Online courses provide alternative classroom

If those eight cups of coffee have left you feeling so awake  it would be a shame to not be productive, it might be a good time to go to class — even if it’s 3 a.m.

Online classes are not new – there are universities that offer entire degrees solely through the Internet. At IU, though, space constraints and availability are making online classes a bigger part of the curriculum.

AAAD-A295/FOLK-E295: Survey of Hip Hop and COLL-X112: Traditions and Cultures of IU are offered online as a means to allow more students to take the courses.

Professor James Capshew developed X112 in 2000. He said the original idea behind the course was to make it required for all freshmen; however, no room on campus had 6,000 seats.  
 
Even though the class is not required, he said offering it online allowed the course to grow. There are 300 spots in each of the two sections for the spring 2010 semester.

The Labor Studies Program in the IU School of Social Work offers all of its courses online, along with select face-to-face courses.

Craig Campbell, labor studies student services coordinator at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, said the labor studies online courses were a way “to open up the program to everyone in the IU system.”

He said students from all IU campuses take the courses, as well as out-of-state students. Labor studies also has some out-of-state associate faculty, which Campbell said brings a “whole different culture and whole different paradigm” to the interdisciplinary field. Online courses allow students to be anywhere and still participate. Professor Fernando Orejuela teaches A295/E295 and said he has had students take the class from Chicago and even Venezuela.

Though students do not have to physically be in Bloomington, Orejuela’s students must log on at a certain time to “attend” the lecture.

The course is set up through Adobe Connect and is similar to any other lecture course offered at IU. Orejuela presents the material through a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, plays MP3 files and poses questions for students to answer in order to discuss the material.

However, instead of talking students use the chat room function to type their thoughts on a particular subject.

Though voices aren’t heard in the chat room function, Orejuela said the ideas are heard.

But ideas aren’t the only thing communicated.

“Personality comes across in the online,” assistant professor Joe Varga said.

Varga’s labor studies courses do not require students to log in at certain times, but rather that they complete the weekly reading and questions posted to Oncourse by a set date. However, Varga said the informal forum discussions still allow students to chat with and teach one another.

Interacting with others is a major concern with online classes.    

Capshew said he hopes to update X112 to increase social engagement. This would include a way to allow students to communicate with one another in a social environment.

Though she has never taken an online class, freshman Anna Dolezal said she would shy away from taking one due to the lack of human interaction.

“I like having class with people,” she said.

Students aren’t the only ones who enjoy the company of other people.

Though Varga said there are many advantages of the online courses, for him, there are some downsides.

“A disadvantage is not being there with students,” he said. “I miss the face-to-face contact.”