Archive for May, 2010
Reflections of online teaching: ten years in
On Wednesday Sue Barnes and I presented our separate reflections on what works and does not work in online teaching environments. For me, the session’s preparation gave me reason to reflect on over ten years of online instruction. I’ve learned a lot over that time. Key reflections are as follows; the technology has, and will continue, to get better – I would have killed for online real time closed captioning for live synchronous office hours back in the day for instance. Students continue to be engaged with the materials with more traditional in-class students opting for the flexibility of online delivery. The quality of the online experience is in no way inferior to that of the in-class experience – hence the continued blending of online aspects of traditional courses. Online courses, just as their traditional counterpart, can be just as much fun, engaged, painful, rigorous, demanding, and worthwhile provided students commit to the experience as we hope they do in traditional settings. I also have a number of experiences that my online courses have given me, things that impressed, shocked and disappointed me. Impressed; having people I have never physically met before work with others whom they have never met before, working for clients they have never met before and delivering fully fledged strategic and tactical marketing plans through solid team / client interactions. Shocked; the time I was thanked by a student in a Fall 2001 internet marketing course for setting a research paper that prevented her from going to work on September 11. Disappointment; that I still cannot access mycourses (our key course platform) on my Blackberry Storm, nor can my students watch flash based course lectures on their mobile devices. My overall conclusion regards my online teaching career is extremely positive. I would recommend the format to both students and faculty alike who are looking for that extra experience in their time with one of the worlds most advanced institutes of technology, it is every bit the real deal.
