Don’t love the idea of getting up early for a morning class? You might not have to any longer.
You can take classes from home instead, through the webOption, a program that posts lectures online. Offered through UTSC, and open to all U of T students, webOption lets participants follow lectures from home, only going to campus for midterms, final exams, and tutorials.
“The hope was to enhance traditional lectures by giving students more flexibility,” said Steve Joordens, a psychology professor who’s in charge of the program.
UTSC launched webOption in 2004 to accommodate the double cohort of undergraduate students after OAC was eliminated. John Bassili, chair of the psychology department, recorded lectures and posted them online for students who couldn’t fit in the lecture halls.
This year, webOption offers more than 25 online courses, from management to biology. Although most are in science and math, Joordens hopes to expand the program to other disciplines.
Students said they chose webOption for various reasons: convenience, safety after night classes, accessibility issues, less distractions, and not waiting to take a class. Tapes and slideshows are posted a few hours after the class, while night course lectures are posted the next morning.
All recordings are archived and some are re-used from fall and winter sessions to provide a summer option. Students can meet with the professors during office hours and email questions.
Students sign up on ROSI for lecture period LEC60, indicating a webOption course. They can later choose to transfer between the online and in-class lectures.
“The videos are rather low-quality, but it’s the sound that matters,” said Joordens. Occasional glitches include interference from wireless microphones or problems with the tapes. Sometimes whole lectures must be re-given in a spare room.
Joordens acknowledged that this option doesn’t work for all students and professors, and that in-class interaction can be vital to certain courses. Some students, however, don’t need the classroom to have discussions.
“There were times that my family and I would learn about some very interesting issues that would lead us to a topic of discussion over dinner,” said Eleni Kanavas, a student who used webOption for introductory psychology.
Earlier this year, Joordens and Bassili published a research paper in the Journal of Distance Education, which found no significant difference between online and in-class students.
The program costs about $25,000 per year to run. “The goal is student satisfaction, not making money,” said Joordens. “[It’s an] economic way of doing something tangible.”
He added that the program is considering podcasts, and may develop a separate office with full-time staff.
This October, U of T president David Naylor’s controversial Towards 2030 framework document was approved by Governing Council. The plan included methods to deal with increasing numbers of undergraduates, including capping and reducing admissions. Online classes could be one way to address these problems, but lack of campus resources remains an issue: many have complained about webOption students filling UTSC computer labs.
