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Friday, March 29, 2024

Although UF Online is only four weeks into its first semester, on-campus students are beginning to take notice of the program’s effects on their courses.

Elizabeth Phillips, the executive director of UF Online, wrote in an email that the program has 596 students. UF Online is the new, fully online four-year baccalaureate program.

“Enrollment in UF Online was very strong for its first semester,” Phillips said. “Applications are also strong for Summer and Fall.”

She is working on what degrees will be added to the program for Fall, but she said some majors like psychology are certain additions.

The program is going as planned, but some feel it has blurred the lines between on- and off-campus students in UF’s Warrington College of Business Administration.

Students like Sean Treiser, a 19-year-old UF economics sophomore, are upset that their courses have transitioned to totally online platforms even though they’re traditional students.

Treiser said two of his courses are completely online with the exception of live tests, but there are many courses that don’t have live testing, either.

“Students on campus taking the course might as well be in Africa,” he said.

Horace Tucker, associate director of the Heavener School of Business, said it’s likely a misunderstanding that’s causing the unrest.

Tucker said the business college operated with online classes long before UF Online began — but there are two key differences.

One, he said, is that the Florida bill creating UF Online states courses shared between the program and on-campus students can no longer have “live sections.” The college has redubbed them “live lectures” and made the time and location available to students. Space is limited, but it was for live sections, too.

“If they construct their schedules carefully, they can still go to class,” Tucker said.

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The other change is that professors’ academic freedoms now extend to how much content they want to put online. Before, professors were limited on how many assignments they could put online for on-campus students. He said the professors now have control over whether they want all of their quizzes and tests online or if they want to host live lectures.

Although UF Online has given the college more students, Tucker said, no new faculty have been hired. There aren’t enough professors to split courses for UF Online and traditional students.

Some on-campus students are also upset about ProctorU becoming a part of their online classes.

ProctorU is an online proctoring solution for tests. A company employee observes students via webcam while they take their exams.

Although the cost of ProctorU is covered by the university for online students, on-campus students have to pay the difference, which changes for each class.

Amanda Jackson, a 21-year-old UF telecommunications junior, has already taken two exams through ProctorU.

Jackson held up her webcam and turned it in a circle for the proctor to check her room for textbooks or notes. She also had to show the proctor two types of photo identification and hold up a mirror so he could see her laptop screen.

“I didn’t like having to go through all that,” she said.

Tucker said it’s also a professor’s decision to use ProctorU or have live tests. He said online proctoring is similar to proctoring in a classroom.

“When you’re on campus taking an exam there are eyes on you all the time,” he said. “With ProctorU, it’s just through a webcam.”

Tawnya Means, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Warrington, said that the business college’s fluid course structure is due to its transition from Sakai to the new online platform Canvas.

Means said all 22 courses for the college’s online bachelor’s degree will be transferred to Canvas by Spring 2015.

“It’s a little bit of a bumpy road while we transition,” she said. “But in the end, life will be better for everyone.”

[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/29/2014 under the headline "Traditional students feeling effects of UF Online"]

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