Internet homework pricey but helpful, professors say

Freshman Anne Peterson paid $69 for a two-year pass on Quia.com for her French 102 class. She said she will only be using it for three months. Like many students at Hillsdale College, Peterson will be using the online resource for up to an hour a week to complete her coursework in the class.
Visiting Professor of French Jennifer Walter said Quia, an online program for foreign language students, acts as an online workbook, replacing the hefty texts from years past. Prices, however, run high. Walter said old textbooks could range anywhere in price from $20 to $50, current subscriptions to Quia, however, cost $60 to $70.
"It's nice because it gives students instant feedback," Walter said.
She's not the only professor who enjoys using the Internet for feedback on classes. George Angell, professor of theatre, often uses online resources such as BlackBoard to conduct quizzes, tests and have papers submitted. Angell said his major reasons were easy grading, more room for comments on papers and speedier grading.
 "There's a strongly proven correlation between learning and the speed by which things are returned," Angell said. "So if you turn in a test and get it back online; you can't get faster than that."
Quia is, however, not without its flaws. Walter said the first few times her French 101 class used it, they had trouble navigating the site and finding assignments. She said Quia also has trouble recognizing written work.
"Quia can be very picky," Walter said. "If it asks for complete sentences, it has to have complete sentences. If a period is left out, the whole question is wrong."
Which is why, Walter said, professors go online and look over the work. She said if the professors choose, they can approve an answer or allow students to try questions again.
Angell said he also has his students use BlackBoard to keep an online journal to reflect on experiences they have in both the classroom and in the real world. He also uses the site as a forum to promote course documents and other materials he finds pertinent to his students.
Junior Eric Elefson is one of those students. Elefson, who is in Acting III with Angell, said the forums are used to go over themes discussed in class and experienced outside of class. He said the idea of centering, readjusting the perceived center of one's body, is one example of discussion on BlackBoard.
"I talked about where you center yourself changes how you act," Elefson said. "How feelings, attitudes and emotions go along with your center."
Elefson said to get an A in the course a student must write an entry for each class period. Most entries, he said, are a substantially-sized paragraph.
"It's a good tool," Elefson said. "It helps cement ideas into your mind."
And that's what Angell hopes for, saying BlackBoard is most useful as a clearing house of ideas where students will ask each other questions and use BlackBoard as a research tool.
"It seems to me that the computer is an indispensable research tool at this point," Angell said.