0.3 Findings  (Page 17/22)

The major difference for me is that the exams and quizzes are graded automatically by the online management tool, and students get immediate feedback on their performance. One of my weaknesses as a teacher is I procrastinate with my grading. I have spurts of grading during the semester. I try to keep caught up, but with my schedule and my distraction level when it comes to grading, I can be one, two, sometimes three weeks getting work back to them, which I regret sometimes. So with this online tool, they get immediate feedback.

Because the students took the weekly quizzes outside of class, “My class time was all lecture, information, and interaction.” Neal reported that the students reacted favorably to the online quizzes because they could take them any time that fit into their schedules during the week.

Cohesive class

In reflecting on the course at the end of the semester, Neal described the class as different in its nature from other groups he had taught before:

This group was more cohesive than most of my classes. I don’t know if it’s a function of I’m a better teacher now, or of the group itself, or how the class was organized meeting three days a week instead of two, or whether the online materials added to that. I don’t know which had the most influence. I just know that it flowed well, and I got good verbal feedback on my informal evaluations by the students.

Ed, the technically supported adopter

Ed had a long career of about 30 years as a counselor, which were interspersed with years of teaching. Although he had been teaching for 18 years, Ed had never taught the theories course until the summer of 2006, nor had he taught with technology before. The college where Ed taught was in a small town within a large, sparsely populated region, in which there were three other major competitors. Faculty members in

his program were being pushed into online instruction, because, as Ed put it, “Small colleges are in a very competitive mode right now because everybody is fighting for students.”

Attitude toward technology

When the program director had asked Ed the previous semester if he would teach the theories course online, he responded, “Well, I don’t want to, but yes I will IF I can find a good [prepackaged] one.” Ed explained that he had been strongly cautioned against online teaching from colleagues who had tried it.

When online courses first started being put out there, I would say the professors didn’t know what they were doing. They worked their butts off and they found themselves answering student questions 24-7. I mean every person without exemption, told me, ‘Do not do an online course, it’s much more work. You’ll spend all your time on the Internet, on the Web; you’ll never get any rest.’

Discovering online day

Ed had been made aware of some of the difficulties of teaching online, enough to be wary of taking the challenge lightly. But rather than ruling out the possibility, he pursued materials to help him develop an online course that might help prevent some of the problems his colleagues had encountered. After checking on the availability of new resources with a number of other publishers by phone and email, Ed came in contact with the staff at Lahaska Press. When he heard the Online Day course materials described, he said, “Well, let’s give it a shot.”