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U offers classes on the Net
by Stephen Regenold
For hundreds of students, the Internet now serves as a surrogate teacher. These students participate in classes almost exclusively by peering into monitors. Throughout the quarter, Internet students attend class only a couple of times. They read texts, take tests, and communicate with each other over the Internet from their homes throughout the Midwest.
Internet classes have unique advantages over traditional classes. Most Internet students feel the biggest advantage to learning online is that it allows them to learn independently. But besides this obvious benefit, there are many more not-so-obvious benefits.
Some students in one of the University's Internet classes, Inquiry in Practice, live in St. Cloud, Minn. while others live in Wisconsin. They all log on in their homes to attend the Minneapolis-based class.
Lee Fertig, a T.A. for Inquiry in Practice, said, "The Internet enables us to serve students who are away from the school and potentially makes thousands of resources available throughout the duration of the class."
But not everyone in a Net class is participating because they live too far away. Students in the Twin Cities and even some who live on campus attend classes on the Web. Mark Davies, an undergraduate in the College of Biological Sciences, lives only a block from the St. Paul campus, yet he chose to join a physiology class that uses the Internet. He said he is happy with the class but feels that the price should be less than that of a normal class because of the infrequency of the professor lecture hours. In the end, though, he had more positive than negative things to say about the class. "The professors are really responsive to your e-mail, and the class is accessible 24 hours a day," he said. Like Davies, most Internet students seemed to agree that the convenience of the independent learning is the best advantage to taking Internet classes.
Amy Gregoret, a teaching assistant for the geology course Earth Systems Science, a class that uses the Internet in conjunction with traditional class time, pointed out some other advantages. "One of the biggest advantages [of Internet classes], for IT students especially, are the databases that can be accessed from a class Web site," Gregoret said. She added that the Internet allows collaboration when she said that, "U of M students can work on projects with knowledgeable students of faculty at universities all over the world." With IT participating in the national Internet2 initiative to develop a faster Web connection for universities, many administrators hope collaboration will only get easier.
In 1994, a University class about Internet skills was introduced. Over the past three years, the number of Internet-based classes has steadily increased. Eight classes are now available online, covering a broad scope of subjects from statistics to microbe engineering, and more classes are planned.
Web classes consist of a Web site with many pages of text, some activities and tests, e-mail and discussion forums, some general information pages, and traditional print resources. Students find a guide to their Web course on their class home page. They work at their own pace and rely on the instructor for answers to their questions.
Throughout the quarter, the instructor's job is to mediate discussion groups, answer e-mail, and act as a resource, should the students run into problems. The instructor also takes charge at the rareor nonexistent face-to-face meetings. These meetings usually involve an introduction to the course or an exam that can't be taken over the Net.
Students could, theoretically, travel the world all quarter and still earn University credit as long as they attend infrequent class meetings. Unlike a traditional class, which can clutter students' schedules, an Internet class allows completely self-paced learning.
For students who don't want to be taught strictly over the Web, professors are offering the chance to learn online at many different levels. Web sites devoted to University classes have existed for years, and according to Linda Jorn, acting director of the Digital Media Center, there are currently more than 150 such sites. They range from simple sites listing general class information to sites with a labyrinth of text, pictures, and even video. For example, one site for a Russian class includes streamed video of instructors pronouncing difficult words. The site also includes streamed video that demonstrates how to write in Cyrillic. Some art history web sites have huge stocks of pictures, and the geology course called Earth Systems Science has an interactive time line on its site.
Although Web classes can be visually stimulating, they must also focus on content. "For a Web site [to be] really helpful to the students, there has to be more than just pretty pictures [on the site]," said Gregoret, the T.A. for Earth Systems Science.
Fertig warned of the ease of providing Net classes. He said, "[We] need to pay attention to the quality of online courses. We cannot simply think that it is easy to post an online course and leave it alone. We must ensure that there is a good rationale for offering the course online and also that it is delivered in a thoughtful manner." Students who attend Internet classes do it completely by their own will, and all the students interviewed had a positive view of the program.
