Thought Leaders in Online Education: Berkeley College Dean of Online Learning Joseph Scuralli (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What is that customized IT environment?

Joseph Scuralli: We have a lot of systems that were developed to work together to cater to online. Many institutions host their own learning management systems. We used to do that. We learned that it was more reliable to be in the cloud.

We moved to Canvas and use the Canvas LMS. We also have many other aspects of the online student experience available online. For example, our library is available online. We built an engaged platform which is a platform where everything that the student could possibly need is available. It’s all online in one spot.

For a lot of institutions, online is an afterthought. They offer online courses sporadically. They think of them as an adjunct to their onsite offerings. We look at it as a modality that has to be catered to and has to have resources to suit those students who may never set foot in the classroom. We don’t offer degree programs in non-career oriented majors. 

Sramana Mitra: What have you learned as open problems where you can use technology to do something that you’d like to do, but you’re not finding out there?

Joseph Scuralli: There are simulations out there. We are using simulations such as international business simulation and management simulation. These are similar to games where students go in and are given a set of questions or choices. Depending on how they choose, there’s adaptive learning and the questions change accordingly.

These are relatively good. They are limited in how well those simulations allow for different options and scenarios. There’s a big opportunity to improve the adaptive learning availability to make them more realistic. Perhaps with live animated artificial persons.

They have to get a little bit more advanced rather than offering certain choices that one looks at a screen. They have to become more modernized. Technology should be applied to that. That’s a place where entrepreneurs might want to look.

Sramana Mitra: You’re saying that the general field of business case simulations and how you want online learners to interact with those is a field where you would like to see further advancements.

Joseph Scuralli: That’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: Is there anything else you want to add?

Joseph Scuralli: The other area that I think technology can improve things is the social component for online students. Online students often feel isolated because they are on their own. The issue is that we have a very active student development organization that attempts to engage them.

Unfortunately, there are many students who are doing this work at 11 o’clock at night. They don’t have the ability to participate in certain events which might be held during the day. There has to be a way to engage them more, perhaps with technology. Perhaps there could be different topics they can verbally participate in and make it more realistic.

Even though it’s not instantaneous, most of this type of discussion goes on in a written format. I think that the social context of the isolated online learner could be much better served with technology.

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Berkeley College Dean of Online Learning Joseph Scuralli
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