Online college courses no substitute for teaching

As we all know, online education is the Next Big Thing, an endeavor worthy of public enthusiasm and funding. Except when it isn’t.

In June, Speed Matters reported on the shortcomings of online college level courses offered to an Oakland, California charter school by San José State University and startup Udacity. Low-income students often didn’t have the computers or broadband connections necessary and, as we said, “...many of these students need direct and persistent guidance to navigate Internet course work.”

This week, Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Hiltzik wrote a column in which he took a closer look at the project. Wrote Hiltzik:

“Two weeks ago the results of the experiment came in. More than half the students flunked. San Jose’s work with Udacity, the well-funded Silicon Valley start-up that set up the online program, will be suspended for the fall semester — put on ‘pause,’ as the partners say — so the courses can be retooled.”

Hiltzik proves to be a fierce critic of the whole approach. “The underlying problem with the online learning craze,” he said, “is that its proponents vastly overvalue the tools provided by the online platform and treat the content – that is, the material being learned – as a commodity.” Or, more pointedly, he says it’s “a Silicon Valley business model.”

Udacity, for instance, “was founded by Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor and Google fellow who says his goal is to bring ‘the very best of higher education to everyone worldwide,’ launched last year with $20 million in venture funds.”

But, there’s a huge flaw in the marketing of online education. Hiltzik quotes UC Santa Barbara English professor Christopher Newfield, who has researched the online learning mania. “They think the distribution of information that they're part of is the same as education, and that's just not true,” said Newfield. “Learning is not the same as watching TV or playing video games.”

Many people who have soberly examined online courses find that at best they’re supplements for in-person course work, not substitutes for it. At Speed Matters, we believe that schools should have access to the best high-speed broadband, but we don’t believe that broadband is a replacement for teachers, classmates and human contact.

Apparently, the San José State philosophy department feels the same way. The department refused to use an online video of a Harvard professor lecturing on social justice, a video created by edX, a project of Harvard and MIT to market online lectures by their faculty. Said the department faculty in an open letter:

“Having a scholar teach and engage his or her own students in person is far superior to having those students watch a video of another scholar engaging his or her own students.”

Ironic, indeed, that San José State attempted to use a canned lecture on social justice – a subject that is the antithesis of passive reception of information. And, good for the faculty in opposing it.

Online education’s digital class system (Speed Matters, Jun. 4, 2013)

Udacity (website)

The perils of online college learning (LA Times, Jul. 26, 2013)

An Open Letter... from the Philosophy Department at San José State University (online letter)