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AlterNet reports
Online instruction at community colleges isn't working--yet policymakers are continuing to fund programs to expand online courses at these schools, which primarily serve low-income minority students, and community college administrators are planning to offer more and more of them.
The latest salvo comes from researchers at the University of California-Davis, who found that community college students throughout California were 11 percent less likely to finish and pass a course if they opted to take the online version instead of the traditional face-to-face version of the same class. The still-unpublished paper, entitled Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges, was presented on April 18, 2015, at the American Educational Research Association's annual conference in Chicago.
[...]Community colleges [educate 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates] and [that sector] is under fire for low graduation rates.
[...]Despite the flexibility, it appears that many students find it hard to manage their time to complete the lectures and coursework throughout an entire semester.
[...]These are very different results from what researchers are finding for students at four-year colleges.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 07 2015, @01:05AM
And a surprising number of those text books were written by the guy teaching the class, (or the guy to whom the teaching assistant reports).
Even in smaller universities, every professor seemed to have a book they wrote and which they coerce you into buying.
But at least you had SOMETHING in hand. Its a bitch trying to review an on-line lecture. I was all I could do listen the first time.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:42PM
I graduated from Penn State in 2012, and I never really saw any of that. There was one case where a prof had given his own book as an optional suggestion...and being an idiot freshman I bought it anyway. Otherwise what I kept hearing from my professors was: "I wanted to not have a single required textbook for this class and just use online resources, but the administrators demanded I assign one. It might make a nice reference, but you don't need to buy it, and if you already did you might want to go return it. I made sure there were a few copies available on reserve in the library too if you need them."
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 07 2015, @05:54PM
Perhaps there has been some ethics changes over the years since I was in college.
The Publish or Perish mantra of the 60s and 70s allowed professors a unique opportunity to write text books, and double dip.
Then course committee of that department designate that book as the official textbook for the class. And of course, all the other instructors in the department got in line and scratched each other's backs, accepting each others books as the course requirement for each specific course.
You didn't even need to have some big publisher step up and promote the book. With three sections of BasketWeaving-101 being offered each semester, sales were pretty much assured.
Too many copies in the Used Book Exchange? Time for a second edition.
Bonus points if a course Workbook (consumable one time use with tear-out-and-hand-them-in quizzes) can accompany the Text Book.
It was a sweet racket. And as a teaching assistant at the time, I had to marvel at the sheer audacity of the scheme.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.