My Special Topic In-Class Activity

I tried to incorporate an in-class activity to my special topic presentation - Security Issues in Online Assessment. The objective was to weigh the value of an online degree in light of security issues is heavily debated and under a lot of scrutiny. To address these concerns online universities are pushing to get accreditation. In response to the growth of DE and Online degrees the Education Department is finding ways to help students make informed choices.

I described the Scenario as below: "You are an instructor. A student comes to you for advice. She is considering enrolling in a Masters program at an Online University. Should she do that? Or should she go to a traditional brick-and-mortar school? What would you say to her? What considerations would you bring into the conversation? You could choose to be an advocate of DE, or not. Please construct your argument in light of security issues."

It is interesting to note that most responded the questions with some conditions. If the conditions are met the student in question was advised to attend the online course, otherwise, she was advised to attend the brick and mortar institution. Overall the online degree was considered a second choice.

Some participants also raised some very subtle issues. Like a fully online institution versus a brick and mortar institution offering part of its courses online. There was a good discussion about the perception of online degree. Some participants argued that personal preferences, job opportunity, time commitment, ability to participate in an online course are major factors in deciding which path to pursue. The issue of technological prerequisites for enrolling in a distance learning course was also brought up.

Some participants went deep and analyzed the issue in detail. Like while most of the discussion was revolving around the value of the online degree in general, some mentioned that it is important to find out if a degree is valued in a specific area of work.

Some discussed the tricky issue of academic transcript. It was revealed that most, if not all, brick and mortar institutions do not reveal the nature of the course in the student transcript. Almost all participants predicted that eventually distance education will "catch up" with other modes of education.

There are also suggestions about 'how we can speed up the acceptability of online education'. The tone of the forum was to support it by enrolling in it.

There are also discussions about 'diploma mills' and rampant fraudulent degrees. The general tone of the diccussion was that these 'institutions' are one of the reasons of bringing 'wrong' perception about online learning. Enforcement of accreditation is the solution suggested. There are also consideration that an online degree from a premier institution may note deem inferior to a degree from an ‘average’ brick and mortar institution. Though the conversation did not take the intended path of security issues in DE there were cross-references between the responses which made the whole discussion a truly integrated one.