Information is as information does….
Rather fascinating discussion right now on the Desire2Learn site for KM/LIS 5033 about “harvesting” the discussion threads etc. for future use by class participants (or even keeping the site available for the duration of the participants’ enrollment in our school.) What is fascinating about this to me is that this is not really an online class at all: it meets weekly on the Schusterman campus in the usual fashion, and the Desire2Learn site is simply an adjunct to that. On the other hand, there has been no similar interest in my concurrent officially “online” class (KM/LIS 5553), which is actually much richer in resources. (Each participant there manages an individual discussion forum on a special topic of interest, such as corporate espionage, and provides resources and commentary for that, as well as joining in on the main discussion forums as necessary, so there is much more “there” there, largely due to the “competitive intelligence” of the participants.)
Explanation may be simply that one is our first required core class, and the other a more specialized elective? Or the people in the first class feel that there is more of value in their discussions? Or the people in the second class are much closer to graduation and already have all the resources they need? Since we are moving further and further into offering a graduate degree that can be taken totally online, this does seem to warrant more investigation… how much “Desire2Learn” is there?
I am a student in the 5033 course and am also taking 5263 entirely online. When I offered to “harvest” the threads and make them available to my classmates there were two things happening; first, I wanted to keep the discussions and second, I wanted to help my classmates if they saw this as help and they wanted it.
Why do I want to keep the discussions? Because it is the truest snapshot of the way in which I interacted with peers as I started down this path in graduate school and I value having it to look back on. It’s like pictures from summer camp I guess, maybe the value is purely sentimental but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Besides, it seems evident that with blogs and professional writing everything we do will last in some form or another so maybe we need to get used it.
Why share it with my classmates? Because I spent time with them thinking and laughing and I simply thought they might have some reason for wanting to keep these snapshots too.
I admit that I didn’t have this idea in my online course but I really think it was because I have no way of sensing whether folks in that class would care whereas the folks in 5033, I met face-to-face and “got a vibe” if you like. Now that I realize that it can be done I will keep the discussions in 5263 as well and will most likely offer it in the same way.
Now, why wouldn’t anyone else think to do this? Many have probably printed discussions to keep for themselves privately, but since I have a PDF writer I just decided to keep electronic files which are easily shareable. So it’s just dumb luck that I thought of it.
I guess if your 5553 students read this entry they will know it can be done and will want to do it too.
The question of why personal interaction in 5033 versus a total lack thereof in 5263 played into my thinking is interesting and I guess I’ll have to blog about that next week in my own space.
Hi Dennis: There is considerable tech depth in the 5553 folks (some of whom also watch this space, so we’ll see if they comment) so I doubt that it’s simply a question of them not figuring out as good or better a way to “harvest.” It’s the “sharing” part that intrigues me in terms of its potential for improving these learning spaces. Thanks for opening the door on this: since all the previous classes I’ve done here have been online, I haven’t been in a position to compare and contrast them with the face-to-face experience you describe.
In fact Dr. Hawamdeh and I spoke about this several weeks ago concurring that although the online space is valuable we both prefer personal, face-to-face interaction and I seem to recall that Andy Dillon feels the same way. Given the amount that one can learn from a person and given that so much communication between is not linguistic (i.e. verbal or written) the experience (and sometimes challenge) of being with people is just richer. Courses offered entirely online seem to me to be not much better than just reading books on one’s own. Why should a student who truly cares about his or subject and the people in it and affected by it prefer to pay big tuition dollars for that?
Online tools like D2L are best used as supplements to university courses that I hope have the goal of getting students to communicate better and to think (like 5033 did this semester). In my humble opinion, courses having any other goal belong in vocational or technical schools.
If librarians really think that everything can now and/or will eventually be done online, then they are simply working to collapse their own profession. I’m sure they neither believe this nor do they want it and so should be fighting to keep personal contact in their programs and courses. And online tools should be supplemental.