Just How Important is that Instructor, Anyway?

One of the major issues in distance education is the role of the instructor. This can be seen most clearly in distinction between asynchronous and synchronous distance education. In asynchronous mode the student interacts with prepared course materials in an asynchronous fashion which means they fit the course work into their schedule and do it as they feel like it rather than at an appointed time.  There may still be an instructor or even a facilitator available. But the role of the instructor is greatly diminished. In synchronous mode the student must appear at assigned times when the instructor is there and interact with the instructor and class mates. The synchronous mode is largely although not completely an extension of the classroom into cyberspace.

There are four main drawbacks to the synchronous model. First, the student has to appear at an assigned time. Second, the student must proceed at the speed of the class. Third, synchronous education is not scalable which means class sizes are still limited although no longer by the size of the room. They are limited by the number of students that one instructor can attend to. Finally, synchronous mode, like any custom made product is expensive and the products are not reliable. 

One of the main arguments put forth by the advocates of synchronous mode distance education is the importance of the instructor and the role of the instructor in education. Over the next few posts, I am going to take the devil's advocate position and argue against the importance of the instructor. In fact, I am going to argue that the importance of the instructor is largely a myth and that the negative consequences of instructors far out weight the positive ones. This is, as you might imagine, not a popular position to take. But, I believe, it needs to be considered.

Something to Think About

There was a news announcement yesterday that Borders Booksellers had declared bankruptcy. I can remember when they first opened in my area. It was the most impressive bookstore I had even been in. They not only had a vast selection, they had depth. They had books you normally couldn't find elsewhere. The staff was knowledgeable and helpful. The store had ambiance. There was a social aspect to it which was nurtured over the years with coffee shops, string quartets and the like. It was everything an online bookstore was not. In fact, if ever there was an argument in favor of a bricks and mortar bookstore over an online bookstore it was Borders. And yet, they still lost the battle.

It occurred to me that  many of the reasons one would cite for why Borders was superior were the same reasons that people would cite for why  face to face education is superior. There is a social environment. There is ambiance. There is a benefit to being there not the least of which is networking and access to experts. But that didn't save Borders. Will it save bricks and mortar universities?

Some of the older universities have huge endowments that will protect them for a while. I suspect that Harvard for example could survive on its endowment for an extended period of time. So, they probably have little to worry about. But, what about the thousands and thousands of universities that are not Harvard. How will they fare? I don't know. But it is certainly something to think about.