>> advancements in communication technology have allowed some students to flee the classroom. >> basically do everything through e-mail. >> e learning let's student study at any time of the day from anywhere. but critics have their concerns. that story on this edition of equal time. >> san jose' university you are watching -- exploring new issues each week giving equal time to competing points of view. >> hello from the campus of san jose' state university welcome to this edition of equal time. i'm your host journalism school

director bob rubber. an increasing number of university have designed distance learning programs for working professionals. how do they measure up. we will see the cons and pros of e learn. >> this is what may come to mind when you think of a class. but behind these doors the clam room is revolving. >> video voice text messaging -- there's a lot of ways to interact. it is not productive to look at it as an either or -- or that online is bad or not as good -- it is better than nothing, that's for sure. >> many agree online learning is better than nothing but they have their concerns. several studies including this one from technology and society show that's students who are isolated from the traditional classroom are more likely to

drop out or take longer to finish. professor says that there is a need to have a couple of classes online given most students have other obligations but to shift the majority of classes onlincecum prom maze their social skill. >> social skills are one of the more important skills students develop at the university. >> students are encouraged to take place in the classroom because real life doesn't take place on a machine. this woman says if she has another degree she has no other choice than online university. >> the freemont resident -- california state's universities are packed with students. >> i feel like it is a big deal as when you are in a classroom setting you can ask your

question and get your answer then. but basically you do everything through e-mail and have to wait for an -- a response. you don't know the other student so you don't know what they know. >> other student says isolated is over rated. this man dropped out 6 years ago and regrets it. both family and full time work he says online is his only optionen add he could careless about the social aspect. >> i went home and did my thing on my own. i never once studied with anyone else other than group projects. so i asked how the papers were coming along and passing but that was about it. >> when he with goes back to school online he says he will

prepared to communicate through e-mail. >> it can be hard. if you don't know how to express your self in writing, especially when doing complex work -- like my international business class organization was a very difficult class when talking about foreign policy. just to ask a question you need a paragraph. >> isolation and communication obstacles can be a stressor what skated -- motivation. >> my daughter is all the motivation i need. if i need to find it somewhere that's all it would take. i don't need to see other students how they are doing in order to succeed. >> even with motivation johnson says taking an online course has even more for the unexpected. she says internet outages can threaten her educational s success. >> you have to worry about if myity net is working, what's my

back up plan -- >> even the most well prepared students can learn from the perceptions perspective employers have from online school. >> i think there's a suspicious of degrees from online university that those were not the skills developed in those education programs so people might be less apt to do well in a workplace. it's one of the reasons why a 4 year degree from a university is so highly suspected. >> respectable. >> is this the college of the past. up next we will look at the constraints from the traditional classrooms. >> we heard the criticism now explore positive learning as equal time returns

>> welcome back we seen some of the challenges students face with elearning and adapting but do these challenges outweigh the positive. continuing our report. >> since 1946 nurses had been taught at the sju classroom but

in 2012 a new nursing program went online. >> online education is probably best for the person who is so busy that trekking into a campus, finding parking, finding a parking place -- they don't have time. >> dmp program director lori rodriguez says the student meet the requirements by having a degree. >> they would be learning skills to lead a project to assess the community needs and then design a project that would address hyper tension, or obesity, et cetera. >> the bureau's health estimates california will have a shortage of 100,000 nurses in 10 years. rosen bloom says in 2010 the legislator passed the bill to allow the university to offer.

>> to produce nursing faculty to teach the next generation of nurses who will be taking care of all of us in the state of california. >> the online program was really the only thing that was a feasible option for working professionals who are spread out all over the northern part of the state of california. >> many distance learning students are not traditional students. this woman is on the way to achieving another degree, she says the online program is a good fit. it allows her to learn at coffee shops during lunch break. >> it would have been tough for me. i need to work full time so i think there's a few programs that will do weekend classes and they will work out that way but it would have been more difficult to do. >> a study conducted on the

effectiveness and time saving online education shows learning is more effective when presented through multi media students learn 70% faster than traditional classrooms. >> this man says. >> desks laid out in a grid and a white board and slide project beingettor if you have one -- and that in and of itself constrains interaction. how can you interact there. it sets up the idea i'm delivering information, you're consuming, i'm active, the student is passive. >> he says the classes will be successful online or in person. >> research clearly shows if students and faculty are allowed to self select whether they want online or face-to- face -- satisfaction is

i'denetical. >> -- identical. >> how was the satisfaction with online larning. she said they have robust talk. >> we comment back to other students and is a great group because there's a lot of experience there. you learn almost as much from the other students as you do from the classroom. >> professor -- teaches online and in person. a face-to-face environmental doesn't accommodate student whose want to think before they speak. >> sometimes you want to fit it into the flow of the conversation and not get spoken over someone else who shoot froze the hip when

participating with >> time is on the side. >> when we come back we'll sit down with a panel of experts when equal time continues

