The Top-Down, Upside-Down World of Online Education

Abstract:In this era of immediate access to an immense amount of data, asking students to follow a traditional method just will not work. Rather, students need heuristics to examine their sources and then the arguments to which those sources will be applied. We want students to learn to speak with agency about the data gathered and converted into information as well as the steps required to generate real knowledge. The process is profoundly social. Thus, teachers and students must work as co-agents, as genuine collaborators in the classroom to examine the validity and truth of information and to apply the results. In doing so, we as teachers can give students a space for them to challenge and examine data free from the solipsism and relativism that can creep in through algorithms and remote quantity of their general education program and requirements, and English Studies should always play a major role. In essence, what is good for English Studies is good for the whole online institution—and vice versa.