To online or
By Jordan Wiskemann
Staff Reporter
pwlo62@psu.edu
In any college student's perfect
world, no one would have any
obligations aside from their
studies. Unfortunately, the
majority of college students have
more pressure on them than
papers and finals. Many can
relate to the demands of jobs,
bills, clubs, sports, and families.
Registering for online courses
may be a way to alleviate part
of the stress associated with
attending traditional classes.
Erik Steigler, IST, junior at
Penn State Harrisburg, is
committed to registering for as
many online courses as possible
to fulfill his required general
education courses. Steigler
has taken 7 courses through
the E-Learning Cooperative
system, the system provided by
University Park through which
these online courses are offered.
The professors teaching these
courses are also generally based
at University Park. Courses
through E-Learning usually
weigh in at about the same price
financially as a traditional class.
"I really like how I can work at
my own pace. I can get online
and go through my lesson, plan
when I have the time," Steigler
said, "whether it's at 3 o'clock in
the afternoon or 3 o'clock in the
morning." He then added with
a laugh, "Plus, when you take
classes online, you don't have
to listen to your professor go off
on tangents and drag on and on
about irrelevant stuff."
Enrolling in courses through E-
Learning may be a viable solution
for those among us who are
chronic "class skippers," because
online courses usually have no
daily attendance. Dr. Jerrold
Maddox, a professor at University
Park who taught the first web
based course ever, described how
attendance affects his students,
"[There No attendance policy
- they are judged on the basis of
their work." Maddox, a pioneer
of online instruction, has been
teaching online courses since the
spring semester of 1995.
Being the experienced online
student that he is, Steigler
explained that in an online course,
each student takes a lesson, and
then completes a quiz at the
end of each lesson. Many of the
courses are taken through Angel,
which tracks each of these
students' online activities. This
is usually the only form in which
attendance is taken.
When it comes to the flexibility
online courses provide, Eric
Liskow agrees with Steigler,
"Online courses are nice because
they aren't as time consuming
as regular set classes. I can
finish an entire week's worth of
classes in three hours." Liskow
is a junior majoring in Computer
Science. He is currently enrolled
in his first online course,
"Material Science."
Students aren't the only
people who appreciate how
accommodating these courses
are to their personal schedules.
Dr. Jonathan Mathews, also
a professor at University Park
who teaches both traditional and
online courses, enjoys this perk
of E-Learning, "After a rough
week, I enjoy the flexibility I get
from teaching online. In the last
few years, I have been teaching
the class [EGEE 101 Energy &
the Environment] while away for
a week or two in England, South
Africa, Japan, and many locations
within the U.S." Mathews has
been teaching online courses
for three years and "was until
recently the largest enrolling
WEB class at Penn State."
As agreeable as they may
sound, online courses do have
their drawbacks. A major aspect
missing from these courses is
any real human contact. Students
admit they miss the interaction
included in traditional classroom
settings, which is often a key
factor in learning. Consistently
left without the responses and
questions posed by others in
a class, these students usually
learn through only their own
reactions to material. There is
a lesser flow of ideas to utilize.
Liskow acknowledged there are
discussion boards that students
can use to communicate with
each other, but the boards are
usually chats based on topics
aside from the core of the class.
Steigler also explained just how
strange it is when one cannot
actually see who else is in the
same class. He recalled a time
when he had to come on campus
at PSH to take a test for one of
his online courses. "It was weird,
because I didn't know who to
expect when I showed up where
our test was being held. The
funny thing was, there were six
other people from our campus
enrolled in the class who were
supposed to be there with me.
Nobody showed up for the test
but me."
Most online courses are aided
with video and audio supplements.
Mathews described his way of
drawing students' interest to
class material, "I strive to have a
personal presence online and to
make the experience interactive
rather than a passive experience.
In my lesson introduction movies
I do donuts in the car park, climb
out my car window (homage to
Dukes of Hazard), get thrown
in jail, and generally have lots
of fun!"
Because of the pictures and
videos included, many of the
not to
students are able to put a face
to the e-mail address with which
they correspond; however, this
does not necessarily satisfy the
need to be acquainted with their
professors. Both Steigler and
Liskow agreed that although
they have generally had pleasant
experiences with the E-Learning
system, they wish they could
get to know their professors and
they each feel they are nothing
more than just an e-mail address
to their professor. Often, the
actual professor of a course is
not the person checking and
grading assignments; rather, it is
a teacher's assistant who gives
feedback on assignments.
Not only do students desire
more personal feedback from
professors, they feel that actual
human contact would provide
far more insight in most courses.
Steigler described two courses
he took in which he felt getting to
know the professors would have
enhanced his experience. He
took both "Ukrainian Culture and
Civilization" and "Russian Culture
and Civilization." The professors
instructing the courses were
actually from the countries whose
culture they were teaching.
Steigler explained, "Getting to
know each of these professors
could have added to their
classes, because they're from
the places they're teaching you
about. They've experienced the
culture themselves. It could have
provided us with an even better
understanding of the material."
Also, according to Steigler, online
courses "are not cruise courses."
Those enrolled in online courses
may not need to get dressed
and go to class; however, these
courses may require more
self-discipline than ordinary
classes. Students must take the
initiative to complete each lesson
plan on their own, before an
established deadline.