>> welcome back to this edition of equal time. our focus today is on distance learning. the pros and cons of e learning. let's meet our guests. >> my name is ted coopman, faculty and my background is in media, new media and ron online organizing. >> my name is ruth, assistance -- coordinator of the nursing program -- >> and i'm monday reynolds the studen heet producer of the story. >> i'm really excited you did this story because this is the new thing in higher education, being able to provide online education of education is something our society is demanding. 16million students are taking at least one class across the

united states. that tells us it will grow. but you are the envy of the programs. >> these are working nurses who are mature in their careers and they are coming back to school to enhance their practice and to really have value added to their nursing practice. these are working individuals so online is the way to go for them. >> but a nursing program we know how valuable nurses are we are trying to wrap our brains around how do you teach it online. >> good question. in the program there's much more touching going on learning how to do the skills -- like the shots -- in the doctor program these students already have those skills.

it is more a matter of adding to their practice. >> they have actually thought this through well and figured out under grads are doing the practical work and the phd program has to take it to a higher level -- >> it really depends on how you structure the program. what we found is that even in practice courses, like public speaking, quite a few university teach it entirely online because of use of video capture and so skills what we call practice courses -- you can still direct students and have them collaborate or work on their own and evaluate using various online tools. i think one of the sweet spots for technology is kind of the in between and research show that's a hybrid approach to where you reduce a number of

physical class meetings and replace that with online interaction and assignments, gets kind of the best of both worlds because there's a physical class to ground students but a lot of the content delivery which is one the importances of the technology that takes care of things and we use the in class meeting for the context. >> we will dig down to this a little bit more. i have been told you are the resoicher on this topic what did you find. >> i found it was the lack of communication or lack of face- to-face interaction that students felt that they needed. they really wanted to speak to the faculty just in case they misinterpreted anything the professor was trying to convague and ambiguous so i think it was the interaction

between the faculty and student that they felt they needed not so much the student to student. however to did recommend freshman college students much the people i spoke to were people who were doing the graduate work but they recommended for freshman students to go to the traditional classroom because they felt like they needed that socializing. >> i wanted to say there are faculty that like meeting to students one on one -- this notion of putting into the computer and never be able to see them is a turn off for those of us passion at about teaching. >> we have a meeting in person at the beginning of the semester -- we do have that in person bonding. the other benefit of a regional programs like our it's is not all through the screen online -- we do have the benefit of

meeting face-to-face occasionally, also. baas again that being said we use skype, and other types of technologies to have the face- to-face and to have the immediate feedback also. >> is it really an eek wive lent. -- is it really equal. i can read you better if i'm sitting here with you than if i'm looking at you on this thing. >> we're finding it is working very well and everything is a certain amount of balance so the balance our profession all nurses have is they can work full time and raise their families and do what they need to do and interact with fellow students and investors online. >> the public also needs to know there's a growing demand for education and traditional campus settings don't work if you have a family, or other

obligation that's take you away from being in one location. having said that we are making a strong toast provide online education slowly but surely. in your program how are you trying to do it. >> we have our major set up into three separate areas. part of making e learning work is structural issue -- how programs are designed. so rather than you have to take this specific class -- we have a type of class either foundation, inquiry or practice class. so what we try to do is to have a selection of those classes available online every semester because they are just people who would not be able to come to campus if they couldn't do it online. some are getting their degrees

entirely online. but fort student whose work full time they find they can fill out the schedule by adding an online class. i have students in my hybrid class that's meet once a week but they are also in my online class because that's the way they fill in the schedule because they don't have to physically be anywhere to be in the class. >> we were saying there's plenty of flexibility -- you brought up an interesting thing -- is there astigmia from getting an online degree. >> i spoke to students who actually -- because schools are impacted in california csu, she opted for online classes so she is going to another school in a different state and she's a california resident. but she wanted to make sure her degree did not say it was an online school -- she thought the lawyer would look down on

