Date: October 24, 2018
Subject: Online Courses
Purpose
This email is written to inform you of the problems that Arizona State University students have with the current online classes. As a current sophomore of ASU and active enroller in the online course material made available, I found that there are multiple issues within the system of online classes which dramatically lowers the level of education that students pay tens of thousands of dollars for, considering the potential benefit these courses can offer to students who need an online option for their education. After first addressing the grievances and issues students endure with the current online class experience, I propose several solutions which will amend the current problems and provide a greater educational experience for future ASU students.
Background
After being required to take multiple ASU online courses in my meager two years at ASU, I, along with other students, found multiple problems with the configuration of classes and resources available. They are as follows:
1. Format: The manner in which online courses are arranged is fundamentally different from the way most students have been taught their entire lives. Along with this dramatic change from traditional learning, there are also multiple hidden costs and challenges that online classes incur. ASU places a fee upon every online class a student takes for the software and other online tools the instructor is required to use. Students are also expected to pay for a textbook with a personalized online interface that they assume is covered by the technology fee, seeing as it is the only software they implement in the course. For instance, in all the online accounting 241 classes, students only use the Pearson Lab online textbook program, which costs $120, and Canvas, a learning management system that in-class professors and students use without the technology and iCourse fee of $100. From the experience of myself and my peers, interacting and contacting the instructor for online courses can be more difficult, which is ironic considering the increased fees associated with technology that is supposed to be tailored to the student’s specific needs. Although students could potentially perform well in these kinds of classes, a vast majority of them have been taught in an in-person lecture style for the entirety of their previous education which can be a difficult transition to overcome for many.
2. Success: While in theory, online classes may be a better option for students who do not perform well in an in-class setting, or those who need to balance obligations which necessitates the need for a more flexible option for classes. However, in practice, low performing students perform worse in online classes, due to the design of mirroring lecture styles, which is ineffectual and a waste of the potential that online courses have. While the typical format for online classes emulates an in-class setting, online classes have a much wider set of possibilities for how they could be taught to best suit the needs of students who may not have the ability to be successful in a normal in-class environment. In fact, the article “Promises and Pitfalls of Online Education” written by Eric Bettinger and Susanna Loeb, both Stanford professors of education, write that the opposite is true for low performing students, as can be seen in the following graph, as taken from the article found on Brookings.
Students that have more difficulty in classes with learning material actually benefit the most from in-person classes. Ideally, online courses offer more access to students and optimal course pacing and technology is able to determine students’ specific areas that need improvement, today’s online classes are far from customized to their students’ needs. In fact, students perform worse in online classes while taking these kinds of courses increases their likelihood of dropping out. Students who are the least prepared tend to also do the worst in online classes, in relation to their previous academic experiences and economic resources. Students taking the same course with the same objectives do better in the in-person course.
Significance
Online college courses provide a great tool for both students and universities, as it is a flexible option for students, in terms of both scheduling and learning, and can be used to enhance the educational experience. As ASU offers a variety of degree programs that can be completed online, as well as multiple online classes for students across campuses, one would think that an online education program that is well-integrated within the university and serves the purpose of actually educating students would be a high priority with ASU administration. However, the current online courses available are just part of a hastily developed program desperately attempting to keep up with more innovative universities who implement a much better system which serves the purpose of education.
Solution
From a student perspective, two fairly basic and necessary solutions must be implemented as soon as possible to improve ASU’s approach to online education. They are:
1. Refocusing: Online courses must only be offered if they fit the online format. While ASU does attempt to offer as many online courses as possible for the students, there are simply classes that fail in every way to teach, despite attempts with new software, programs, and technology. For instance, public speaking is an online class offered, which merely in name completely defeats the purpose of the course. By refocusing on the classes that could actually improve within an online course format, the difficulties that instructors and students face would be smoothed out, such as communication issues with professors and the difficulty level of online classes when compared to the in-class version.
2. Adaptation: The teaching method for online classes must be changed. A majority, if not all online classes are the exact same as the in-class version, minus the crucial interaction between students and professors. However, classes such as computer systems, programming, and accounting could implement online programs that are not shadowing in-class lectures and methods. With classes like computer information systems, where the purpose is to educate students on how to use software programming, actually using and experimenting with the software described instead of shadowing what an instructor does on a video of an in-class demonstration would be much more effective. Students would actually develop the skills described in the course, and the iCourse fee would actually be utilized and contextualized in the class.
Conclusion
The current online courses available to ASU students are a laughable attempt at teaching and fail to fully commit to an adequate online education experience that students are already paying a greater fee for. The current issues must be solved in order to create a truly lucrative and mutually beneficial tool for the university and students. For further information on how students suggest revising the current ASU online course approach, please contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX.