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The University of Maine has more courses online than past years — a switch both praised and begrudged.
The number of online courses offered at UMaine has increased from 12 courses to 277 in 12 years. This increase correlates with the growing number of students, but according to James Toner, director of UMaine’s Distance Education program, “students are really voting when registering [for online classes]. They’re voting for usefulness, time, convenience and flexibility.”
Toner said it is practical, both economically and environmentally, for someone living in Dover-Foxcroft, for example, to choose distance learning rather than driving to Orono three times a week for an introductory level class such as Biology 100, which has approximately 800 students this semester.
Jeremy Dubois, a fifth-year German student, took an online introductory English composition class his first year at the University of Southern Maine. Students in his class were required to post responses to articles and other materials two to three times a week, usually having a larger assignment due on Fridays. Dubois and his classmates were required to critique each other’s work in a virtual interactive setting.
Dubois did not like the lack of social interactions with classmates and said online classes are “cold and dead. I didn’t even see anyone.” He said a math class might be more conducive to online learning, but an online English class was difficult to learn from.
“It seems like a really cheap way to take a lower-level course,” Dubois said.
Toner deals with issues such as Dubois’ on a daily basis and looks to research findings to address students’ needs.
“Frankly, it’s a matter of classroom management,” Toner said, adding the best and most effective distance learning models are “hybrids,” or classes that required classmate interaction in the form of a meeting of some kind while the bulk of class work is completed online in preparation for the meeting.
“We don’t want to exclude anyone by a face-to-face classroom setting,” Toner said, referring to people for whom distance is an issue for attending classes.
UMaine’s Distance and Online Education program is structured and maintained through a unique collaboration between the Division of Lifelong Learning and the Department of Information Technologies. Used by a diverse, growing and statewide student group, it is facilitated by faculty members.
John Gregory, executive director of IT at UMaine, explained the responsibilities of IT in regard to Distance and Online Education.
“We provide the infrastructure … and work with faculty in developing materials,” Gregory said. “Maine’s always been a leader, even back in the early days,” he said, citing Interactive Television (ITV) — the predecessor to online courses — as an example.
“ITV’s been mostly phased out and [replaced by] streaming, podcasting and video conferences,” said Gregory.
Although UMaine’s IT department makes distance and online education technologically possible, the material and development of models and programs is carried out in the Division of Lifelong Learning.
IT’s main task is the upkeep of FirstClass, which has approximately 21,000 users, according to Gregory. He said several other supplementary online programs like Blackboard and WebCT are utilized in distance education and classroom use.
“We went from having a limited resource controlled by the University of Maine System to the Internet, an unlimited resource,” Toner said. “It was a huge jump.”
UMaine’s Distance and Online Education program now includes several mediums. ITV — still used today after being introduced in the 1980s — broadcast in real time from UMaine to sites across the state. Another is video conference courses which allow students to see and speak with professors and other students anywhere in the world. The program also offers online and video streaming courses.
