Today we have online education which is a step in the modernization of the learning experience however the systems in place at most schools are outdated and behind the times. Our current online classes amount to nothing more than a jumbled pile of notes that we are supposed to sift through and comment on. This system harkens back to the early days of the Internet and old school BBS. Technology has come a long way since then, and we now have the infrastructure to do more than this.

We have the technology to bring the online student in to the classroom. We have the possibility to create a digital classroom where students from around the state and around the world can gather and interact with their classmates who are at the brick and mortar school.

With nothing more than a decent webcam and a good microphone we can stream a class meeting to any student who cannot be there physically. In addition, with the fancy projectors that we have in almost every classroom, we can easily allow a student to address his or her classmates from the comfort of home. Best of all, most students who take online classes already have the webcams and microphones required to virtually attend class.

One of the results of this shift to virtual students attending real classes would be an increase in the class size. This would benefit students trying to get into classes in high demand. However, it would put a larger workload on the teachers. More students means more tests to grade, more essays to read, and more questions to answer.

The obvious answer to this is hire teacher’s aids, people capable of grading papers and answering question but not completely certified to teach. These folks would have the advantage of learning on the job how to teach a collage class. With the support of teacher’s aides, and without the class size being limited by the number of people that can fit in a room SRJC would be able to support a greater number of students. Unfortunately While this would allow the school to support the students we do n not at this time have the budget to support the increase in faculty.

These students would be able to receive the same quality of education as students who take classes on campus. While this proposition does free us from being tied to one place to get our education it does not address the one major advantage of online classes: the freedom to choose when we receive our education.

However if we are already producing a video recorded of the class session this is a resource that could be provided to the student who has to miss class. This is not an ideal solution. Watching a recorded lecture will never compare to being able to participate in the classroom discussion, but it is better then the system of message bored we have today.