Dive Summary:
- In her article on the effectiveness of online instruction, Alexandra M. Pickett, associate director of the State University of New York's (SUNY) online learning network, relays what online professor Bill Pelz told her: "the lecture is the most efficient way to pass important concepts and theories from the professor’s notepad to the student’s iPad without going through either brain."
- Although she notes that faculty frequently complain about students distracted by the internet, Pickett writes that it is the instructor's responsibility to create a learning experience that engages students.
- Whether it's online or in-person, Pickett argues that good instructors design learning experiences to fit the medium through which they are being taught.
From the article:
"... So, here is a truth: If you are boring in the classroom, you will be boring online. Here is another truth: you can’t duplicate what you do in the classroom in an online environment. (You can try, but it will not go well). I get it. You are used to doing things the way they always have done. Perhaps you use the same textbook, same lecture notes, same multiple choice tests, same jokes, etc. It is too much work to rethink how to present content, how to facilitate interaction, and collaboration between you, your students, and the content, and it is way too hard to come up with authentic ways of evaluating and assessing student learning. Nevertheless, if you want to be good online—effective, successful, efficient—you will have to rethink how you achieve your learning objectives given the options and limitations of the online teaching and learning environment. ..."
