| | AUGUST - 20239Online courses should engage the learner utilizing a variety of approaches such that the learner interacts with the content, other students, and the instructor in ways that focus the mental and physical activities on targeted learning outcomes• Building a course online requires much more time than doing it F2F. o Research shows that well-designed courses require significant time (typically more than 200 hours for a 3-credit hour course) to develop.o We use a structured and collaborative build process that requires about 140 hours of instructor time to build a rich and engaging online course in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields.o It is worth noting that teaching a well-designed online course requires about the same amount of time for teaching/facilitating as a F2F course.• Teaching online doesn’t allow the instructor to interact with the students and they don’t get to know the students. o Well-designed online courses have significant instructor-student interactions. The depth of interaction can be driven by the course design.o Some instructors also note that they feel that online students don’t want to get to know the instructor. This is also incorrect. Studies show similar levels of student interest in wanting to get to know the instructor.• Online courses are easier for students and students tend to “cheat” more online. o The cognitive load and rigor of a course is based on the design and facilitation, not modality.o Students who cheat are noted in all modalities. Most students comply with academic integrity guidelines.o Utilizing authentic assessments significantly reduces cheating points.• Online courses are easier for instructors since all the “lecture” materials are pre-recorded, so they don’t have to do anything to run (teach) the courses. o Self-study courses (where there is no active facilitation by a human), require a different design and fall into “correspondence” courses that often require additional accreditation. Most online credit-bearing courses are not designed to be self-study, so they require active facilitation.o Many instructors need to rethink the activities for an online course when converting from a F2F version.Addressing these and the other misconceptions will require cultural shifts, new approaches, and consistent attention. We, and many other universities, have been making some progress in reducing the bumps. An approach that has been gaining positive results at our campus, we call it, Engineering Learning. This framework moves faculty toward focusing on creating learning opportunities (engineering learning), rather than focusing on “coverage” of topics. It gives a structured framework for faculty to thoughtfully design instruction.Other institutions are focusing on better educating and supporting students so that they become strong online learners. For instance, one institution offers all online courses as self-study and facilitated. The only difference between the two formats is that in the facilitated courses the instructor serves as help for students to manage their time and course materials more efficiently. The content, activities and assessments are the same.There will be a continual push to expand online learning. To do this successfully, we must pay more attention to the human-technology interface and beliefs. This will require new ways of thinking about and approaching online teaching and learning. Sam Spiegel
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