When Robert Ubel first applied for a job with a university’s online program in the late ’90s, he had no experience with online education. But then again, hardly anyone else would do it.
First of all, the web was still relatively new at the time (much like AI chatbots are today), and only a few universities were offering courses on the web. Ubel’s experience was in academic publishing, and he had just finished a stint as editor of Nature magazine and was looking for something else. He happened to have some friends at Stanford University who told him about the university’s work using the Web to train workers at local factories and high-tech companies, and he was intrigued by the possibilities. I was intrigued.
Then, I learned that Stevens Institute of Technology had a slot to build an online program, so I applied because I had spent a weekend observing Stanford University’s program.
“That was my only background, my only experience,” he says. “And I got the job.”
And like many college campuses at the time, Ubel faced resistance from its faculty.
“Professors were totally against it,” he said, worried that the quality would not be as good as in-person classes.
The story of higher education from reluctant innovator to today More than half of American college students are taking at least one online course — offers many lessons on how to introduce new teaching practices to universities.
One of the big challenges that online learning has faced for years is who will bear the cost of building something new like a virtual campus.
Ubel points to the philanthropic foundation as key to helping many universities, including Stevens, take the first steps toward online education.
And it turns out that the teachers who were most successful in the new online format weren’t the best with computers or the most tech-savvy, says the author, who spent 17 years at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and inspires said Frank Mayadas, who provided the grant in hopes of doing so. Introducing online learning.
“These were teachers who had a strong belief that they could be good teachers no matter what they did,” Mayadas said. “If you’re great in the classroom, you’re usually great online.”
This week’s EdSurge podcast delves into the checkered history of online higher education. Then, hear from online pioneers about their advice for those experimenting with the latest classroom innovations.
Check out the episode of spotify, apple podcastor in the player below.
