Categories: Communication Design, Technology, Theory & Rhetoric
Summary:
Years after pioneering one of the earliest and most successful technical communication programs in the nation, Grant-Davie and Hailey reflected on their experience. Pulling from a wealth of personal experience, they give the history of their journey, share their findings, and address many lingering perceptions of the uninformed about online education. They persuasively argue about the effectiveness of online education in comparison with traditional face-to-face classes, while still acknowledging the weaknesses of the format. They condense their insights to five applicable observations worthy of serious consideration by those administering online technical and professional communication degrees or certificates.
Citation-Worthy:
"Online classes free participants from many of the constraints of time and space that restrict traditional classes. An asynchronous discussion model allows students to participate in an online class and interact with the instructor and other students while living and working in any time zone, anywhere in the world where they can find internet access. ... Online teachers enjoy the same flexibility" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
"Flexibility has allowed us to hire adjunct instructors—“professors of the practice”—who are working professionals and experts on topics relevant to our students and outside the expertise of our regular faculty. From wherever they live, these instructors can teach our students wherever they live" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
"An on-campus class may meet once, twice, or three times a week, and participants’ attention to the class rises to a peak at each of these meetings. Asynchronous online classes, on the other hand, tend to move at a rolling boil (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
One challenge of asynchronous classes occurs as "a student might post a question at 2 a.m. and begin expecting an answer by eight or so that morning. ... If the teacher is not careful with attending to the class, the roil will be lost and the class can be cast into disarray. We have learned to address these issues in several ways. First, if possible, we try to check in with our online classes several times a day and respond quickly to any questions that students have posted. ... We have found that posting frequently but briefly in the forums is more effective than posting less often but at greater length. ... Second, we mention on our syllabi that we may not respond within hours to every query and that we will respond more slowly, if at all, at weekends. And third, if we need to be away from the class site for a few days, we announce this to the class" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
"Maintaining presence is extremely important in online classes. One of the very worst things an online instructor can do is go AWOL. ... Instructors ... should look for ways to make their presence known" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
"We have learned to clearly communicate our expectations of student presence in our online classes." (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 2).
"To modify Descartes' signature remark, in an online class, 'I post, therefore I am.'" (Grant-Davie, 2015, p. 3).
"Online instructors need to work ... at forming a community of students who are not physically present. ... One way to do this is to devote the first week's discussion forum to community-building" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 3).
"There is more than one way to effectively teach online" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 3).
"The archived transcript of an online class is ... valuable for ... teachers [and students] ..." (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015, p. 3).
History of Utah State University's Online Professional Communication Program:
"In 1994, the State of Utah was facing a crisis of too many students and not enough space. They offered an RFP to universities that would investigate the possibilities of online education. Dr. David Hailey wrote a proposal for funding to develop an online component in Utah State University’s composition classes. The proposal was funded and in the winter of 1995–96 Hailey taught the first online composition class at USU. At that time, there was no software capable of delivering such a class until USU’s English Department could develop its own in-house learning management system, called Syllabase. Online composition classes were deemed successes, and online composition was embraced by USU and the State of Utah.
"USU moved from a four-quarter system to semesters in the fall of 1998. This shift meant that every course had to be redesigned and the total number of courses on the curriculum reduced. It also became an opportunity to reconsider all programs. With this incentive and the successful online class trials, Drs. Hailey and Keith Grant-Davie proposed and designed a program based on online seminar classes and catering specifically to working professional writers. In the spring of 1997 Hailey taught the first pilot online classes in technical writing at USU, and by the fall of 1998, as USU moved to the semester calendar, we launched an entirely-online master’s program in Technical Writing. We were trying to cater to students whose full-time jobs made it difficult or impossible for them to get a graduate degree. We wanted to reach working professional writers located anywhere in the world, and before long we had students as far away as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Israel, Okinawa, India, and Uzbekistan.
"To accommodate this diverse body of students’ working schedules in a range of different time zones, we created semester-long courses based on asynchronous, threaded discussion forums: students could log in anytime, anywhere and read and respond to posts in the forums by the instructor and other students. Although we have the capability to run synchronous (real-time) chat sessions with our students, we have stayed largely with the asynchronous model to fulfill our commitment to serve working professionals in any location and to give them the experience of interacting with and learning from other students as well as from the course materials and the instructor.
"Through the seventeen years since Hailey taught the first online graduate class in technical writing, the program has thrived, keeping to its expectation that students be working professional writers. Recently, in keeping with this philosophy, the technical writing committee successfully petitioned the university to reclassify the degree from a Master of Science in English with a specialization in Technical Writing (an academic degree) to a Master of Technical Communication (a professional degree).
"Our time teaching and administering an online master’s program in technical writing has taught us a few things that we think are worth sharing with others who are
considering teaching online" (Grant-Davie & Hailey, 2015).
