Senators debate bill to increase online ed.

Americans now use the Internet to shop, pay bills and conduct research. Some California state legislators would like students to take more classes online.

Senate Bill 520, now pending in Sacramento, would allocate grants to faculty who teach an online class and partner up with a privately-owned online service provider. It would also require colleges and universities to grant credit for courses offered by for-profit schools. Proponents insist SB520 would provide more classes so students could graduate on time and avoid paying tuition for extra semesters. Opponents of the bill argue it ignores key components of the budget crisis and would cheapen and depersonalize higher education. Critics insist it is a money-making scheme that benefits private, for-profit colleges.

Supporters say community colleges are overcrowded and too many students are waitlisted, particularly in general education classes. Students would be able to take these classes online, advocates insist, and stay on schedule. Partnering up with a private college would alleviate funding problems and overcrowding, backers argue.
SWC Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold said the bill has some merit.

“It could work well for the college, whether we create more classes ourselves or whether we partner with somebody else,” she said. “In the end, it’s providing the classes that students need.”

Eric Maag, president of the SWC faculty union, said he opposes the bill because it would diminish learning, depersonalize teaching and cheat students out of adult role models.

“At that point students become commodities,” he said.

A similar online system almost caused the New York Institute of Technology to lose its accreditation. Cardean Learning Group, with whom NYIT had partnered, was caught paying recruiters for the number of students they convinced to enroll, an ethical and legal violation.

Apart from the profit motive, opponents argue that a big part of the budget crisis is not being addressed, which is how funds are allocated by the administration. Maag said administrators too often spent college funds on low priorities rather than professors, counselors and students.

“I think (SB 520) is potentially part of a trend to make it the easiest way possible and the least expensive way possible to get them (students) through, as opposed to doing the right thing, which is offering more face-to-face classes and reducing the number of administrators we have,” he said.

Maag said SWC is a galling example of misplaced priorities. Last year, he said, college leaders gave substantial raises to four vice presidents while attempting to cut employee salaries and threating layoffs.

Maag said faculty refused to agree to pay cuts because administration cuts. Even had miscalculated budget revenue and took substantial raises. Maag said there are still not nearly enough teachers at SWC for the number of students, yet spending on other items continues.

“We’ve lost money allocated to our part-time overload budget, which is the budget that we use to create classes,” he said, “while at the same time we’ve been asked to have more students in our classes.”

Critics of SB520 insist that online teaching is impersonal, mechanical, one-dimensional and disposable. Much of the value of the college experience, Maag said, is the personal interaction between students and professors. Mentoring, modeling and other benefits would be lost.

Dr. Mink Stavenga, dean of Instructional Support Services, said online professors would need to keep close contact with the students and students would need to communicate through a discussion board for an online class to work. Professors would need to know how to run an online course, he said, but students would also need to have a strong work ethic.

Silvia Kading, an SWC Italian instructor, expressed concern over the work ethic of students coming straight out of high school, where every class is face-to-face and has structure. She said an online professor might not be as effective in motivating and getting through to students. Maag, an award-winning communication professor, said most communication is nonverbal and for a class like public speaking, physical attendance is required to ensure that students receive quality education as well as motivation from their peers and professor.

“If I’m not interacting with students at that level,” he said, “it can be difficult.”

Kading said physical classes are better for students. She said when learning a language, it is essential to hear accents, idioms and learn the culture. Food, fabrics and popular games brought into class meetings to augment the learning outcomes would not be possible online.

Stavenga said hybrid courses that combine online and face-to-face instruction are better than straight online courses. In a hybrid course, he said, assignments could be turned in online so more class time could be devoted to teaching.

“Hybrid courses, as far as I’m concerned, have great potential for having a happy middle ground,” he said.

SB520 does not include hybrid courses. Opponents such as Catherine Liu, director of the UC Irvine Humanities Collective, question how college careers spent mostly online would affect students. Maag said he remains skeptical.

“(Students) might be getting the credit that they need,” he said, “but are they getting the education in that process?”