12 to 14 new classes
that we currently don't offer here
that would make an entirely new degree program
on a national basis.
- Excellent.
And Mike, can you talk about some of the benefits
that your students get from having these courses online
as opposed to in a traditional classroom?
- Yes, in a traditional classroom,
the firefighter would have to go ahead
and get some time off to be able to go to the class.
Sometimes that makes it be harder for them
to be able to accomplish because of
the simple reason of manpower,
as far as the next portion being at that point
where they may be long distance.
As the online class out there,
we have a number of people that are from other states
that are actually in the class
and actually former students from here
that are finishing their degree,
so they're able to take and do the class
at the time they need to do it
and also be able to do it on their pace
as long as they get everything done by
the appropriate time when we have to have
the class assignments and stuff done.
- Wow, those guys are on fire.
On another note, many instructors are uneasy about
world language courses online.
How can they actually measure
a student's mastery of the language
if they can't hear them speak it?
How can we correct a student
who may be mispronouncing an accent?
Will students be able to get the same experience learning
a world language as they would in a face-to-face classroom?
To answer these questions,
I sat down with Anita Suess Kaushik from
Schoolcraft's foreign language department
to hear how she overcame these worries and used
the blackboard collaborative video conferencing tool
and outside resources to develop an engaging
and effective online language course.
What do you imagine are some of the traditional barriers
that prevent more foreign language classes from
being offered online?
- I think first and foremost,
it's the asynchronous nature of an online course.
People think learning a foreign language
is about communication, conversation,
so varies to partner in a distance learning course,
but I think we have bridged this with
our courses very successfully.
- How have you managed to overcome those barriers?
- Well, I think first we had to really pay attention to
finding a textbook that is online-friendly.
Then, we built a ton of exercises for pronunciation,
for encouraging the students to speak
and actively use the target language.
We also use the collaborate tool,
and so then the course is synchronous because
I'm able to speak with the students through this platform.
They can actually join me in my office hours
and ask questions directly and I can give them feedback,
just like in a face-to-face classroom.
We force them also to use the open resource of the internet.
We tell them to listen to radio in their target language
and then comment back in our discussion threads.
They have to watch French or German TV, films.
They have to read German and French blogs
in my particular courses.
So, the students are successful in
a distance learning foreign language course.
I have just given midterm exams, midterm oral exams,
and I was really, really surprised by one student.
She's only 14 years old.
She's duel enrolled high school and college,
and she has never had any French before,
and she just aced this exam incredibly,
and the only tools she has had was this course
and the online resources that we, you know,
force them to exploit and use,
and so she was very successful.
Is every student successful?
No, it takes a ton of discipline
and it takes a ton of motivation,
as in every other distance learning course.
A foreign language face-to-face course
is very, very interactive,
so our students are really forced,
or my students are forced to speak every single day.
There's just no hiding in a classroom,
and so an advantage to a distance learning online course
could be for a shyer student.
Still have the potential to be really successful,
but not having to really face this teacher
that is in your face every day.
- Merci beaucoup, Anita.
Sometimes courses aren't developed online because
they require resources that traditionally could only exist
on a college's physical campus,
resources that were too big, too expensive,
or carried too much liability for students
to purchase and store on their own,
but Schoolcraft's biology and chemistry departments
have found a way to eliminate this barrier, as well,
bringing the traditional college laboratory experience
to distance learning students.
In our final segment, biology professor Nick Butkevich
explains how they did it.
Okay, Nick, so how is it possible to replace
the experience of a traditional wet lab
without requiring students to come to campus?
- So it does take a little bit of re-envisioning
the traditional lab experience.
One of the things that we have done is of course
we have students purchase a kit of lab materials,
and of course, they also have to buy some
additional household items, things like an egg,
paper towels, distilled water, nothing too crazy,
and they can actually perform the experiments at home.
- Great, and what have you learned through this process?
Like, what have been the advantages
and disadvantages so far?
- Well, for us, there is no prep.
It takes away our lab space issues.
Also, it makes available to us
a larger target audience students.
Pros for the students have obviously been
they do their own experiments,
they perform the experiments in
a familiar convenient environment,
they work at their own pace,
they have the ability to hear
the instructions more than once.
- Excellent, thank you very much.
- So, as a quick recap, the potential for courses
that can be successfully offered online
is virtually limitless.
As the faculty we spoke to have clearly demonstrated,
just about anything is possible in distance learning
if we think outside the box
and leverage the tools within Blackboard
to offer quality educational experiences to our students.
We'd like to offer a special thank you to
Mike, Liam, Anita, and Nick for
sharing their perspectives with us in this episode.
They are just a few of the faculty
who are doing great things for Schoolcraft students.
- What's Your Problem wants to hear from you.
If you have an idea you'd like us to discuss in
a future episode or if you just want to drop us a line,
send us an e-mail or follow us on Twitter.
- Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)
For more infomation >> #AbrahamHicks • Don't give #Attention to what you don't want • Esther Hicks #LawofAttraction Videos - Duration: 10:00. 
For more infomation >> Time Management Tips - Email Management - MBM One Minute Video - Duration: 1:49. 
For more infomation >> "I'm Fine, Are You Really?" - NL - Duration: 2:06. 
For more infomation >> When you eat can affect your health - Duration: 3:24. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét