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itconf@mtsu.edu
Seventh Annual
Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
 Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Connected Classroom
April 7-9, 2002

Problems and Solutions for Teaching Technology Online

By: Joel Hausler, Jay Sanders
Track 1 - Effective Integration of Technology into Teaching & Learning
Interest: General :: Lecture/Presentation :: Level: All

Proceeding

ABSTRACT

One of the major problems areas for online classes is student cheating – copying other student’s work. Some courses have been taught online for 4 years or more.   Many of the students who have completed courses kept their digital assignments and passed them on to other students.  The other problem areas, as identified by MTSU online instructors are lack of student computer skills, lack of student motivation to do work on their own, lack of student/instructor interaction, increased workload for online instructors, and problems with student’s internet providers. This paper discusses these problems and the MTSU instructor’s methods of solving these problems.

The Study

Recently, we conducted an online discussion with all the MTSU’s online instructors and asked them to report the problems that are unique to online classes and how they solved them.  The following is a summary of the responses from the online instructors.  The online instructors were not asked about the positive attributes of their online classes as this topic will be addressed at another time.

Problems:

Cheating – copying other student’s work. Who is doing the work? How can we verify?

    1. Changing assignments each semester
    2. Keeping previous student’s work (on hard drive for comparison)
    3. Required attendance at Performance test – end of semester
    4. In upper division, make student so detailed that no one can convince another student to do the work.
    5. Use multiple forms of assessment – 1) online timed test, 2) mini-essays, 3) individual research projects
    6. Use discussion boards with students required to respond to instructor’s questions, as well as other student’s responses.
    7. Make online student work more application oriented where they have to apply the information learned to a specific problem(s).
    8. Use honor code where students pledge that they did not cheat on the assignment.

Students not capable of handling online mode. (Lack of technology skills  )

    1. Use screening tool (online application)
    2. Provide extra help in person & online one-to-one
    3. Transfer student to on-ground class
    4. Have students demonstrate their computer skills by doing a small project prior to letting them register for online class
    5. Have university offer more student training on WEBCT prior to signing up for online classes.

Lack of student motivation  to complete online work

    1. Publish a deadline for all student assignments & give a penalty after a grace period.
    2. Use a time frame of 1 – 48 hours for student to sign on & discuss the problems posed.

Students do not get interaction with other students/instructor:

    1. Online chat for group assignments
    2. Online chat for every student to respond to instructor question(s) i. Student must respond to another student’s response to question
    3. Student/instructor communications are greater than with on-ground class
    4. Take & publish on website the student’s  & instructor’s picture
    5. Some instructors report getting to know the “quiet” students better than they normally do in a regular on-ground class.

Workload for instructor is much greater & not understood by others:

    1. Workload for technology courses is up twice as much, or more work for the instructor
    2. Maintaining a website (especially for technology course) is a demanding & time consuming process.  When we change versions of software, then almost all the instructions must be changed.
    3. Other instructors view online classes as smaller & much less work than on-ground class
    4. Other instructors are suspicious of online classes & instructors, therefore, they do not support them.
    5. Online office hours must be kept in addition to on-campus office hours.
    6. Being the online contact person for the student, the instructors do more advising of other faculty member’s students.
    7. Administration want more online classes, but is not willing to provide adequate support for the online instructors in the following areas:

i. Heavier workload is not considered & is just more work for the same pay.

ii. Payment for setting up online is inadequate for the time spent

iii. As computer-people we are expected to help everyone else in the department with their computer-related problems.  Many times it the person’s lack of computer skills or lack

iv. It has difficult or impossible to get access to our office hard drives from remote locations – many online instructors are online at home or on the road at nights & weekends.

v. Our IT department is understaffed and thereby slows down the response time to get computer-related problems solved.

Problems with Internet Provider:

    1. AOL will zip more than 1 file.  This is very time consuming on both ends.  Usually the student’s are required to send 1 attachment with each email.
    2. Dropped email somewhere in the system of university & Internet Provider servers.  We do not know a solution to this, other than having students & faculty follow-up if there is not response to the original message.

Not all problems, some good things reported:

  1. I enjoy teaching on-line as well as on campus. This teaching-learning strategy is excellent for many reasons, however, one of the best reasons is that some students could not attend class(es) if this on-line option were not available.
  2. I've also found that the students who stick with the class (and don't drop after a week or two) ask for additional information to supplement textbook and other assigned texts.
  3. Even though the online classes are much more work there is such a need and market for online learning that I think the opportunity provided outweighs the time.

Almost all of the present online instructors enjoy teaching online and are excited about MTSU expanding its online offerings.  The Tennessee Board of Regents Online Degree Program that started August 2001 has been a real boost to the increasing the support on our campus for online courses.  Note:  Feel free to email either of us with your comments or questions about online courses, etc.