In his lecture “Society or School: What Determines Educational Outcomes?”, Professor James Paul Gee makes the assertion that only 20% of American jobs pay a living wage with decent benefits. One sector that sits squarely in that 20% is technology, specifically software development.

The demand for technical courses will continue to rise in the future, especially as education requirements for entry soften to include certificates, boot camps, and MOOCs. One barrier online education faces to training highly-technical workers is the human interaction. There is no online course that requires more human connection than a highly technical one.

In his blog post “Technology is not Pedagogy”, Sean Michael Morris contends that “Among students, online courses are commonly considered easier, and more convenient. “. This is tragic. As any student of Computer Science, Chemistry, or Mechanical Engineering will tell you, everyone must pay his/her dues. These dues usually involve “weeder” classes that involve a lot of difficult grinding. Students learn the concepts step by step, fighting uphill for each concept. This must not change for online courses. Standards of difficulty are there to ensure quality of outcome. We can’t soften the curriculum.

As a Math/Computer Science major at UC Davis I felt constantly “in over my head”. I never felt adequate to complete my assignments. I took each assignment one day at a time, one concept at a time. This style of learning would’ve been impossible without the help of countless TAs, labs, and office hours.

I attended almost every office hour, begging for help with specific problems. The teacher/TA did more than answer my problems, they connected with me. They let me know someone was available when I had questions. That human connection helped me understand that I wasn’t alone in the struggle. That knowledge was critical to being able to produce my own education.

When I had difficult technical questions, I usually held them and explored the answer as wide and deep as I could, knowing I had backup. I often found the answer I needed because I didn’t panic. This allowed me to be an active participant in my education.

Sean Michael Morris goes on to say:

We have not coded for the human in education, and so, unless we know how to seek it out past digital platforms, algorithms, and surveillance tools, the human is largely left out of online learning.

Without human connection in difficult technical classes, students will have no safety net. Without the safety net discussion forums will flood with questions from students who feel powerless to explore the material on their own. This will make the discussion forums less effective overall as questions are lost in the mad dash for human connection.

Without human connection, students of highly technical classes will flounder and online learning will flounder at training students for the most lucrative jobs.

References:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/elearning/lecture/JfSuO/society-or-school-what-determines-educational-outcomes

https://www.seanmichaelmorris.com/technology-is-not-pedagogy/