I want to start by saying that I'm a big believer in using technology, when it's appropriate and that I love trying new things. When the opportunity arose, last year, to teach an online course I figured I'd give it a try to see what it was like. I wondered if I could find a way to make e-Learning a good experience for as many students as possible. I had used the virtual learning environment with my face-to-face classes and knew the tools and how they all worked, but I was curious to see if I could use those tools to improve what was (and largely still is) the standard method of delivering courses via e-learning.
The course I taught was the grade 12 Data Management. This is a course that many students take because they need a grade 12 university level math course to get into a post-secondary program. I was provided with the stock ministry approved course, which I could use out of the box, modify or disregard entirely. The stock course had recently been updated so I was looking forward to trying it out. As I browsed the course I realized that it wasn't laid out the way that I would lay it out and that the course was still very text heavy. After pondering how to proceed I decided that the stock course was not the way I would teach my face to face students. Then I struggled with the idea of equity. Was it equitable for me to settle on one, arguably inferior, delivery method in an online course but to flat out reject that method in my face-to-face class? Why should the medium allow me (encourage me?) to settle for an inferior option? These questions made me very uncomfortable using the stock course. I decided instead that I would develop and create a course that was as similar to my classroom as possible. I realized that creating an exact clone of my classroom was impossible, but I wanted to see how close I could get.
I created videos daily. Students in my classroom see me every day. I wanted the same to be true online. There were videos providing instructions for each day and there were instructional videos describing, in detail, the topic for each day. I tried to come up with some good 'thinking questions' to work on. I provided practice questions with answers and fully worked solutions. I met (virtually) with students, individually and in groups, to help them with concepts they struggled with. It was a ton of work. I estimated that for every hour of class I was spending three to four hours. It was an unsustainable pace, but my thinking was that it would benefit students in the end. I was confident that students completing the course would have a good understanding of the course content rather than just being able to complete work.
When I tell this story, it's usually at this point that I'm asked "Did it work? How did your class do?". And this is where my heart sinks as I answer in the negative. The statistics from my class are as follows:
- Started the class with 32 students
- Lots of coming and going in the first couple of weeks
- Class size settled at 32 students
- Finished the class with 23 students
- Only 15 students passed
In my books a 47% pass rate is a failure. Even if you only look at students who actually completed the course I still only had a 65% pass rate. In a grade 12 university level class this is a failure in my books and it's a far cry from the pass rate in my face-to-face grade 12 classes.
I believe that my online course was a good course for a small percentage of students. These were students who were extremely motivated, hard working, independent learners who were comfortable advocating for themselves ("I don't know how to do this. Can we meet to go over it?"). Many of the students who were successful also had parents who likely understood the importance of daily commitment and worked to keep their children accountable to the course. Which brings up the idea of equity again. Not all students have an adult that can keep them on track in person.
As I reflect on my experience I ask myself why were students unsuccessful in the course? There are many factors here, but here are some of my thoughts.
Many students couldn't handle the independence of an online course. It's easy to put off the work for a day or two, which can easily become three or four days. Once behind, many students become overwhelmed by the volume of work that needs to be completed to catch up. Some try to take shortcuts, which leads to a limited understanding of the content. Once behind many students become anxious and develop a sense of "there's no point anymore". It's hard to ignore a teacher you see daily. It's easy not to login to your course so you don't have to see that your teacher has reached out. All of this despite the positive encouragement I provided. I always offered students a non-punitive way to re-engage in the course. I gave them opportunities to submit any missed work, write any tests they missed, etc. I offered to work with them one-on-one (daily) until they were caught up. I would say that very few students who disengaged in the course at some point were able to get back on track.
I think another reason for my poor results comes down to relationships. As much as I tried, it was often difficult to develop strong relationships with students online. It wasn't impossible but it was certainly more difficult than in person. At my school, many students who join my class, even for the first time, have a relationship with me. For some it's as simple as 'Hey he's the guy that stands outside his room and says hi to me every morning' or 'That's the teacher that stops by our practice and compliments us for our hard work'. These little things all happen outside of class. There are likely hundreds of other small things like this that happen in class on a regular basis. They are things that I don't think about and don't notice until a student points them out to me, but they are all small things that help build relationships with students. It's much harder to do these things online.
In addition to building relationships with students I work hard to build a community in my classroom. The students that I see face-to-face see how much I care, how much I want them to succeed. They realize that we all have the same goal of being successful in the class. I try to help them see that they all have something to contribute and that we can all learn from each other and grow together. I think sometimes students are surprised to hear that I learn from them. There are the obvious things like teaching me the new lingo or what Tik Tok is all about, but there are also the less obvious things such as teaching me how they learn best and what things I can do to improve their learning. As part of this community I sense that many of my students don't want to let me down. I need to find a way to create this sense of community online.
I'm currently teaching the class again and my goal this semester is to really work on building relationships with students, their parents and their guidance counsellors. At the very least this will help us build a community centered around the student.
This time around, in the first week I've asked students to setup 10 minute interviews with me so that I can get to know them a bit, make sure they are comfortable with the online tools and just make sure they are off to a good start. I've met with 10-12 students so far and have a number of other interviews scheduled for next week. There are a good number of students that I haven't heard from yet so I'll have to touch base with them early next week.
The first time I taught the course I had students work together, live on a group test. This allowed me to gather some observational and conversational data. I'm hoping to do more synchronous group work. The scheduling can often be difficult but I think it's the only way for students to see that they can and should rely on each other for support.
This post is already much longer than I had intended so I think I'll wrap it up despite having more thoughts about what e-learning is and what it should be. I'll save that for another post. I apologize for such a long post but these are all things that I've been thinking about a lot lately. More importantly, I keep thinking about how I can improve. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, I'd love to hear them.
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