Online course policy: topic of discussion

The College has adopted an experimental three-year online course policy that will allow students to take up to seven credits of online courses.

According to Associate Dean of the College Bob Geitz, the current policy is the result of a series of discussions that took place last year between Gary Kornblith, the director of the Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching and the Education Plans and Policy Committee.

"Last year, Gary Kornblith, the director of the Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching, brought to the EPPC the issue of online courses and suggested that the college have a policy about whether and how credit for such courses should be accepted by the college," said Geitz.

The decision to offer online based courses came directly as a result of these discussions and not from the urgings of students dissatisfied with the current policy. Only a small number of students have expressed interest in the types of courses, according to Geitz.

The policy allows students to take up to seven credit hours of online courses while on an academic leave of absence or during the summer. The policy does not allow students to enroll concurrently at other institutions. After completing the course, the student must then fill out an evaluation.

When confronted with the possibility of students taking online courses while at the same time being enrolled full time at Oberlin, the EPPC expressed strong opposition.

"Part of the reason is to preserve an intellectual community at Oberlin. While here, the [EPPC] wants students to be working with Oberlin faculty," he said.

Student reaction was largely divided over whether or not students should be allowed to take online courses through another institution while at Oberlin.

Some students cited financial reasons as to why they did not feel this was a reasonable option.

"I think that it is a waste of my tuition dollars to take a class over the internet. We are paying for qualified professors to give us a quality education; without them the class is worthless," said first-year Julia Handelman.

Others felt that it could lead to a decline in the quality of an Oberlin education. "It would destroy normal classes at Oberlin, make it much easier to get a bad education and would erode the academic level of this school," said first-year Mike Hamm.

Advocates of online courses felt that students should be able to choose individually whether or not they wanted to carry the extra workload. Some also felt that students should be allowed to enroll in online courses only under special circumstances.

"If circumstances arise that prevent a student from staying on campus, forcing that student to take a semester or year off, I think that it's a resource that should be used. But for students on campus, I think that there should be a limit of Internet courses that one can take in a semester," said first-year Christa Henderson.