If You Don't Believe in What You Do, Then Why Do You Do It?

Once upon a time, in a previous life as an Employee Development Specialist (a glorified name for "Training Coordinator") with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, I started pushing for what we called "CBT" or Computer-Based Training. I didn't like the term then, and I don't like it now, because, to some it implies that the learning process is completely facilitated by technology. "What am I going to do for work when all the computers take over?" was a question I heard from not only many of the instructors I trained and supported, but from my supervisor, and his, and his, etc.

I was only partially successful in getting them to realize the value of… well, I prefer "eLearning" now, but I'm going to coin a new label soon, so stay tuned for that. Back on topic: I was only partially successful in getting enough people there to realize the true value of CBT before I left for a new position. Actually, I had two things in mind regarding the value and benefit of CBT: content consistency and time flexibility - both very valuable learning concepts - concepts only available since eLearning technology started taking root just a few years ago.

Fast forward about twenty years, and read how 72% of professors who teach online courses don't think their students deserve credit. If you are looking for an answer to the obvious question, "then why are those professors teaching online?" you won't find it in that article. You might enjoy reading the comments below the article, though.

How NOT to Deliver an Online Course

An online course offered at Georgia Tech got off to a bad start, and soon thereafter had to be cancelled. Ironically, the course was entitled: “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.”

The instructor "…tried to use Google Docs to help the course’s 40,000 enrolled students to organize themselves into groups. But that method soon became derailed when various authors began editing the documents."

Do you know how she could have better deployed those Google Docs? Discuss it below.

Read the full story here.