#AEJMC14 Presentation

Tweeting, Posting & Vining: OH MY! | #aejmc14 | 7 August 2014

Tweeting, Posting & Vining — OH MY!

I Survived AnOnline Class!Brian Steffen | Professor & Chair of Communication & Media Studies


Pity The Poor Liberal Arts College…(Many of us are quite good at what do, but we’re still poor in the pocketbook and struggling to make ends meet.)


Eroding demographics.Cost-shocked families.Many times isolated locations.Branding challenges in a D-1 world.‘Is college worth it?’


DIFFERENT MODES of DELIVERY• F2F (Seated) Courses: Traditional classroom in

which students attend class & instructor is leader.• Hybrid Courses: Mix of F2F and online instruction,

typically via CMS such as Blackboard or Moodle. As colleges try to cram more classes into a calendar, they often turn to hybrid courses in some way to get enough classroom hours in for accreditation and assessment purposes.

• Online Courses: Courses meet entirely online via web, video, social media, email and/or conferencing.


ONLINE COURSES v. MOOCsONLINE COURSES MOOCs

Restricted to students enrolled in the college.

Open to anyone with enough hardware and broadband to join in.

More likely utilized by smaller players that don’t want to sacrifice smallness.

Marketed by huge players in U.S. higher education.

Offered for college credit as with any F2F or hybrid course.

Typically not offering college credit (but perhaps a certificate).

Higher (but still not great) rates of completion.

VERRRRRY LOW completion rates. (As low as 1% at Texas, 4% at Penn.)

Attracts handfuls of students on and off campus.

Attracts tens of thousands of students from around the world.


Students LOVE

Online LearningBut Why?

Students perceive online courses: Are easy to access. Provide flexibility. Are convenient to enroll in

and complete.


My Course:

US Media History

Junior/senior level. Required for Multimedia

Journalism major/minor. Also offers Information

Literacy & Written Communication credit in core curriculum.

F2F Enrollment: 18 Online Enrollment: 12


My Course:

US Media History

Moodle-Based CMS for document upload/download and links.

Facebook for asynchronous class discussions.

WebEx for 2x weekly live video chats.


US Media History:

The Results

Started with 12 students. 3 students never logged in

and were dropped. 1 could not log into the

CMS and dropped. 1 was a high school

student and dropped. 1 disengaged from

course & dropped.


US Media History: Takeaway

s Students register because

the course is online, not because they love what you’re teaching.

Many don’t understand online learning.

Myth of the Digital Native. Let’s talk tech. Your workload.

#AEJMC14 Presentation

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