Overseeing the standards is a faculty-led committee that regularly reviews the courses, the way they are evaluated, and the way students are assessed. Additionally, faculty members receive additional compensation for developing online courses. Student enrollment limits are contractually capped and are comparable to an on campus course. In Illinois, AFT locals at Belleville Area College and Western Illinois University have both negotiated language dealing with materials used in distance learning courses, class size and use of faculty. Said Feldman, For example, it s important to know if there is a knowledgeable teacher on the other end of the phone or at a computer terminal who can promptly answer questions.
Technical support is important as well.
If the software or hardware doesn t operate no school. Added Feldman, We re going to take a close look at some of these programs. Some courses just don t work very well in an online environment, take high school chemistry as an example. K12 claims they can do it with animated beakers and bunsen burners. I m not sure that s the same as mixing the chemicals, lighting the burner, smelling the sulfur and watching the chemical reaction.