Lessons Learned

Lesson
Discovery and Consequences

Use E-mail for course administration

One big lesson has been the proper use of e-mail. My original conception of implementing a series of on-line tutorials did not work. Instead, I now use e-mail to communicate day-to-day information to students and classes, for example individual test scores and overall test distributions.

Students want a teacher in the classroom

Computers will not replace teachers anytime soon (but, see the Chronicle article about "Rethinking the role..." ). Students want and are paying for teachers. That does not mean, however, that they want those teachers to teach like they did 30 years ago.

Most, but not all, students find Web instruction worthwhile

My student evaluations (Cognitive Science, Statistics) show very high levels of acceptance of Web-based teaching methods. However, some students find Web-based teaching unacceptable. Those few students tend be older and successful. They seem unwilling to learn new methods of learning when their tried and true methods work fine for them.

Younger students are becoming more comfortable with Web-based teaching methods with each passing year. Only two students in my Fall 1997 General Psychology class had not surfed the Internet prior to that class, for example. In that same group (N = 55), over 18% had Internet access at home. Faculty who do not get on and keep up with Web-based teaching methods risk being behind their students in terms of Internet skills.

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Lesson	Discovery and Consequences
Use E-mail for course administration	One big lesson has been the proper use of e-mail. My original conception of implementing a series of on-line tutorials did not work. Instead, I now use e-mail to communicate day-to-day information to students and classes, for example individual test scores and overall test distributions.
Students want a teacher in the classroom	Computers will not replace teachers anytime soon (but, see the Chronicle article about "Rethinking the role..." ). Students want and are paying for teachers. That does not mean, however, that they want those teachers to teach like they did 30 years ago.
Most, but not all, students find Web instruction worthwhile	My student evaluations (Cognitive Science, Statistics) show very high levels of acceptance of Web-based teaching methods. However, some students find Web-based teaching unacceptable. Those few students tend be older and successful. They seem unwilling to learn new methods of learning when their tried and true methods work fine for them. Younger students are becoming more comfortable with Web-based teaching methods with each passing year. Only two students in my Fall 1997 General Psychology class had not surfed the Internet prior to that class, for example. In that same group (N = 55), over 18% had Internet access at home. Faculty who do not get on and keep up with Web-based teaching methods risk being behind their students in terms of Internet skills.