New ideas about online education have recently prompted the University of California to look at some less traditional approaches to education on the Web.
State officials have proposed approaches, which include partnerships with private online education providers and online high schools as well as an option for students to take credit transferable courses online. Some University officials are concerned, however, that discussions about these relatively new concepts are pushing the UC too quickly into uncharted territory.
MOOCs
Massive open online courses, commonly known as MOOCs, have recently been a major source of discussion for online education at the UC. MOOCs aim to reach a large population of students through open-access online courses. They also usually require students to complete work on a time schedule as opposed to being self-paced.
Shelly Meron, a UC spokeswoman, said MOOCs are made available through individual campuses, but are separate from the UC Online Education program, which offers UC-developed and credit-bearing courses. She added that both are being looked at as options for the UC overall plan for online education.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s state budget proposal for the 2013-2014 fiscal year does not specifically mention MOOCs, but Brown has shown support in the past for a partnership between California public universities and MOOCs, said Paul Golaszewski, a higher education analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“There is a tendency for people to view MOOCs as just a filming of lectures,” said Susanne Lohmann, a political science professor who teaches Political Science 115D: Diversity, Disagreement and Democracy as a fully online course. “That is as unimaginative as saying all movies are films of theater plays.”
Recent state legislative efforts have also focused on allowing students in the California higher education system to take courses like MOOCs for official credit.
In February, California state senator Pro Temp Darrell Steinberg (D–Sacramento) introduced Senate Bill 520, which would require California public colleges and universities to award credit for select online courses that students can take when they cannot register for over-enrolled classes. The bill – which would also encourage partnerships between UC, CSU and the California community colleges faculty and online course providers by next year – is still going through the state legislature.
But faculty at the UC, including the chairman and vice chairman of the UC Academic Senate, have raised concerns regarding the bill, contending that it would conflict with the Academic Senate’s authority to mandate which courses can be given credit.
In a letter sent to Senate Education Committee chair Carol Liu dated April 23, Steve Juarez, associate vice president and director of state government relations for the UC, discussed the University’s opposition to SB 520, based on concerns about the untested nature of online courses provided by third-party providers.
“It would be inappropriate to prescribe an alternative (that) is not fully validated, potentially diverting public resources that could otherwise be used for the productive development and delivery of UC-initiated online courses,” Juarez said in the statement.
Unconventional ideas
Another proposal introduced in February, Assembly Bill 1306, calls for the creation of a fourth branch of the California college system, called the “New University of California.”
This “New UC” would not consist of any physical buildings, professors or classes. Instead, students would just take tests for course credit, degree completion or certification in the mastery of the subject, said Assemblyman Scott Wilk, who proposed the bill, in a statement.
“This (bill would) be beneficial for former military service members and Californians with work experience who have accrued skills yet lack the time or resources to receive formal college credit,” he said in the statement. It is not likely to pass the legislature, many officials have said.
Jan Reiff, vice chair of the UCLA Academic Senate, however, said she thinks the “New UC” bill still brings up interesting questions about how people prove that they have effectively gained the knowledge to be successful, whether it is through college or practical experience.
Regardless of the discussions taking place among higher levels of the UC, Reiff said she thinks it is important to get feedback from students about what works and what doesn’t.
Building partnerships
Mark Hedlund, communications director for Steinberg’s office, said one option to make online courses available to a larger audience is public-private partnerships with online education providers like Udacity.
One example of a collaboration between a state university and a MOOC provider is a pilot program run at San Jose State University with the online education provider Udacity.
The program, which began earlier this year, is being extended and expanded for a summer session because of promising results in the pilot program, according to a statement from Sebastian Thrun, a co-founder of Udacity.
But faculty opinion would need to be taken into account before any decisions are made, Hedlund said.
Benjamin Antieau, a mathematics professor at UCLA, said he likes the distinction between public and private institutions and thinks public-private partnerships blur that line.
“My perspective is there are a lot of private schools and they can have private partnerships,” Antieau said. “I think the UC is ostensibly a resource to the people of California and I’m very wary of anything that undermines that openness.”
The University has also partnered with online high schools to ensure that their curricula meet the UC’s requirements for high school applicants.
Back to the future
In regards to the future of online education, there is still much uncertainty, with differing opinions across the University.
But there is also an increasing willingness to adopt changes, said Michelle Lew, director of teaching and learning technologies at the UCLA Office of Instructional Development.
“We won’t do online just because everyone is doing it,” Lew said. “But we would do it because it is better.”