A New Way of Teaching

I’ve been teaching at Regis University since the early 90s, with all of my courses being classroom based. I love this environment and the ability to interact with the students, getting to know them and their educational goals so that I can contribute to their growth. Recently, I was recruited to teach in the online environment and participate in our distance learning offerings. 

All instructors are introduced to the system through an intensive, two week course in conducting and constructing your courses online. I’ve just finished week one, which sharply curtailed the amount of writing I have been able to do on my blog, and my attitudes toward the process are slowly shifting toward the favorable.  Having taken some online classes in the past, I found that they gave the student too much of an invitation to procrastinate until the last minute thinking that the anonymity of the online world shielded their study habits. What I’ve discovered is that keeping student’s involved is more a product of course design than the environment itself. It will be interesting to see how this works out at the end of next week.