Dive Brief:
- J. Jeffrey Campbell, director of the L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management School’s Master’s Program at San Diego State University, believes digital courses do not have to be impersonal just because interactions are through a computer.
- For University Business, Campbell writes that one key step is limiting the number of students in a cohort, even though online presents the opportunity for near-unlimited scale.
- His second tip is to offer social opportunities for engagement offline, which forges stronger relationships among students and instructors, leading to more lively discussion during the course.
Dive Insight:
San Diego State University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Master’s program is primarily online. Classes are capped at 24 students, a number Campbell says creates an intimate learning environment that promotes interactivity.
One of the reasons massive open online courses have such low completion rates is arguably the lack of engagement fostered by the early iterations of the format. Now, MOOC providers are doing more to increase opportunities for student-to-student interaction through the platform, building in new engagement tools that are likely to continue improving in the years to come.