10:00-11:00AM St.Ed’s 361
Attending: Mike Battig, David Boynton, Mark Lubkowitz
ad officio members: Bill Anderson, Susan Breeyear, and Joanne Schneider. Sandy Karstens attended representing the CEPC.
1. The minutes were approved and Mark Lubkowitz was appointed scribe of the week. Nick Clary has been assigned to a different committee and Cathy Hurst will replace him (although it’s unclear when we’ll see her since she teaches during our meeting time and the decision has been made to keep our current meeting time for next week due to the time-sensitive nature of our “Call for Proposals”).
2. The committee discussed the summaries provided by Professors Lynch, Panghorn, and Battig. After careful consideration and discussion we were able to identify four common threads for each professor.
They were:
1) There was a disconnect between student and professor expectations for the course. Most students saw a distance course as a lesser and easier course while the professors viewed the technology as an opportunity to offer a more rigorous course.
2) Face time was critical for success.
3) Convenience is an issue that should be considered both by the student and the professor. For example, the appeal of a distance course is that it is asynchronous. However, this can cause the professor to have to sit in front of their terminal all day (and occasionally all night). Distance courses, despite being asynchronous, still have deadlines and professor have “office hours.” The committee also discussed the motivation behind offering distance courses. The committee feels that e-learning should be driven by pedagogical goals and fiscal realities and not driven by professorial convenience.
4) E-classes require as much or more time for the student as a live class. Therefore students should be made aware of scheduling issues involving other courses or work.
3. We have approximately $10K for funding proposal this year and we will issue a call for proposals this week.
4. Our next meeting will be Sept 23 at 10 am.