Richard, I have a small favor to ask you: I would like to get the maximum out this program but as it goes with each school there are good and bad professors. Could you post a list of classes you took with a brief review of each. I would hate to get stuck with a class I don’t enjoy. Thanks

I don’t mind debating some of the points you have brought up, but could you take more care when reading my comments and blog posts on this topic? I never said that Harvard has been “educating students in an inferior manner for the past 100 years,” nor did I “point out” that distance education is a substitute for in-class instruction.

I also want to say to you and the other readers that my criticism of distance education is not intended to sleight those students who treat their studies seriously and are able to earn a degree. Distance education students have outperformed their Harvard College counterparts in the past, and I don’t think I would be able to match the efforts of the author of ClueHQ, who besides working very hard on his degree requirements, actually made a point of flying to Boston to attend some classes in person and meet with his professors.

But the fact remains: The dated crop of asynchronous distance education technologies used by the Extension School are an inadequate replacement for in-class instruction and academic discourse. As you noted, online bulletin boards and other mostly asynchronous technologies can certainly augment the in-class experience, but it is wishful thinking to suppose that they can serve as a wholesale replacement for the complex dialogues, spontaneous debates, instantaneous question and answer sessions, and the unencumbered exchange of ideas that form the bedrock of a Harvard education.

This is true of the College and all of the graduate/professional schools, including the Extension School. Every single one of my in-person classes that I took as part of my ALM/Liberal Arts degree requirements featured interaction between faculty and students. This was even true of the two large lecture classes, in which it was possible (during certain parts of the class sessions) to raise one’s hand to ask a question or respond to something that the professors or another student had said. In the seminars and smaller classes, discussions, debates, and asking questions were a part of the daily classroom environment. Many of the classes required oral presentations, which were followed by Q&As with the instructors and other students. The result of this was not only a rich classroom experience, but also an environment that fostered critical thinking and intellectual exchange. In my opinion, this type of interaction should be considered an integral part of an HES education — along with developing writing skills, reading, listening, taking tests, and all of the other things we know distance education is capable of offering to students right now. Unfortunately, message boards, email, videos, and Elluminate are not able to provide the same live dynamic or interaction that is a part of the live classroom experience at the Extension School.

If you don’t believe me, or don’t want to believe me, I urge you to see what other more experienced people have to say. For instance, I know students who have tried both modes of learning at the Extension School, and they describe it as not as engaging, not comparable to the in-class experience, and worse. Professor Michael Sandel, who manages to have rich dialogues and debates with hundreds of Harvard College students taking his “Justice” class, and who has also had the class repurposed for the Extension School, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that “I don’t believe that it’s possible fully to replicate the in-person classroom experience using new technology”, such as video and online resources. Even Dean Shinagel, the architect of the Extension School’s massive foray into distance education, noted in his book that there has been a struggle of “how best to deal with the spontaneous ideas and contributions of distance students.”

If the dean, professors, and students are describing significant drawbacks with the current distance education experience, how can you insist that it is not a problem? Do you think that anything needs to be done in terms of making the platform better or reforming the online credit requirements, or is everything fine the way it is now?

Ian

Because, as you point out, distance learning is a substitute for in-class instruction. Harvard’s other colleges cater to students who are able to physically attend lectures, and if they are able to receive in-class instruction, there is no need for a substitute. For those who do need a substitute, HES serves that purpose.

Also, I note that several in-person graduate courses I have taken incorporate aspects of distance learning, such as requiring postings to on-line bulletin boards, delivering multi-media presentations, and attending mandatory meetings with the professor for in-depth discussion of paper topics. I suggest that the adoption of these pedagogical techniques demonstrates their validity.

Finally, I should point out that to receive an ALM from HES, only 6 of the 10 courses may be taken exclusively online. Of the four courses taken on campus, at least 2 must be seminar formats. I suggest this is comparable with the practice of graduate programs to require coursework from both small, seminar-type courses and larger, lecture-intensive courses.

