11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI1 Education and the Web: Soul mates… or Strangers Trapped in an Elevator? Andy Gavrin, Dept. of Physics IUPUI

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI2 Overview Introducing the couple How close is the relationship? The good times, and the bad The future An elevator is the wrong metaphor

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI3 Exercise Used to communicate with a student? ed your childs teacher? Posted course information online? Looked up something for a student online? Used the web for your childrens education? Used the web to find info for your course? Have any of you ever…

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI4 The first meeting? WWW released 1991 First WWW conference, Geneva, 1994 Before Netscape, Explorer, Java, Google 1 talk Interactive Education: Transitioning CD-ROMs to the WWW

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI5 Internet access in K-12 schools

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI6 Student use of the internet

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI7 Sloan Consortium Survey, 2002 Fall 2002: Over 1.6 million students in online courses 1/3 of these taking all courses online 11% of all college students have taken one 81% of institutions offer one 34% offer full online degree programs

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI8 A few uses of the Web Online syllabi, etc. Homework servers (WebAssign, UTHS) Course management systems (WebCT, Blackboard) Distance education Library catalogs Registrar Financial aid

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI9 A few more uses … Math homework help lines, Reference data (periodic table, integrals,… phase diagrams), Projects Bartleby and Gutenberg, Reference books (encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, handbooks), k-12 curricula, Human anatomy, Planetarium programs, Demonstration videos, Audio analysis, Online instruments (microscopes, observatories…), Online scripts for drama, Edutainment, Online data sets (census, environmental, meteorological…), Civics via govt sites, Textbook sales, State boards of Education, Grant applications, Professional societies, Online Universities, Online High schools, advising tools, course bulletin boards, chat and , general and special calculators, image libraries, museums, NASA, NIH, NSF,…

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI10 Preliminary conclusions Whatever the relationship is, it is intimate Like many intimate relationships, there are offspring The parties are growing closer together

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI11 More questions… Are the partners getting along? Are there any signs of abuse? How about the families? Where is the relationship going?

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI12 Some of the good times Physlets Online homework (e.g., WebAssign, UTHS) Student-faculty Course bulletin boards/chat Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) Online media (movies, animations, sound) Inverted classrooms?

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI13 What makes the relationship work? Student-student interaction Student-faculty interaction Time on task A. Astin, What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI14 Another view Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not to reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues. - National Institute of Education, Study group on the conditions of excellence in American higher education, 1984

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI15 What about distance education? Major improvement vs. no education Forces students to do far more writing For many, more total interaction Done well, more authentic applications Target audiences: professional degrees, certificate programs, continuing education Worst case: the traditional bachelors

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI16 More conclusions… Family harmony so long as the parties communicate Distance sometimes makes the heart grow fonder

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI17 The dark side… abuse? Online term paper services Blurring of intellectual property (napster…) Poor S/N ratio Attempts to process students Academic get rich quick schemes

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI18 Bad finances strain any relationship… Administration needs cost savings New technologies can look like silver bullets Recriminations follow disappointments There are savings to be had: Classroom space, reduced attrition, parking, campus services… be creative!

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI19 What about the families? Grooms side: –$ conscious administrators –Students want to have their (wedding) cake… –Faculty are quite comfy, thank you –Staff!!? You need staff to produce videos of your lecture?

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI20 The other family The Brides side –Your IT department just wants to have fun –Online universities are here, and growing –Bill Gates wants your credit card and SS #s –I have $25 million in a bank in Nigeria, and… –THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE IS UNTENABLE

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI21 More conclusions There have been abuses of each side by the other Financial pressures complicate the relationship Both sides have family baggage

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI22 Where is this relationship going? A majority of academic leaders (57 percent) already believe that the learning outcomes for online education are equal to or superior to those of face-to- face instruction Two-thirds of all schools believe that online learning is critical to their long term strategy Enrollment for the Fall of 2003 is expected to exceed 1.9 million students A one-year enrollment growth rate of close to 20% More Sloan Survey results

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI23 Where else? NSFs National SMET Digital Libraries (MERLOT, JiTT, AAPT…) Faster, more realistic simulations and visualizations Richer communications tools (iChat AV, whiteboard…) Ubiquitous wireless networks Students and Faculty with better access to information and each other

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI24 Conclusions? Education and the Web mostly get along Communication is important in any relationship There are lots of kids, and many seem happy Some of the kids do have behavior problems There is a lot of financial pressure The families often interfere

11/1/03WAPT, Lacrosse, WI25 What do you think?