Cleveland universities continue to fight with online learning

Twice a week, I my senior thura connects to a fully immersive plant -based genomic and proteomics course. Case Western Reserve University manages a three-year pilot project to understand how and know if you have to take advantage of online learning in the first cycle, after the all-in pandemic approach and the resulting hybrid options.

Thura frequented high school in Hong Kong during the thickness of the viral epidemic. The students of his international school lived all over the world, so the connection times for the synchronous lessons were “really strange”, she says. “Some lessons would start at midnight and others at 7 am,” she says.

The laboratories were strange for Thura, a major in biology.

As she landed on the Case Campus, some fall 2020 courses were in person, other courses were hybrid and even some of these laboratories took place numerically with the help of inflated software.

Now the question is: “How should we proceed in a thoughtful way and continue to experiment on online options,” explains Peter Shulman, provost for curriculum.

Before Cavid-19, Case had explored online lessons with its undergraduate summer programs. In the universities of the northeast of Ohio, some higher education programs had already been successfully implemented online to accommodate experienced learners with jobs, children and trips.

With the first cycle, Shulman says: “Our MO had to do it carefully.”

As with work, school and life in general, the pandemic has gone around the world in online platforms. Today, the case and other post -secondary institutions adopt an approach to navigating today what works online, which does not do and how to offer experiences that students and families expect through campuses.

Expectations vary considerably

“At John Carroll, we are fully committing to person learning for our undergraduate students,” explains Bonnie Gunzenhauser, vice-president of academic affairs.

“The mastery of skills and knowledge bodies is an essential element, but the same goes for social interaction, professionally, in the development of your network, by finding you mentors and having organized opportunities to engage with the world of work,” she says.

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But pandemic online learning has taught John Carroll a lot of educational lessons, and the university has adapted its study program, which is in person for undergraduate students. “There has been a decision for students to acquire content knowledge by themselves and use time together in class to practice and interact with teachers to move more towards master's degree,” explains Gunzenhauser.

“We have achieved something we already knew-people learn in different ways,” she adds, “and having a chance to see it play during the pandemic triggered new approaches and modes of engagement inside and outside the class.”

(Ron Jantz, Lorain County Community College)

“ It is a different experience online ”

“You have to work a little harder to get started online,” explains Karen Miller, provost for the Cuyahoga Community College.

TRI-C has built tools to practically connect students to support service services and arouse conversations between students.

“We offer clubs and organizations that meet online, and we offer tutoring and writing services on the field and online,” adds Miller. “Almost everything we do has an online component or a way to access it this way.”

TRI-C has also prepared students to become online learners with software to acclimatize them to virtual classrooms.

The tools work. But online connectivity is not quite the same as a person experience, says Miller.

“The detention data across the country show that students who meet other students and teachers in the field, at least for some of their prices, are more committed and kept at a slightly higher rate,” said Miller, noting that TRI-C makes a concerted effort to strengthen options on the ground.

But students look at online learning.

Related: Cleveland Class Walles“Students vote with their feet and these online courses are filled first,” she said. “We are monitoring registrations until the week before the start of the lessons, and we adjust and add sections where we have to meet demand.”

Denise Douglas is provost at the Lorain County Community College, and she traces flexible learning on the days when it was called Learning Learning. Just before the pandemic, 34% of the student organization chose online courses, and this population extends over the ages and stages of the High School College Credit Plus to the octogeniares according to courses.

After the pandemic requirements have calmed down, 60% have always chosen online and now 48.7% of students register for synchronous (real -time) or asynchronous (recorded) courses.

“The options are essential for our students,” explains Douglas. “More than 70% of students work more than 20 hours per week, and take courses in online formats becomes critical.”

There are all kinds of terms to describe online options. In LCCC, High-Flex means “all options”. For a single lesson, students can select from synchronous, asynchronous or in person. And they can adjust the modality by the week if necessary, by choosing to be in person when possible and online when life requires it.

“With our flexible options, persistence rates have increased,” reports Douglas.

“There is no typical online student”

Moving online for the first cycle has highlighted the way some students thrive in the modality so that teachers can consider how to create additional tools for engagement, explains Gunzenhauser. “The reverse classroom puts the field on students and faculty members to build checks, and now there is more infrastructure for technology,” she said.

Miller dit de Tri-C: “There are students who are always the first to raise their hands in a group discussion, and the most reluctant students who have a lot to say and online can offer an opportunity.”

Thura At Case says that the biology course with only 15 online students, sessions in small groups and online presentations suit her. “But if the class was greater than that, it would be difficult for the teacher to fully hire everyone,” she said.

She would consider an online course with two dozen others, but the prices of the size of a room would not be comfortable.

Double delivery box “did not work well”, says Shulman about a teacher simultaneously offering an online and in person option. Following the pilot program in 2025-24, after collecting data such as quantifiable measures and experience of the teacher-student, the University will determine the next step for online options.

For reasons ranging from the balance between work to concentration on the screen to self -discipline, online learning and in person is very personal decisions. And what works for students can depend on the type of post -secondary institution, the online delivery method – “a regular class on zoom is not necessarily a quality online class”, explains Shulman – and the content of the course.

Douglas says: “Not everyone will learn the best online and sometimes it is the subject and sometimes it's just not easier to be online. We have a lot of students who say:” I agree to follow this course online but not that one “, and the good news is that they have options.”

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