E-sections allow for greater enrollment capacity in popular classes
By Shoshee Jau
April 22, 2010 10:04 p.m.
To increase enrollment capacity for popular classes and provide students with more flexible scheduling, the Office of Instructional Development piloted a program last quarter that opened up additional course spots for students in an online-based section, called the e-section.
Students in the e-section were told to skip every classroom lecture and instead view them online via BruinCast, a service that videotapes certain professors’ lectures and posts them online for student viewing.
Last quarter, 49 students from chemistry Professor Steve Hardinger’s Chemistry 14D class, enrolled in the e-section. At the end of the quarter, the students filled out a satisfaction survey, and their grade distribution was analyzed by both Hardinger and the OID, who found no significant difference between the final grades of e-section students and the 388 regular lecture students.
“Statistically, the grades were identical,” Hardinger said. “Other than the fact that e-sections existed on paper, I didn’t see a lot of differences between the way things were done and the way things turned out.”
According to the survey, roughly 93 percent of e-section students said viewing the lectures online was a satisfactory substitute for attending class lectures. About 70 percent of students said they were likely to enroll in another e-section in the future.
The e-section pilot allowed students to realize the true reliability of BruinCast lectures, said Joanne Valli-Marill, associate director of evaluation and educational assessment for the OID.
“Students felt that the online lecture was a satisfactory substitute, and this actually differed from a lot of data that we’ve collected for general BruinCast use,” Valli-Marill said. “But in this case, because the students didn’t have a choice, I think most of them saw that they could rely on it.”
E-section students said on the survey that the advantages of BruinCast lectures hinged heavily upon the reliability of technology and personal self-discipline in staying on schedule. BruinCast lectures are required to be posted within 24 hours of the physical lecture.
Hardinger said that because lecture attendance was never strongly enforced in his classes, e-section students had virtually the same experience as the other students. In addition to providing BruinCast viewing to all his students, Hardinger also offered students various tools through the Web, including examples, tutorials and a discussion board for students to communicate with both TAs and their peers.
“In the 13 years I’ve been at UCLA, I’ve found that the more tools we’ve added, the more independent students can be and the more sophisticated things I can ask them to do,” he said.
Yet discussion sections are unlikely to ever be replaced through online programs, Valli-Marill said. Factors such as face-to-face contact and spontaneous question-and-answer cannot be simulated through Web tools in any way comparable to live discussions, Hardinger said.
While e-sections have shown potential in allowing more students into popular prerequisite and general education courses, the increased student-professor ratio that will result from these e-sections will only continue to grow as more sections are added, diluting the quality of professors’ individual time with students in office hours, Hardinger said.
For some students, watching lectures online proved helpful to their learning, said Amber Crispin, a second-year biology student. Students can not only watch lectures while working on homework, but can review them when they are more alert and prepared for the material.
“Sometimes, you don’t understand something in class, and it’s good to review the lectures,” she said. “It’s sometimes hard to pay attention in class, especially if it’s a harder subject, and going back to the recordings when you’re more alert really helps.”
Yet some concerns for both faculty and students remain in the quality and inclusiveness of the videos. According to Crispin, BruinCast lectures may unintentionally leave out important visuals in an instructor’s lesson.
“When (the instructor) writes something down and talks about it, the camera continues to focus on him instead of what he wrote on the board, which is kind of frustrating,” she said.
Furthermore, professors who do not have a strong classroom presence can easily lose students watching lectures on video, Hardinger said. Another concern lies in the quality of lecture slides, which may not show up well on video.
Based on the pilot last quarter, e-sections will continue to be discussed and refined by the Office of Instructional Development. However, they will never take over classroom lectures on a large scale, Valli-Marill said.
“This is just a supplement, and it will continue to be that way,” Valli-Marill said. “I think it’s fair to say that it will be a support tool and we will continue with the format that we’re currently using.”
