Opinion mixed on UCLA’s online classes

This article was updated to include the accompanying graphic.

A Spotify playlist blasted through Austin Anderson’s headphones as he logged in to his Political Science 115D class this quarter – all from the living room of his apartment. 

“Overall it’s been really good,” said Anderson, a fourth-year political science student who is almost four weeks into his first fully online class at UCLA. “But I think it has certain drawbacks to it as well.”

While the class lets him have a more flexible schedule, he said it does not offer the student-teacher or student-student interactions he is used to.

University of California campuses – encouraged to do so by the University and state leaders – have started integrating online education to their curriculum.

Anderson is one of many UCLA students and faculty who have started to reflect on the pros and cons of online education in recent years.

Changing dynamics at UCLA  

Over the last few years, rising tuition costs and technological developments have stirred an interest in online education, said Jim Davis, vice provost of the UCLA Office of Information Technology.

While UCLA has long been involved with online to enhance the educational experience, the university wants to ensure students receive the same quality of education both in the classroom and online, Davis said.

Currently at UCLA, many classes are “hybrids” and utilize both traditional and online class material, Davis said. But, there are also fully online classes with no face-to-face interactions.

Professor Susanne Lohmann teaches Political Science 115D – Diversity, Disagreement and Democracy – this quarter. The class is fully online and is partially synchronized, which means students have to complete assignments by weekly deadlines.

Instead of regular lectures, students learn from the bottom up, meaning they are teaching themselves, she said.

Students play ethical games online every week, analyze results from the approximately 150 students and then write reports on the data.

Lohmann said she has received mostly positive feedback for her class, even though it has almost no student-faculty interaction.

Katherine King, a professor of comparative literature and classics, said she does not think humanities courses lend themselves well to online class structure because she thinks student-teacher interaction is essential for critical analysis.

Making the classroom a hybrid

Many faculty members at UCLA said that they have not felt pressured by UCLA to design and develop fully online courses.

This sentiment comes despite UC Online, an initiative started by the UC Office of the President to promote the development of online education.

But many UCLA faculty have expressed interest in learning more about online education, said Jan Reiff, a professor of history and vice chair of the academic senate.

However, faculty members are still discussing exactly how to integrate it into their various courses while maintaining the quality of their lessons, she said.

The life science core lab – LS 23L – introduces many lab techniques that are vital for upper division labs, said Gaston Pfluegl, a lecturer and director of the life science core labs.

But Pfluegl said his course functions as a hybrid – lectures, lab safety procedures and backgrounds are offered online before the physical lab session.

He said he thinks this structure is helpful because teaching assistants do not have go over the material in lab, and students can focus more on the in-class lab techniques.

A mixed review among students

Many students currently taking online classes at UCLA expressed mixed reactions about their web-based course work.

Jener Sakiri, a first-year political science student, said he was initially excited when he found out Political Science 30 had online lectures because he thought he would have less class time this quarter.

The class focuses on game theory, with online lectures and in-class discussion sections.

Almost four weeks into the quarter, Sakiri said he thinks the cons of having an online class outweigh the pros because there is a lack of professor and student face-to-face interaction, which would help him learn the material better.

“I don’t think this should be an online class,” Sakiri said. “You can’t ask the professor questions as she is explaining the concepts.”

Ayesha Khan, a second-year molecular cell and developmental biology student, is in the same political science class. And while she said she enjoys having online lectures so she can process the information at her own pace, she doubts she would take a fully online class because she wants to be able to interact with other students.

However, Anderson said that he really enjoys Lohmann’s class because he is able to analyze his classmates’ behaviors in ways that wouldn’t be possible in lecture.

“Your grade in the end of the class also includes all the points you get from playing the online games with your classmates,” he said. “I think that is very interesting.”

Anderson also said that online classes are very helpful for students who commute or work. “Students don’t have to come to campus to attend class or learn.”

Making virtual a reality

UCLA administrators are aware of the difference in opinions about online education.

“We are being very deliberate in how we now use and see online education so we can preserve the educational experience for the UCLA student,” Davis said. “Online education should be viewed as a full spectrum.”

The UCLA Academic Senate, the External Vice Provost’s office, the Office of Information Technology and the Office of Instructional Development will hold a conference on May 2 to discuss university policy about online education and share faculty experiences with creating hybrid or fully online courses

The goal is to get a sense of what faculty are doing with online education and to see if some of the technologies or course design plans can also be used in other courses, Reiff said.

Lohmann said that though many people view online education as just putting up lectures on the screen, any attempts to develop online courses must be a collaborative effort.

“Online education is not better or worse – it’s just different,” she said. “My suggestion to anyone developing an online course is to think of it creatively.”