06 Dec 11 1. The Learner Who Compared Online Courses to Face-
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1. The Learner Who Compared Online Courses to Face- to- Face Courses
Jim was a doctoral student at a large university located in the United States. In his day job, he served as the dean of teach- ing at a neighboring community college, responsible for eval- uating and improving teaching practices. Jim’s profile picture, in which he donned a red t- shirt and waved to the camera, aligned with the sense of warmth and hospitality that I got from his strong Southern accent. Because he had responded to a survey prior to our meeting, I had developed a mental pic- ture of Jim’s background: He was in his early fifties. He had access to a computer and mobile device at home and reported that he was comfortable using the internet to learn about top- ics of interest and to troubleshoot his devices. Even though he had a Facebook account, he almost never used it. He had also never used Twitter or uploaded a photo or video to a photo- or video- sharing website.
I was excited to talk with Jim because he had just completed his very first online course. Though my questions were about his experiences in the par tic u lar course he had taken, his re-
C o p y r i g h t 2 0 2 0 . J o h n s H o p k i n s U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s .
A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 11/8/2022 6:48 PM via DALLAS COLLEGE AN: 2266286 ; George Veletsianos.; Learning Online : The Student Experience Account: s8494668.main.ehost
12 LEARNING ONLINE
sponses seemed to naturally gravitate toward comparing those to his experiences in face- to- face courses. “I had a sharp learning curve,” he admitted. “I’m new to online learning, so I didn’t know what kind of expectations to have. I heard going into it that it’s something that you have to stay on top of every moment or else you fall behind, which isn’t always the case with traditional classes.” The course he had just completed was compressed and therefore fast- paced, which required him to be online every day to complete daily activities that ranged from reading to writing reflections and responding to peers. He described it as “kind of like an intensive education,” which he thought provided “greater depth into my studies, into my work in the course than I had in some of my traditional face- to- face courses.” He reported engaging with his peers in a more active way than he was used to, which led him to the re- alization that physical copresence is not a necessary prereq- uisite for a high- quality learning experience. “It prob ably hit me toward the end of the first week. In a traditional face- to- face course, I don’t always feel as connected to my classmates, even though I’m going to be sitting right next to them, engaged in face- to- face conversation. But [in the online course] by con- tinually responding to their questions or asking questions of their assignments, I kind of felt a sense of connection. . . . It was a greater sense of connection than I thought I was going to have.”
Listening to Jim describe his experiences reminded me of the many conversations and debates I have been involved in that ultimately boil down to wheth
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