Mathews explained how he
motivates his students. "They do
submissions before and at the
end of each lesson so I know
when they start and finish. I have
lots of procrastinators, but I also
remind them they have items
due and jokingly threaten to call
their mother."
Other shortcomings of the E-
Learning system include a lack
of consistency in teaching styles
and the sheer fact that the system
is technologically based. Liskow
explained that he accidentally
took a test before he was ready
because the link was set up
incorrectly. He meant to take
a practice test, but the link he
clicked on took him straight to the
real test. The pressure was on for
Liskow, as with no way out of his
misfortune, he was trapped into
taking the actual test that was set
News
online
on a timer (most tests for online
courses are timed) before he felt
fully prepared. He felt that if there
were a standardized way for
professors to set up their online
courses, situations like this could
be avoided.
Steigler expressed the wish• for
more professors to offer online
courses. He said, "Once you get
through your gen. ed. courses,
you are extremely limited in the
online courses you can take.
There are no IST courses offered
online at PSH." However, he did
add that talking to an advisor
could be a way to schedule online
courses not offered by PSH.
When asked what could be done
to encourage more professors to
instruct online courses, Maddox
answered, "I don't know - most
[professors] don't like the idea."
In contrast to Maddox, Mathews
seemed to be optimistic about
the support of E-Learning by the
university, "It [E -Learning] needs
to be better integrated into the
fabric and reward system of the
university. We are moving in
that direction."
Whether or not a student likes
the idea of becoming acquainted
with E-Learning, Mathews
indicated that it is an essential
detail in the future of each
student in his field, "It is a desire
that all the College of Earth and
Mineral Sciences students have
a quality online experience to
better prepare our students for
life long learning." Both Steigler
and Liskow also recommend
online courses to anyone who
has a difficult time fitting set class
times into their schedules. This
would be especially convenient
for students who maintain a full
time job- whether it be in an office,
running a household, caring for
children, or any combination.
With all the advantages and
disadvantages laid out, a vital
question remains: how high are
the grades of students in online
courses as compared with those
of traditional classes? It turns out,
students fare about the same
as they would in any other kind
of class. "Good students do as
well or better, poor students (C
average and below) do worse,"
said Mathews.
However, a student who
maintains a "C" average in
traditional classes shouldn't
eliminate E-Learning from
their future schedules for fear
of a low grade. Each kind of
learning presents some benefit
to students, and E-Learning is
no different. Mathews summed
up the E-Learning experience
in two words, "Flexibility and
professionalism," and then
added, "Plus my wit and wisdom
- complete with English accent."
The Capital Times, November 7, 2005
Down with dial-up
By Michael Albright
Staff Reporter
mbal33@psu.edu
Recent research at Penn State
Harrisburg by the lIT department
to determine how many of the
current dial-up modems on
campus could be eliminated
has created to a project led by
IT director Robert Brinkley. The
research has shown that only
about half of the ancient hardware
is used at any given time
throughout the year, with most
activity occurring
d -•42rvbody'
,curing everybody's
favorite times of the
year, midterms and
finals week.
Currently, there
142 dial-
up modems on
campus; this project
aims to disconnect
48 of them as soon
as possible. The
University is billed
$23,628 annually
by the phone
company, whether
the modems are
used or not. The
project when completed will save
the University about $11,700 in
phone bills.
Dial-up modems are used by
students to connect from off
campus locations to the PSH
network, allowing access to all
the features available from any
campus computer. However,
with technology constantly
changing and improving, dial-up
has become a thing of the past.
Students now have a number
of options how to connect to
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This graph represents how much modem use has declined, with
students barely using 72 of the 148 modems provided by PSH.
the school. Students living on
campus have a direct link to the
100 MB network at PSH, while
students living off campus can
use dial-up, or newer, faster
technologies such as DSL, cable,
or even wireless, depending on
their proximity to the campus.
With better performance, and
increasingly lower costs, Brinkley
feels most students are opting to
use the broadband technologies
while off campus, contributing
to the decline of dial-up modem
use. Both cable and DSL are
roughly 50 times faster than a
28.8 K modem, on average.
Even with the amount of modems
being disconnected, students
should still see no more than
two to three busy signals at the
most active time of year. The few,
if any, busy signals are greatly
overshadowed by the benefit that
will come from the money saved.
"We want the most students
to benefit from this, as much
as possible," said Brinkley
"the savings will be used other
places around the
campus on the
IT infrastructure".
Brinkley
encourages
students to visit
the Information
Technology
Fee website to
see a complete
breakdown of
where your IT
dollars go, and
also remind
students that they
always have a say
in where exactly
"The savings
will be used
other places
around the
campus in the IT
infrastructure."
- IT director
Robert Brinkley
the money goes,
by contacting their representative
for the information systems and
technology committee (ISTC).
As the Harrisburg campus
continues its leadership role
with this initiative to disconnect
unused modems, Brinkley plans
to eliminate more modems in
the future as fewer and fewer
are being used, but will never
eliminate all of them. "There
will always be a need for a few"
said Brinkley.
...). i J -,'
Graph courtesy of personal.psu.edu/ryb2
For more information visit
Robert Brinkley's website
at http://www.personal.psu.
edu/ryb2, the lIT website
at http://wwW.hbg.psu.
eduniti, and the Information
Technology Fee website at
http://www.hbg.psu.edu/iit/
mw 1 A nfotechfeww3.htm