Every summer Yeshiva University’s Summer Program offers a variety of undergraduate co-educational courses on both their midtown and upper Manhattan campuses. This year, through YU Global, students were presented with a third option- to take an online course. Ten distinct online courses were offered throughout the summer, three of which were offered during both the first and second sessions in response to popular demand. While 300 students partook in the traditional summer courses, approximately 350 students took advantage of the online summer classes.
Dr. Akiva Covitz, YU Global professor and executive director of strategy, outlined the objectives of the online summer school to The Observer. The YU Global team recognizes that while the dual curriculum is one of YU’s most unique features, it also requires students to spend a majority of their time in the classroom. Consequently, taking summer courses is a valuable investment that leaves students with more free time to devote to extracurricular activities, allowing for a more complete college experience. Through the online classes, students can achieve this goal without sacrificing their ability to work, intern, or spend the summer in a more relaxed home setting. He also explained that like all new YU initiatives, one major goal of the program is to help create an appropriate revenue structure for the University. But he was clear that the goals of the program were not only pragmatic.
Nearly all of the online summer school participants were Yeshiva University undergraduate students who took advantage of the courses from various locations such as Florida, New York, Michigan, Texas, and Israel. Makena Owens (SCW 2016) appreciated the flexibility of her YU Global “Literature and Culture of the Roaring Twenties” course, which she took from her home city of Seattle, Washington. She praised the organized nature of the course and the way her course instructor, Professor Miller, electronically conveyed his passion for the subject. However, if possible, Owens would avoid taking online courses in the future. Though an important component of the course was an online blog for class discussions, she missed the natural flow of ideas where one can develop a real understanding for the personalities and opinions of his or her peers that a traditional classroom offers. She also found that the online class required more self-motivation than a traditional course. Every Thursday she had the option to videoconference her professor, and though she usually takes advantage of office hours, she failed to do so this summer.
David Rubinstein (YC 2018), who took this summer’s most popular online course, “Courts and Social Change” taught by Professor Covitz, expressed strong interest in taking online summer courses in the future. Though he found the video lectures of the course to be less engaging than traditional classroom lectures, he noted the advantage of having a record of his professor exact words. He also believes that the permanent nature of video lectures which one can easily re–watch, transmit passion more powerfully than traditional frontal lecturing. Yet, Rubinstein discovered that he “missed the three minutes before and after class when one can connect to his or her professor in a personal manner.”
Perhaps the variation of experiences with YU Global’s Summer School can be partially attributed to the different way each course was structured. With one exception, the courses, whose subject matters ranged from Accounting and Economics to History, Psychology and Literature, where all taught by Yeshiva University professors. Prior to the summer, YU Global spent months training these professors, equipping them with the tools necessary for online learning. However, in the spirit of academic freedom, instructors were able to choose which electronic tools to implement in their online classrooms.
All the courses were comprised of video lectures and some sort of discussion blog, but some also included live sessions. Professor Covitz held a live session four times per week and required his students to participate in one of the four sessions. On average about twelve students tuned in each evening allowing for a more intimate discussion than the one that occurs in a standard brick and mortar classroom. These sessions, powered through the Adobe Connect Services, had a text, audio, and video option, allowing students to discuss ideas in whatever manner they were most comfortable with. Professor Covitz said that he “looked forward to the live sessions each day.” He spaced these live sessions throughout the day, from early morning until late at night, so that students from all different time zones and work schedules could participate. He believes that this personal interaction with his students is crucial, especially since many will ask him for letters of recommendation in the future.
When asked if YU Global plans to offer online undergraduate courses during the academic year, Covitz responded that those decisions are for others, including the provost, deans, and faculty committees to make. He explained that the strength of the Yeshiva University undergraduate program is sitting in a classroom and building relationships through the process of grappling with new ideas. Since intensive five-week summer courses are less conducive to forging such relationships, less is lost through offering online summer courses. “However, it is extremely important to YU Global that it doesn’t negatively impact the face-to-face interactions of the YU community,” Covitz added.
YU Global is currently studying surveys completed by students who participated in the online summer school. The results were overwhelmingly positive. Though changes to next year’s online summer courses will based on the survey results, the results will affect far more than just YU Global’s Summer School.” Surveys reveal much about how students learn best,” Covitz explained. These surveys will help YU take its next steps as it works on a variety of other initiatives, including blended learning in some classrooms. Furthermore, they will provide feedback about which technologies students find most effective, important knowledge for even the traditional classroom setting. YU Global hopes that the knowledge and experience gained from the summer school will ultimately help it empower all Yeshiva University classrooms.