XplanaZine

Architecture student Kim was a senior who needed to take three upper-level courses in her major and one elective to complete her degree. She consulted with some of her friends to find out what they thought was the least challenging elective. The word in the dorm was that the school’s “Beatles” online course promised an easy A.

“The instructor sends you his lecture notes, and you just have to look at them when you’re doing the quiz. You’re not supposed to use any materials, but everyone does it.”

“You never have to go to class, and the only days you need to worry about are the three quiz days. You take the quiz from home.”

“My roommate helped me do the quizzes last semester. I would print out an extra set of lecture notes, and she’d take the odd number questions.”

The “Beatles” course was exactly what Kim was looking for. She enrolled. That semester, she spent no more than six hours of her life memorizing her instructor’s notes and regurgitating that information for the online 30-question multiple choice quizzes. She printed out lecture notes for herself and her roommate, who had agreed to help due to the 45-minute time limit.

Professor Rogers who taught the popular online “Beatles” course had decided to impose the rigid time limit after entire classes were passing with A’s. He had originally allocated a full regular class time of an hour and fifteen minutes for each quiz. Although Rogers made his students sign an honor code of conduct (via email) that they would not use notes during the quizzes, he quickly learned this was happening through course evaluation comments from more honorable students.

By the time Rogers realized there was a problem, his open-enrollment course had gained such popularity that over 300 students were enrolling in it each semester. He felt overwhelmed. How could he possibly monitor the ethical behavior of each student? He consulted with Chair Rodriguez of the Music Department. Rodriguez knew little about online education, and proposed that lessening the time to 45 minutes might be the solution, as it would encourage students to study more before each quiz. The result was an increased percentage of roommates and friends in the game of tag-team quizzing.

The fact of the matter is that when Professor Rogers tried to force learning upon students, those who did not wish to learn the materials found a solution, albeit unethical, to pass the class with flying colors. Students who followed the rules and spent time learning the materials, and took the quizzes without any notes or help from friends, routinely received lower quiz scores than those who cheated.

The main problem was that Professor Rogers did not cultivate an engaging learning environment. He believed that everyone who enrolled in his course genuinely wanted to learn about The Beatles. He assumed all students were self-driven learners. He did not take time to explore opportunities for online teacher-student and student-student interactions.

Online discussions and group activities are a critical component of e-learning, just as attendance, participation, and group projects are commonplace in the traditional classroom setting. It is important to remember that students’ interest and involvement in a given subject can be greatly influenced by positive interpersonal communication, even if they’ve come to the course in pursuit of an easy A. Many professors are still new to online education, and it is important for them to understand the variety and flexibility of resources at their fingertips in order to maximize teaching and learning.