More ethical issuess

In reviewing articles from previous lessons, ethical issues in higher education can also evolve around underclassman and online courses.  Do institutions of higher education have the ethical or moral obligations to "watch" for those students that are not progressing in a class. Underclassman, especially freshman who are attending classes for the first time, may have time-management issues and if programs have on-line courses without some structure, students can easily fall through the "cracks."  Would one argue that this is a way of weeding out students? or Are educational institutions responsible to provide guidance and support for students taking an online course during their course work?  In relation to online courses and institutions of higher education, is it an ethical issue that these institutions provide professional development for staff, especially staff that have not taught an online course before?  

A few thoughts concerning higher education - education in general - and ethical questions.

ethical issues within online education

Another objective for this week involved ethical issues and online courses.  I found this website and it characterized four issues with online learning and curriculum development:

http://www.idolresources.com/four-ethical-issues-within-online-education.html

The four issues that were discussed involved the following four categories:

1.  Intellectual property rights (probably why employees, who pay for advance course work has a waiver that if an employee leaves within a specified time period has to pay back the tuition)

        2.  Educational fairness which is interrelated into copyright laws 

        3.  Privacy laws and the notion that once something is on the internet - is it every really "private?"

        4.  Universal design and the need to ensure that content is in a form or can be modified for all learners.

I really liked the inclusiveness of ethical issues in the article. 

 

      

More on "interventions'

      After reading a few of my fellow classmates blogs and watching the morning - the University of Phoenix's add came on with the program quote of "Thinking ahead - Where your are today and where you want to go tomorrow."  The realization became apparent that my first impression of a higher education program was the University of Phoenix.   The closest branch of this University is approximately 60 miles away - but  marketing and advertising brought residents of my town the understanding of the possibilities of online learning in higher education.  With all of my educational experiences, on-line learning was not incorporated into any of my programs.   Prior to beginning my administration graduate work, I actually checked out the program and I was impressed with the curriculum offered and the professional staff credentials.  I had the opportunity to speak to a student who shared her thoughts concerning the rigor of the program. 

     Just with these few thoughts, I have described  "innovative" characteristics of online programs including professional staff, rigorous curriculum and a program that entices a group of learners who will challenge and enhance the learning environment.  

Innovations in Distance Learning

 To begin this blog entry, I googled "Innovations in Distance Learning" and the first  article focused on the University of Houston and Texas A & M.  The article defined innovation as "as idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption"  (Rogers, 1995, p.11).  This article described the two universities and their "innovations" in distance learning.  The University of Houston's model described by Scott and Chernish, a data-based model focusing on course design and delivery that facilitated the creation of higher-quality teaching and learning environments through collaborative efforts among faculty content experts in various disciplines.   Dooley and Linder detailed how Texas A & M University and Texas Tech University developed and delivered the first doctoral degree in agricultural education offered entirely at a distance.  

This article was located in the University of Georgia's Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. Winter 2007 - Volume 10 Issue 4. 

Distance Education Communities

     The distance education community that I will be exploring will be the K-12 community.  A phrase that is becoming popular in marketing k-12 online learning platforms, curriculums and schools has been,"preparing 21st Century-citizens."  Even though children today are technologically "savvy"; schools have not met the challenge.  In order to create an online learning program, schools cannot think that this simply involves the "plugging-in" of technology into their current curriculum.  According to Susan Patrick, President and CEO of North America Council for Online Leaning (NACOL), she wrote that technology, connectivity, and online learning are fundamentally changing the dynamics of K-12 education, including fostering:

a.  Performance-base learning:  personalized instruction relying on data-driven feedback and adjustments.  Performance is measured through demonstration of standard-based competency, not by "seat time" hours spent in a classroom.

b.  Teachers who become entrepeneurs in education :  experimenting ; coordinating video, audio, and graphics, as well as text content; and monitoring and tailoring content for individual students while enjoying more flexible work schedules for the first time. 

c.  Changes in the paradigm of how and where students access their education:  No longer  does time or classroom location dictate where and when a student learns.  Time becomes the variable, and achievement the constant, in the online classroom.

d.  A shift in the funding and budgeting model:  from seats in classrooms to a student-based competency, per course basis.   (Cavanaugh & Blomeyer, 2007).

          As online learning programs have grown, including the cyber school and the integrated online course providers, the students who are being served are not "local" students.  Therefore, an online program's content, instructional design, accessibility, and professional development begin to serve a broader community of learners and practitioners.  According to Fowler & Wheeler, what online learning did was to broaden the definition of communication and interaction, encouraging more student participation in a less daunting space and supporting a change in the role of teacher from all -knowing sage to facilitator or coach.  The definition of communication and interaction was further expanded to include a community of practice that "changed the isolated locale of the classroom into part of a global classroom environment (p. 93).

     In relation to communication, technology preferences, quality and specific functions continue to evolve.  Technology includes Learning Management Systems (LMS), Web-conferencing systems, video conferencing systems, and Learning Object Repositories (LOR).

   I am the program director of AIU e-CADEMY, this program serves students in grades 9 -12.  We offer the curriculum, the highly- qualified teacher and all technical and administrative assistance to the school districts in Allegheny County.   Our program is divided in essentially 4 types of course offerings:  credit recovery, general education, college and AP courses.  Factors that contribute to the need of offering these courses include scheduling conflicts, districts not having a highly-qualified teacher for specific subjects, need for AP courses, courses for homebound students and districts not being able to offer the wide variety of courses to meet the needs of all of the students in their districts. 

      The unique aspect of our program is that the students reman in their "home' school; yet still have access to their online classes whenever it is convenient for them to log on, even a study hall in their "brink and mortar" school.  Our programs are  asynchronous and we currently have curriculum from four different vendors.  A challenge is the communication aspect between students, parents, teachers, school districts, and vendors.  Professional development is also a key to the success of the program.  A teaching certificate does not automatically correlate into an online teacher.  A teacher is key to developing the "classroom community."  The teacher's presence, tone, and involvement is the largest factor in building community.  If the teacher is not an active participant in the community, there will be no community. 

References:

Cavanaugh, C. and Bomeyer, R. (eds). 2007.  What Works in k-12 Online Learning.  International Society for Technology in Education.   

Flower, L. & Wheeler, D. (1995).  Online from the k-12 classroom.  In Z. L. Berge & M.P. Colling (Eds). Computer mediated communication and the online classroom (Vol. 1, pp 83-100).  Cresskill, N.J.:  Hamton Press. 

Additional references:

 North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)

North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 

Additional links:

Instructional Design for Online Courses

www.ion.uillionois.edu/resources/tutorials/id/InstructionalDesignForOnlineCourse.html

Wood, C. (2005, May)  HIGHSCHOOL.COM:  All over the country, secondary school students are going online for classes.  Will the virtual classroom redefine what it means to be a student - or a teacher? (Electronic version).  Edutopia.  200(4), 3-37. 

"Predicting Learning from Asynchronous Online Discussions", JALN, http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v8n2/v8n2 wu.asp

"Be VOCAL:  Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors", JIOL, http://www.ncolr/jiol/issues/PDF/4.2.6.pdf