Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday my colleague from  the Macauley Honor’s  College, Joe Ugoretz and I met with administrators and faculty at Baruch College.  It was a good session devoted to issues of online and blended learning.  A question was raised regarding the time it takes to develop and to teach online courses.  It was both Joe’s and my opinion that it takes more time to develop and teach  online than in a comparable face-to-face course but there are trade-offs in terms of convenience and less commutation  to the college.  Jeff Seaman (Babson College Survey Research Group) recently completed a survey (N=10,270) of faculty attitudes to online learning.   Among the findings were:

“Nearly 64 percent of faculty said it takes “somewhat more” or “a lot more” effort to teach online compared to a face-to-face course.

The results for online course development are even more striking: Over 85 percent of the faculty with online course development experience said it takes “somewhat more” or “a lot more” effort.”

The complete report, “Online Learning as a Strategic Asset, Volume II: The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences with Online Learning” is available at the URL below.

Tony

http://www.sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/APLU_online_strategic_asset_vol2-1.pdf