“Poorly Structured” … “lack of attention by faculty” … “insufficient oversight” … “rogue tutor” … “contaminated online class” …
When words such as the ones above are used to describe an online course, the field of distance education suffers immeasurable damage. Unfortunately, these phrases were used to describe an online course at the center of an athletic cheating scandal.
Every sports fan has read the many articles and reports in newspapers, sports magazines, and online blogs, and heard the dozens of reports on talk shows, halftime reports, and evening news to know that student athletes who were enrolled in an online music history class were found to have cheated with the help of a tutor. The professor in charge of the class has claimed that it was well designed and state of the art.
The issue of athletes and cheating is an important and recurring theme in higher education. What is new is the cheating occurred in an online course—a contaminated online class, as Florida State University president T. K. Wetherell labeled it (Associated Press).
While the fact that the music history class was an online course was not at the center of the story, maybe it should have been. Perhaps an investigation of this class needs to be conducted. There are standards for online courses, there are best practices to be followed, and standards and best practices should be enforced. If distance education and online instruction are to remain legitimate and generally accepted, then courses must be outstanding.
Descriptions such as “poorly structured” must be replaced by “excellently
… continues on page 95
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