The integration of technology into the classroom has allowed students to learn, think and analyze in many different ways. More and more, universities such as Harvard University, Columbia University and Tufts University are allowing students to enroll in online courses instead of attending a traditional classroom. Do you think Brandeis should incorporate online courses into its current curriculum? Do you think there's merit in taking university courses online?

Prof. Angela Gutchess (PSYC)

Online learning offers a number of opportunities, particularly for distance learning. However, I think that online courses would not be a good substitute for live courses at Brandeis. The classroom setting supports discussion, lively demos, and interaction in a way that online forums do not. Particularly the small classes and seminars allow students to develop skills in oral communication and processing and in responding to ideas in "real time," which are not the same as skills emphasized in a written medium. Large live courses may have more of a challenge in engaging students and creating an active learning environment, but it can be done with the right tools and methods.

Angela Gutchess is an assistant professor in the Psychology department.

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Prof. Marya Levenson (ED)

Technology can provide a great opportunity for students to learn in a different way, provided that we resist the glitz and keep asking ourselves how the particular form of technology enables us to ask critical questions, learn new skills and solve challenges. If Brandeis could be part of a university consortium that provided excellent opportunities to learn online, faculty and students would be able to think about how/ whether to make that part of a Brandeis experience. For example, being able to take one semester of online courses might enable more science students to have a semester abroad.

Marya Levenson is the Harry S. Levitan Director of Teacher Education and Professor of the Practice of Education.

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John Unsworth 

I came to Brandeis in February of 2012, from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, and I spent the rest of the spring semester teaching my Illinois graduate course in digital humanities online. I was teaching online because GSLIS has been delivering its professional masters degree online since 1996, and currently teaches half its students in this way. In my experience, online courses can be high-quality, high-touch and high impact experiences for both faculty and students, if done right. Online instruction can also be done badly, but in my experience most courses benefit from the rethinking of the syllabus that is required for faculty to teach them online. Finally, both undergraduate and graduate students can benefit from access to guest speakers, new forms of interaction, new modes of expression and new methods for investigation that online courses can make available. I don't think online teaching will
become a replacement of on-campus teaching of undergraduates at Brandeis, but I do think it could be a very useful supplement.

John Unsworth is the vice provost for Library and Technology Services and chief information officer.

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Rachel Downs '13

There is always possibility for significant gains, and significant losses, with an online approach to education and teaching. In some ways, I feel that Brandeis is limiting its students by not incorporating online classes in the curriculum, because it limits the variety of courses students can take for credit here and necessitates in-person instruction for all classes. On the other hand, as a teacher, I strongly believe that so much is gained by being a member of a class and learning in a mutual, engaged environment with a knowledgeable facilitator. That being said, I would be in favor of Brandeis incorporating some online courses into the curriculum as long as our undergraduate culture here maintained a majority in-class instruction and online classes did not have a significant impact on in-person class size and/or faculty and staff teaching positions.

Rachel Downs '13 is an Undergraduate Departmental Representative for the Education Studies program.
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