EDUCATOR’S CORNER
projects at home, and turn in their solutions and reports by a deadline.
As a matter of fact, a highly flexible (loose) schedule in
online teaching may not be desirable. If for the sake of time flexibility, the teacher does not have fixed online meetings or does not set deadlines for assignments, projects and examina- tions, students will not learn well.
Today, many teachers use PowerPoint files (with slides of bullet points, key words and images) in their lectures. On the one hand this saves time for the class. However, I have also heard from some experienced teachers that the traditional way of writing on the whiteboard (yesterday’s blackboard) and explaining the subject step by step with interesting anecdotes and answering the students’ questions on the spot offers the “deepest” level of teaching and learning. In face-to-face talks and interactions between teacher and students there are subtle psychological elements that cannot be completely reproduced in online classes. Recorded lectures, even if well designed, can be too official and impersonal.
Online teaching will work best for abstract knowledge and for many courses in the humanities and social sciences, but it will not work for practical aspects such as those in chemistry, geology, medicine, and engineering. One example from geology: Mineral identification is a very practical procedure; it requires that students actually hold and observe mineral specimens and do various tests under the supervision of a teacher. If this is taught online, each student should be provided with a full set of minerals and the necessary testing equipment to perform mineral identification, ideally in a teleconference class. Geologic field trip is another example. There are many other practical aspects in science, engineering and medicine that are best learned and taught face to face.
Online teaching ideally requires a fully-designed syllabus and course materials at the beginning of the course, while traditional teaching can be more flexible in these regards. Classroom teachers need not prepare everything before the course begins; they will give live lectures and they can also steer the course depending on the learning level and interests of students.
www.aipg.org
Examinations taken online may also pose their own chal-
lenges. Currently, Canvas allows the teacher to post exami- nations (usually multiple-choice questions) and set a range of dates and a time limit for each exam. These exams can also be graded automatically. But for closed-book examinations requiring calculations and writing each student will need an approved proctor (or conducted in a proctored teleconference). However, presentations for projects or term papers can be recorded (on PowerPoint file, for example) by the student and submitted to the teacher.
Overseas Students If online education becomes mainstream, will there be a
need for student visas? Overseas students can take classes online, be graded online and then graduate after scoring the required credit hours. They do not need to travel and live in faraway cities like Oxford and San Francisco. Indeed, this issue came up in 2020 when President Trump’s administration wanted the overseas students (with legitimate student visas) to depart the USA if they did not enroll in in-person attend- ing classes (and many students could not do that, especially on a short notice, because their colleges and universities were not offering in-person classes.) Although the administration softened the rule temporarily after a successful lawsuit by several major universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Yale, the issue still remains unresolved and can be reactivated in the future.
It should be noted that foreign students not only pay rela- tively higher tuition fees but also spend large sums of money on housing, food, transportation, entertainment, and so forth. The same is also true for out of state students. Therefore, a full-scale online education can have adverse impacts on local economies where magnet universities are situated. Moreover, overseas (and out of state) students bring in cultural diver- sity and cross-cultural understanding, and act as grassroots ambassadors bringing various peoples closer to each other. All these are absent in online education.
Continued on p. 60
Oct.Nov.Dec 2020 • TPG 49
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