“The online courses are really nice if you work full time,” Ms. Pike said. “My work schedule can vary, so it helps out because I can access the course material whenever I want, and do things at my own pace.”
Online courses seem to be all the rage at Temple College, which offers 174 online courses, with 2,753 seats filled. Mark Smith, TC vice president of education services, estimated that one-fourth of the school’s more than 5,000 students are taking online courses.
“It’s not surprising to me that online courses are popular,” Smith said. “With gas prices as high as they are, and people working full time and attending school, it becomes a much more viable option for them.”
The online courses allow students to learn at their own pace. Many instructors place deadlines for projects and the work completion, but students are allowed to log into TC online systems any time of day to do work.
“A lot of our students are now members of the millennial generation, so they’re connected to computers daily,” he said. “I think they’re helping drive our enrollment increases.”
Statistics show that the number of online seats filled in classes increased by more than 600 from the 2007-08 school year, an increase of 81 percent, and TC offers 39 more online courses to meet student demands.
Math instructor Sheri Asbury, who teaches an intermediate algebra online course, said she sees a lot of positives in online instruction.
“The students taking online courses are able to go through their tutorials as many times as they want and do things at their own pace,” Ms. Asbury said.
Many online courses are now offering podcasting and video imagery for students, almost putting them in the classroom.
“I have heard from a student who travels here from Austin that she listens to her biology lectures in her car while traveling to campus,” Smith said.
Ms. Asbury said the students are always connected to their instructors, at the click of a mouse.
“There are links to smart-buttons, which directly link the students to their professors via e-mail,” she said. “I carry around my PDA all day, so I’m always able to answer any questions they may have.”
Ms. Asbury said she offers online office hours twice a week to students, where they can talk to her over their computers.
Smith said students from across the state are taking online courses at TC because their main academic institutions may not offer them, or the classes may be filled. Smith said TC is a member of the Virtual College of Texas.
“What I offer in my online course is just as rigorous as what I offer in my regular classes,” Ms. Asbury said. “I really think students gain a lot by taking the classes online because they have to be self-motivated.”
Ms. Asbury said the testing done for her online course is done on campus, at the TC testing center, but she may adopt testing that students could take via-computer.
Smith said that TC is testing new software that would deter cheating in online courses, making it nearly impossible for students to navigate around on a computer while testing, eliminating the possibility they could look up answers.
“If a student is going to cheat, they’re going to cheat, and it’s our job to combat it,” Smith said.
“As an instructor there’s a fine line between upholding the integrity and demands of the course work and adapting to the demands of our students,” Ms. Asbury said.
Brian St. Amour, whose first day of work was Monday, was recently hired by TC as its director of distance education. St. Amour, who has experience working with high-tech companies like Hewlett-Packard, said the popularity of online courses at the college doesn’t surprise him.
“I was impressed to see the high number of students taking online course, but it didn’t surprise me,” he said. “The classes are very credible and easy to access, and allow the students to work at their own pace. I think it’s a wonderful learning experience for many of our students.”
