Towards a Human Education: Student and Faculty Experiences in an Online Asynchronous Graduate Program

• In Event: Humanizing Higher Education: Ethics and Institutional Power

Abstract

How do we create more human experiences within the context of online learning? Online learning in U.S. higher education often remains focused on the operationalization of learning, without placing a focus on the humanity of those engaged within this modality. In this work-in-progress paper, I will explore findings from interviews with nine students and three faculty engaged in the same online asynchronous graduate program dedicated to the ideas of Daisaku Ikeda. Using Ikeda’s concepts of human education and value-creating pedagogy as a theoretical framework, I will explore both the experiences and perspectives of the students and faculty, and how their experiences may inform a reimagining of what online learning could be.

Author

• Sarah Greywitt, Kent State University