The 24-Hour Professor

Chronicle of Higher Education (2002). The 24 hour professor: http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i38/38a03101.htm

As someone who hopes to one day teach (and who is intrigued with the concept of teaching online courses), I read this article about Lee Grenci with mixed emotions. At times I found Grenci's experience exhilarating, particularly the interaction with the students. However, there were also times when I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. This overwhelming feeling rushed over me the strongest when I read the sections that discussed the policies outlined by certain institutions (e.g., respond to students' email within 48 hours). When the drive moves from one where you yourself feel "obsessed" to watch over your students to one where the institution is holding your feet to the fire, that's when I become a little worried. In the past, course instructors have never been available 24/7 so why should moving to an online environment change that? Like Las Vegas, some institutions are attempting to become 24-hour "cities" that have a never close policy. Is being "always on," "always available," "always open" necessarily a good thing?

Another issue of concern is the one of students seeming "bolder" in online courses about approaching the professor. This is a point that was raised in another article for this week - "What Do Online MBA Professors Have to Say about Online Teaching (2007; http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer102/liu102.htm). In that article, a couple of faculty members stated that there was a "small percentage of students whose attitudes and behaviors were negative when compared to students in face-to-face classes." But, are the students really bolder or are the lack of cues contributing to this sense of boldness? Alternatively, are the students who enroll in an online course more motivated and perhaps more aggressive, which in turn makes them more likely to approach the professor when they "feel like they've been trounced"?