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The number of online courses available at the University of Louisville and the students that are registering for them are growing each year.
The Delphi Center at U of L offers students a way to take classes without being tied down to a certain time and location, making it possible for them to achieve their goals that, otherwise, might have been impossible to reach.
Sherry Reid, program coordinator of the Delphi Center, said that although the numbers fluctuate, they do continue to grow. The total number of online classes for the fall 2006 semester was approximately 110, with about 2,301 students registered. The statistics are tallied using the academic year of summer semester through spring semester. The number of students registered for online classes, summer 2005 to spring 2006, was approximately 5,400. During the same period in 2004 to 2005, the total was 4,154 students.
The total for this year so far, summer 2006 through fall 2006, is already at 5,350 students, said Reid.
Kevin Meredith, senior communication major, said, “[Online classes] force students to become immersed in the material, rather than just showing up to lecture and listening.”
Unless a student is specifically looking for an online class, there is not a push for them. Michele Cooper, junior liberal studies major, said, “I didn’t even know that just anyone could take an online class. They aren’t promoted, and I haven’t had an advisor say to me, ‘Oh that class is available online,’ so I really didn’t know about them.”
There are many students going online for their education. “The only downside to online classes would probably have to be the price. I don’t think it is fair to charge in-state students 130 percent of their tuition,” said Meredith. The cost is the same for out-of-sate students.
The instructors have to adapt to the teaching part of the online class. “I don’t use a lot of what I would call ‘straight lecture’ in my classrooms, but I like the rhythms and the energy from the ‘live audience,'” said Dr. Lynell Edwards, adjunct professor of English at U of L and Bellarmine College. “This is an element that, so far, just isn’t replicated typically in an online classroom.”
The technology is getting better all the time and is not only beneficial to online classes, but could be to the face-to-face classes as well, said Dr. Al Futrell, Communication Department chair. “The ability to go to the Internet for information at the moment students need it is an important factor.”
