Reifying Virtual Education

Pamela Holt, Dean of Online Learning, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Earning a doctorate in curriculum, teaching, learning and leadership, P. Pamela Holt, EdD, MET holds an intensive career experience in informational technology, and managed educational initiatives at Aurora Health Care, leading a distance learning program.

How has the education industry evolved over the years, and how do you think Milwaukee Area Technical College is aiding the process?

As an educational institution, we are moving toward an online campus model, which is fairly different from traditional campuses. As the dean of Milwaukee Area Technical College, my responsibility is to improve the student success rate for online learners. For students who have opted for courses that are held completely online, we conduct multiple programs such as success pages, readiness tools, and coaching and advising services.

We are essentially building a virtual community that will provide non-traditional learners with opportunities to engage in events and sports on the social side of the college. We have many students opting for our online campus, from young adults fresh out of school to older adults who either never had the opportunity to study at a college or dropped out for various reasons. They approach us because they feel they need to acquire the skillset or certification required to navigate the modern world, and a virtual learning model helps with the busy schedule of most individuals.

We rely on technology to make the online learning journey easy for our students. Our learning management system includes online proctoring, lecture capture, and video capture. We have specific tools for translating screen readings and a smaller set of tools dedicated to gaming strategies of learning. We start our programs at the pre-college level, enabling the students to work on their GED or diploma equivalent, which is comparatively difficult to be completed online, considering the level of knowledge each student might have.

We offer live orientation and sessions, which is helpful in the shift to virtual learning, as people, in general, are apprehensive of technology. In the first week of college, our team intervenes to ensure the students learn and adapt to technology before exams and assignments are due.

As a team, we intend to include more data-informed decision[1]making and have been collaborating with many data dashboards that show student engagement and interaction between students and faculty on a weekly basis. We also coach our advisors on engagement programs so they can help students when there is a decline in any particular student’s performance.

Before I started out my career in education, I was a DBA, which enabled me to be well-versed in database development and creating reports that help me be informative for students who are moving forward.

How do you perceive the role of technology in the e-learning industry, and what are some of the most pressing challenges facing it?

During the pandemic, e-learning became a popular choice as the world underwent a period of uncertainty. Despite being an industry focused on quality, at that point in time, virtual learning had compromised itself as the students, as well as the instructors, were adapting to the culture.

As the uncertainty has passed, we are now focusing on raising the industry standards. It is critical for students to interact with their peers as well as their instructors to succeed. And that has been our goal as well. We build a personal connection with each of our students by remembering their names and focusing on engagement, as it can be a motivational factor that helps students feel involved and valued. We connect with our students in multiple ways, like by arranging town hall meetings.

" As organizations in the virtual education sector, it is important that we make our students feel a sense of belongingness and feel connected to their college as well as their peers and faculty "

With virtual learning, it is easy to lose sight of the students and the diversity of the student body. This is one of the biggest pain points many EdTech companies face as they try to create relatable and non[1]traditional learning platforms for diverse students whose learning methodologies and ecosystems are varied.

While most students who are straight out of high school might find it easier to memorize and understand certain concepts, some other students might find it effortful to learn those very concepts, making inclusivity in learning a paramount factor. The major factor for technology companies in the educational field must be focusing on having more open forums for students where they can communicate their feedback. They should consider students as their clients, as it is they who ultimately use their technology.

In light of the growing popularity of e-learning, how do you envision the future of the education industry?

The future of the education industry is essentially e-learning. We have almost every technology required for the e-learning industry to flourish. An integrated system for all the different requirements and resources would be one of the advances that can be expected. It is often a tedious process to rely on multiple vendors for all the different requirements, and we believe students shouldn’t have to spend time navigating the complexities of tools and systems that should ideally be helping them study.

Do you have any words of advice for your peers on how to navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving e-learning space?

From education to business, everything is getting automated and detached at a rapid pace, and in between, human connections are somewhere lost. As organizations in the virtual education sector, it is important that we give our students a sense of belongingness and feel connected to the college, peers, and faculty. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before technology takes over humanity, but even the best AIs might fail to replace human feelings, emotions, and attachments. Stay cognizant of the students and value their feelings beyond just adopting technology as a means of teaching.

At Milwaukee Area Technical College, we believe in providing education to as diverse a student base as we can, as we believe excluding any particular group of people would prove to be a great loss to the world in terms of great perspectives and experiences. We have targeted minority groups and focused on building belongingness within them to include minority students as well, who are typically discounted in the world of education.