Dan Butcher writes:I introduced email and the Internet into my teaching several years ago, but the decision to teach composition totally online was prompted in part by institutional concerns. The Louisiana Board of Regents funded distance education grants throughout the state's higher education system in 1998-99. The goal was to develop distance versions of core courses to meet the needs of non-traditional students. I was asked to develop a distance version of our second-semester freshman (or first year) composition course. As I considered the delivery methods available, it became clear to me that an online course was the best way for me to teach composition. Personally, I saw an online course as a way to further integrate my interest in computers and the Internet into my teaching. Also, I realized that if online coursework is more than a fad (and I believe it is), then I wanted to be involved in shaping how online education works in my department and university.
I began my preparation by subscribing to DEOS-L and then to ACW-L; I knew these were the best places to go for practical help in making the transition to an online class. I also looked for books about online education, but I have not found the books nearly as helpful as the listservs.
Early in my experience with DEOS, I queried the list about how I should approach moving my face-to-face practices to an online environment. I was told by an experienced, practitioner of online education that I should not be asking, "how do I take my classroom practice and make it work online?" Instead, he suggested that I (and online educators in general) should be asking, "how do I take this electronic environment and harness it to effectively teach my subject area?" I understood him to say that I should start from the beginning and rethink my approach to teaching freshman composition in light of technology. This prompted a lot of thinking on my part, and I wanted to create something new (and I felt like I should), but when it came time to actually set up my first online course, I returned to my classroom practices as a starting point. I did this for three reasons: simplicity, expediency, and personality.
First, simplicity: My normal duties already require me to juggle many balls; in addition to committee duties and the like, I teach five classes each semester, plus an off-campus "overload" to supplement my pay. Of these six classes, five are usually first-year composition (one first-semester, the other four second-semester composition classes), and the other is sophomore-level literature survey (three preps). I knew that if I did not keep some consistency between my face-to-face and online composition classes, I would quickly become overwhelmed. An online course was already an extra ball to juggle; an online course working on totally different assignments would have added several more balls to my act (and I'm not that coordinated).
Expediency: As I considered which assignments would work online and allow students to achieve departmental goals (which include introducing basic research skills as well as a departmental exit portfolio), I returned to past assignments that had been simple and successful. My thinking was that going online would introduce enough variables without adding to them by throwing in untested assignments. Though a successful face-to-face assignment carries no guarantee of success in an online setting, I decided it would be easier to narrow down the sources of problems if I controlled this one factor. Plus, I reason that using the same assignments in all my classes would make for a useful control as I compared results between my face-to-face and online students. I've already seen some benefits. The students I teach on campus have the help of the resources I create for my distance students. More importantly, I'm able to test my online resources with students who have heard my explanations "live and in person"(these students can tell me if my online resources communicate the same information that I present in the classroom).
Finally, personality: I've realized that I'm not someone who can think "outside the box"(at least not right away). I need my traditional practices as a reference point as I venture into uncharted waters. Though my online course may not be as innovative right now as I would like (or as some educators would suggest it should be), I know that as I become more certain of my teaching online, I will become more comfortable in trying new things. An unexpected benefit of this approach is that I see growth in what I do in the traditional classroom as the online setting pushes me to look at teaching in different ways.