Vol. 5. No. 1 — April 2001
Interview with an Online Instructor (Part 5)
Jim Duber
duber dot com
<jim@duber.com>
JD: Can you list some of the major advantages and then also the
disadvantages of teaching online?
MES: Well, I think the advantages are the…kind of anytime/anywhere
options. That is,…I can be communicating with students at eleven
o’clock at night, whereas in a traditional setting, that’s less
likely, of course. It also does allow for a lot of flexibility in
materials: adding things to the web site, clarifying things, putting
up a new link as you discover new materials that might be suitable.
That happened in the concordancing section, where I ran across an
article that I thought clarified things for students in a way the
other ones they had hadn’t. So, I was able just to put up a really
quick link and say, “Here, take a look at this additional article.”
So, that kind of flexibility and sort of 24/7…capabilities of the
technology are really the advantage. And, ironically, it’s the same
answer for the disadvantages. The 24/7 kind of availability of the
instructor is tiring. And again, you need really good time-management
skills not to let it overwhelm you. Ditto for the flexibility of the
course materials: because you can add materials all the time, you
tend to add materials all the time. Whereas in a face-to-face class,
you may not do that quite as much, especially if you’re confronted
with various kinds of budgetary issues–like not having students run
out to buy an additional book, or not having any photocopying budget
left over to make a set of photocopies of an article in the newspaper.
JD: Yeah, but you could always add it to a web site.
MES: You could always add it to a web site and that’s how
face-to-face classes are getting to be even more work…because
they’re turning into both face-to-face and distance classes all in
one.
JD: Right. And that combination is probably the best of both worlds.
That’s a great solution. Anyway, thanks very much for your time, Dr.
Sokolik.
MES: You’re welcome.
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