No Hidden Curriculum in Online Education

Posted by Pamela Gustafson on March 18th, 2009

In the online platform Moodle, the icon for a discussion forum is two faces looking at each other. It is an interesting icon, as you may never see the faces of your online classmates; unless they post a picture in their profile. You don’t always know a lot about their personalities either, as many participants stick to the topic of the online assignment and don’t add a lot of voice to their writing. Occasionally, a controversial topic arises and then you start to read more passionate responses. The result, participants discover the personality behind of the writer.

A colleague of mine took her entire masters in an online program. She didn’t like the written environment for discussions. She said she missed the non-verbal types of communication, especially facial expressions, which add meaning to the spoken word. I didn’t have the same reaction, but I understand her point. There are a lot of non-verbal cues along with what a person is saying. The cues are helpful to understand the words of another person.

In education we have a concept we call “the hidden curriculum”. These are the things that students learn without direct instruction by the teacher. It is the social and emotional interactions amongst the students themselves. There isn’t as much hidden curriculum in the online environment. Social interactions are few and far between and are limited to an occasional personal email.

At 18 years of age I was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I loved the hidden curriculum, the social interaction of the college environment. Away from the structure of my mother, I had to make my own decisions and take care of my own business. I knew she was there to pick me up if I fell, but I learned a lot through my new independence. During my master’s program I met a woman and we have been friends for 34 years. I haven’t made life long friends in the on line environment. It saddened me when my daughter, chose to live at home and not live on campus to experience the hidden curriculum of college. While it is a lot cheaper for me, I felt she missed out.

The online environment can’t duplicate this hidden curriculum. I suspect as college becomes more expensive in the current recession, more students will stay at home and more will use the online environment. It is today’s reality. This could be a good or bad trend. The good things are that as technology evolves more and more jobs will be at home using the on line environment. Students who have gone to school online will be especially well prepared for these jobs. The bad, no human interaction, no social interaction, no hidden curriculum.

Tags: hidden curriculum social interactions at college

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Classmates in the Online Classroom, Student Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.