I recently received an email message from one of the students in my Fall university cohort…
here is the message:
This will be the next chapter we are studying and I need suggestions. Please tell me how to send AERNet messages properly. I am computer illiterate.
Thanks,
(Student name deleted to respect confidentiality)
There are 3 weeks left to the trimester, it’s been an online course at the graduate level, this student is barely passing, and I get the above message … and it’s got me thinking…
I don’t know if universities have “a policy” about student competence in computers and/or student equipment but I’d like to muse about this…
If this doesn’t already exist, could we/should we at the university say that students coming into an online class must possess the following prerequisite computer literacy skills:
ability to receive and send an email message successfully
ability to create and save a Word document, and open one.
ability to attach a file to an email message and send it successfully
ability to open an attachment sent to them by email.
Internet knowledge; enough to be able to access/search google and type in key words and find resources/webpages
possibly… ability to use IM for communication.
possibly… how do download a (free) program and install it on their computer
We can teach them the navigations specific to Blackboard or WebCt. I see that as “part of the job” of being a university instructor in an online environment. However, I’m supposed to be teaching them braille, and I find myself spending hours on email and/or the phone teaching them basic computer literacy skills. (now THAT’S a scary thought!)
Could we/should we suggest or require that they have these pre-set computer skills before they enroll in an online course? If they don’t have them, could we/should we (I’m starting to sound like Dr. Suess here!) suggest that they take a computer course at the university first… or even at their public library??? Something!
My second musing… could we/should we set a minimum requirement for computer technology in order to enroll in an online course. They need to have:
a computer with ____________ (someone with tecchie skills has to talk about the memory and gigs and bytes and kilograms and stuff like that!)
high speed Internet access (no dial-up!)… if they don’t have it on a personal computer, they need access to a school or library computer with this.
Microsoft Office for Word and possibly powerpoint.
I am one of the least technologically-saavy people around, but if I can do these things, anyone can.
Students in braille (or in any other class) should not have to fight the learning environment in order to get to the content.
Am I too brash and bold because of what I’ve learned this trimester, or am I not holding them to high enough standards?
What do you guys do about this?
2 responses so far ↓
1
Nate
// Nov 18, 2005 at 1:20 pm
At NCLID we build courses to a minimum standard of
- email fluency (read, send, attach, address book)
- word processing (write, edit, save as RTF)
We also provide non-teacher support for students needing assistance with
- browser issues
- email problems
- software installation
2
Julie D
// Nov 21, 2005 at 5:25 am
I agree that minimum skills should be required and I think that some sort of orientation should be available (it seems they often are). I am not familiar with current computer classes, the one I took in ’95 did not include any topics related to email or internet! I hope that has changed some since then, but not sure what has been added. I think the information and requirements you describe should at a minimum be included in the course description as recommendations… or warnings.