Dr. Neil Hair

Its not often that I feel compelled to talk about a class before it's ended (my B2B e-marketing class at grad level last quarter by the way was amongst the best Ive ever had at RIT for instance and there were only 11 of us) - let alone only just started but week 1 of our online Marketing Concepts class needs some initial celebration in my humble opinion. In reverse order of importance: the technology is working well, Macromedia Breeze is an exceptional platform as is MyCourses for my needs as an instructor, I used Breeze meeting for my first live session with students and this worked really well. They were able to see me, converse with me in text based chat (preferred incidentally by the majority of online learning students as this means they can search through it, categorize it and of course drag and drop it into their notes) and hear me (the accent and dead pan sense of humor helps I am told). What has really pleased me though is the take up on discussions and the quality of ensuing debate. So much so that I turned off Englands dismal defeat to Wales on Saturday to tune into the discussion boards instead. Several students have posted lengthy reviews oozing quality on our discussion topics (a clear sign of passion) leaving me as an instructor to feel compelled to regularly check the boards as a result (compelled doesnt really explain it well enough - its really interesting to see what graduate students think about the big issues like - is marketing a philosophy or a discipline? - what do personal ethical and moral orientations place on ones ability to market certain products and so on). Im really excited about class - and hopefully (clearly actually) my students are too. One of the things that I love most about teaching online is this quality of interaction. Im not saying you dont tend to get it in a traditional class room situation, you do - but it's different - and there is only so much you can do in a constrained period of time. Online however, being able to consider fully, research, reflect and review your ideas before posting them seems to make a real difference in quality and hopefully the overall learning experience. Im really enjoying myself.