>>I believe that many distance education students are seeking the easiest and most convenient way of getting “Harvard” on their resumes

Your belief does not make something a fact, unfortunately. Your assumption demonstrates a very classist attitude towards people who are not able to avail themselves of a traditional Harvard education. For some students, on-site college or post-grad education is simply not practical and distance education is their best option. Just as a traditional college or graduate student would attend the very best university available to them, a distance learner wants the very best distance program they can find. Surely it’s not that hard to comprehend the motivations of these distance learners?

If you are correct and Harvard has been educating students in an inferior manner for the past 100 years via its extension school, it raises serious questions about the ethics of the institution because Harvard still charges a pretty penny for HES courses and assures prospective students that they do receive a Harvard education. If this is all false, is Harvard placing convenience ahead of academics, as you suggest? Or is Harvard in effect peddling degrees to anyone willing to pay? And if Harvard, arguably the finest institution of learning in the United States, has reduced itself to a degree-mill, it seems there are more worrisome issues at hand than the efficacy of distance versus in-class learning.

Thanks for taking the time to continue the debate over distance education at Harvard. You bring some interesting examples (particularly live videoconferencing) but my stance remains unchanged: Web-based, asynchronous education is providing a watered-down academic experience that should not be allowed to replace up to 90% of degree credit in various Extension School programs. The Extension School administration is making a mistake by putting convenience ahead of academics. It should scale back its distance credit policies until suitable technological alternatives and pedagogical methods are identified and implemented.

In addition, I was hoping you or some other reader would address my question of why Harvard’s other schools have failed to allow any online credit for their respective degree programs. Even though hundreds of faculty from other Harvard schools have taken part in online Extension School classes, they have not shared these modes of education with students at the College or Harvard’s professional schools. If sitting in front of a computer screen is an adequate substitute for real, in-class instruction and discussion, then why haven’t they pushed for change elsewhere at Harvard, even on an experimental basis?

However, you did cite two other well-known schools (Columbia and Carnegie-Mellon) that have distance education-based degrees. The two examples that you provide are both in technical disciplines, not liberal arts coursework which forms the backbone of the Extension School’s ALB degree. Tellingly, neither Columbia nor CMU has incorporated distance education into its other for-credit degrees, despite the fact that the former has operated its distance program for decades and the latter is one of the top engineering/CS schools in the country. As for the Extension School’s own ALM in IT program, it has never been established that having students complete 90% of their coursework online, with only limited options for dialogue with their instructors and fellow students, is an effective replacement for in-class instruction. Both you and I work in technology-oriented occupations, and are fully aware that face time is a crucial element of developing new products and getting IT projects off the ground. If bulletin boards, prerecorded video, and email were an acceptable substitute for live interaction, Silicon Valley and the Rte. 128 technology corridor would have become ghost towns years ago — developers, network engineers and other IT professionals could do most of their work from home.

Two other issues you bring up — handicaps, and live classes with poor instructors or indifferent students — are red herrings. Dean Shinagel does not address them in his book, and for that matter, I have never seen them raised by Harvard or the Extension School administration as a reason for establishing or expanding Web-based distance education. Instead, the factors that are mentioned in The Gates Unbarred include:

1) Making classes available to vast number of potential students who don’t live near Boston/Cambridge
2) A million-dollar production facility and professional staff to run the programs, and
3) The Harvard name and reputation all over the world.

I believe that many distance education students are seeking the easiest and most convenient way of getting “Harvard” on their resumes. Many of these students would spend 0% of their time on campus if they could, even though it would mean forgoing interaction with faculty, listening to live debates, and performing the simple act of raising your hand and getting feedback or leading the discussion in a new direction — in other words, the very factors that make Harvard one of the best schools on the planet.

You bring up Cisco’s TelePresence system, and describe the positive experience you had “meeting” with colleagues on the other side of the country. I agree that this technology could be an answer to the limitations of Web-based distance education, and allow students and faculty to interact in a way that’s similar to a live classroom experience. But, until costs come down dramatically (Cisco’s basic units are $80,000, not including networking costs), such technologies will not be a realistic option at the Extension School, much less in people’s homes. In the meantime, Harvard must acknowledge the shortcomings of Web-based distance education, and end its liberal credit policies governing online coursework.

Ian Lamont
ALM ’08