Useful forum in Inside Higher Ed today on faculty “resistance” to teaching online. Simply phrasing it that way drives me kind of bonkers. Why don’t we ever read about the problem of administrators being seduced by online education or students being duped by online education? Some will say, “No! Those are really biased ways of phrasing it!” So is “faculty resistance.”
The unfortunate thing about online education is, almost no one is really focusing on using digital tools to really solve problems instructors actually have – give me the tools that let me teach more, better, and easier. The driving force is almost exclusively institutional revenue and the cloaking rhetoric is student access.
It’s really difficult to have a reasoned conversation when it’s believers and non-believers. Disingenuousness and self-serving arguments abound in this space. I’ve especially found the rhetoric of the believers problematic – that ultimate put down: “some faculty just don’t want to try modern pedagogical methods” is among the most intellectually dishonest tropes being bandied about our campuses these days.
Overcoming Faculty Resistance — or Not
Some instructors refuse to teach online. Experts weigh in on whether that’s OK and how institutions might respond.
By Mark Lieberman
March 14, 2018
