In honor of National Community College Month, we are publishing the personal reflections of our faculty. These reflections focus upon the general topic “This I believe about the mission and value of community colleges today,” and offer thoughts about teaching and learning.
Our first reflection comes from David Barrish.
In honor of the start of baseball season, I immerse myself in everything hardball. I love the smell of fresh-cut turf, the grind of cleats on packed earth, and the unrequited hope that the Cleveland Indians might make it to the World Series.
A movie to help get you in the spirit is “A League of Their Own,” a fine effort by Penny Marshall. While it will never be mistaken for cinéma vérité, it is a fun story with subtle messages throughout. The following is an excerpt from a heated discussion between catcher Dottie Hinson and manager Jimmy Dugan:
Jimmy Dugan: “Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that.”
Dottie Hinson: “It just got too hard.”
Jimmy Dugan: “It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!”
Whereas I won’t pretend to draw parallels between baseball and community college, I agree that “The hard is what makes it great.” Faculty and students both need to appreciate and welcome rigor in the classroom (on-ground or virtual). There is little joy to winning a game (passing a class) that was too easy to start with. Only when we really swing away, step out from the safety of the bases, and focus all efforts to make it home again, can we call ourselves winners.
A baseball team stands in the sun for all fans to see. This is in contrast to our distance learning faculty and students who operate in the private confines of their Blackboard spaces. While not impenetrable, these virtual classrooms host (or hide) a broad spectrum of academic rigor. I have seen syllabi that fail to meet our own college definition of hybrid- and distance learning. I have also evaluated many other syllabi where it is apparent that faculty and students are reaching for a bar set very high. In both instances, students passed, and faculty continued doing what they do. In the latter instance however, students could take pleasure in the superlative learning experience that was provided. And the instructor could look in the mirror knowing she or he made all efforts to challenge and deliver the type of education Reynolds seeks to be known for.
Our QEP compels us to look at improving outcomes in distance learning. We are amassing a portfolio of tools including SmarterMeasure and the Quality Matters rubrics. Many of us meet as a committee to conceive new practices that enable students and empower faculty. Strategic Objective 1.1.4 intends to “Ensure that distance learning students are prepared to be successful through readiness assessment and online orientation, by implementing the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).” Objective 2.1.4 states, “Develop a holistic model of student support services for distance learning students, by implementing the QEP.” Objective 2.5.3 instructs us to “Develop and implement a comprehensive faculty training program for faculty who are teaching or who plan to teach distance learning courses, by implementing the QEP.” It should be apparent that the scope of our QEP is ambitious and the potential is exhilarating. None of this will come without additional focus or some extra up-front work. Is it worth it? That’s a personal opinion, but in my mind, just like Jimmy Dugan said, “It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.”
--David Barrish
Assistant Dean, School of Business and Engineering
Assistant Dean, School of Business and Engineering
1 comment:
Kudos to David Barrish for drawing such an excellent analogy between the movie dialog and distance education. I’m certain that many would also echo my sentiments that this analogy, although clearly applicable to distance education, extends to the realm of education in general. With that said, as an adjunct “instructor”- or “facilitator”- in DL terms- for several online chemistry courses, one can only imagine the degree to which chemistry courses must be structured to prepare students for the challenging concepts and topics they will encounter. And yes, in order to adequately prepare students for the ever-popular online milieu, educators must equally be prepared in order to be effective in the virtual classroom….. no small task here! The “facilitator” title is not simply one of semantics, since the online instructor is neither team manager nor umpire- if I may take the liberty of borrowing David’s baseball analogy; but rather a hybrid a both- if you’ll also pardon the pun. Like a team manager, the instructor will furnish learning objectives, resources and tools required for students to be able to take control of their own learning, but without prescribing every detail of how that learning shall occur. On the other hand, like the ump, the instructor will set the course for learning without directly interfering with the process of learning… although some may argue the latter point whether referring to the ball field or classroom... Again, many thanks are to David for his insight into the aforementioned QEP objectives, but also to the entire QEP Implementation Team for their efforts in developing strategies that improve the quality of distance learning at JSRCC.
Sev Sinanian
Adjunct Instructor, Chemistry
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