the degree because it came from an online school. >> even though harvard and stanford are offering online degree opportunities. do we have do get past that threshold -- educate the public -- that there are legitimate responsible programs online being offered by great schools like ours but they have to getback past the notion that they are not as valuable. >> i haven't identify that as being a problem. in my field many, many nursing programs are opening these programs and many are at well suspected bricks and mortgagor institution that's are just expanding into online education. i haven't seen it as an issue. >> i think one of the issues other faculty would have on a campus community is when students are able to do e- mailing of assignments -- i

have in my e-mail box anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 e-mails and the notion of teaching a class and having to grade however many papers or assignments -- that's annoying. >> well, and the key to that is changing the -- of online education -- that's one thing we have tried to do. it is not just transferring your lectures to online and having the same assignments. it is a lot more peer to peer, student to student discussion board at least in our program than just saying this is online with the same assignments. >> we have to be flexible in thinking. >> exactly. >> we have to look at the paradime differently and we have to look at the cost issues -- some faculty think you don't get paid as well as a traditional teaching john the other concern -- we love new technology -- we are thrilled about making new partners with

people who are helping us design virtual reality teaching opportunities, for example teaching us how to use these cameras. i can show you how to make it work -- focus it -- make sure the lighting is good -- all that -- when you do it on line if you don't have a virtual system than you don't have a real environmentallal sense of what you are up against as a photographer. but people like ciscoe anderson are working with us to make it happen. all the others can they start developing relationships to make that kind of thing work. >> i think so. it really is the matter of finding the importance of the technology and how it fits in with your expectations but your student population and the courses you teach. a vast majority of courses can be taught on line. they excel in some areas but not in other areas and i think

what this comes down to and what you are getting at is really the problem that we have in education has less to do with technology and more to do with pedigoge, there's a lot of thing that's don't work well with face-to-face classes and in that environmental -- that we have learned not to see because that was the only option. what's interesting about online learning is that all those issues come out. for example, the discussion boards -- instead of 10% of students in the class being able to speak -- i got maybe an hour for students to a conversation in a discussion board -- everyone gets to seek and nobody is interrupted. the discussion you get in a discussion board, the quality, the thoughtfulness and details is much greater than you will find in an online class.

in the writing course. >> mandated by the state. >> yeah it is a general education course -- the discussion i had with students -- they were talking about grammatical things they are geeing out about it in a way that you wouldn't get in a class. >> we worry about the attention to detail -- connection with students -- i can work with you and talk to you and define your research to make it more valuable for the audience. we lose some things but we gain some things. there's a worldwide opportunity when you have an online opportunity talk about that. >> me and professor coopman were speaking earlier and he said something that makes sense -- when you are in a online class you participate more. i didn't think about that but you do. if you were sitting in a

traditional classroom where the protessor was lecturing, you didn't necessarily have to do the reading until the class -- you kind of don't do it until you take the exam. >> it wasn't that way in my class. >> if you are in an online class you always have to participate -- you have to looing -- log in and you participate more. i have noticed that. i had the opportunity to take a hybrid class half traditional and half online. it worked really well. it was one of my favorite classes because it was flexible but it wasn't as demanding as going twice a week from 3 to 5 at a set time. it still let me live my lifestyle -- family, working full time. so the hybrid class, i think, was good. i found it was better than just the traditional classroom or

just online. >> another thing -- students are enganged and involved and doing these activities because they have to but more importantly we are getting the skills moving cognitively. we are triggering activity. the downside is we don't prioritize -- you can't really go off -- you have to stay on focus. >> you do. but you still have the flexibility to do it when you want to do it whether saturday in your running clothes or 3:00 a.m. in the morning to do what you need to do to accomplish the goals of that online class. that's the flexibility that students like. >> what about the bottom line -- will the graduate be the person we need to hire in the

job as veilable, in nursing, or whatever field. if we know those students are no longerboro beat in the classroom but they are online it may be a different experience. >> it is all about structure. a face-to-face class -- students talk about terrible online classes but there are terrible face-to-face classes. online if it is pore popperly structured than face-to-face. >> we shouldn't be afraid of it. we must use it effectively and responsibly and we should reach out to our partners in technology and say give us more ideas and we will happy illly give you idea that's will make you money but also make the educational experience a deep valuable experience. i think it is possible. we are raising funds to do that and i thank you for getting

this started. this is a good idea. we're excited to do it. thank you all for being here. and thank you for joining us for this edition of equal time y

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