Harvard College instructors extend courses to online learners
There's a perhaps little-known fact about the Extension School curriculum: during the academic year select courses such as HIST E-1825 China: Traditions and Transformations, CSCI E-268 Database and Information Management Systems, and ANTH E-175 Mesoamerican Civilizations are being taught--and videotaped--during the day at Harvard College, then streamed via the Internet as online courses for Extension students.
"By making daytime courses taught by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) available to an online audience," says Dean Michael Shinagel, "we allow busy professors the opportunity to extend their courses to a wider audience without having to find scarce free time to teach in the evening."
Last fall, China: Traditions and Transformations enrolled 75 distance-learning students at the Extension School, two-thirds of whom took the Chinese history course for credit. "We have been immensely pleased with the Extension students as we have come to know them through online sections," says Peter Bol, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. "They have been so active--writing at length and in depth in the weekly discussion forums. Most of these students are local (although the majority of them prefer online sections), but we have students as far away as Thailand and Xiamen in China."
In the majority of courses currently offered online, campus section meetings are held for students who live within commuting distance. They provide direct contact with teaching fellows and others affiliated with the class. Extension students have the opportunity to interact with FAS faculty as well. Professor Bol, for example, welcomed local Extension School students to attend his daytime course last fall. Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science and the associate dean for computer science and engineering, invited all her computer science students to a wine-and-cheese celebration at the Maxwell-Dworkin Building immediately following the final examination. All but two Extension students attended. "I really enjoyed meeting the folks face-to-face," Professor Seltzer says. "It was a great post-exam release and a fun way to end the course."
-- Henry Leitner