Online classrooms require time, dedication

BY HOLLY RODRIGUEZ
Media and Public Relations Officer

Online courses offered through the School of Continuing Studies are a convenient option for busy students. Most professors teaching the classes find the experience rewarding but agree that success hinges on a clear understanding of the difference between the physical classroom and the Web.

“If you think you’re going to take a face-to-face class and just put it online, it’s not going to work very well,” says Bill Roberts, adjunct assistant professor for liberal arts.

Students must be self-motivated and disciplined, he adds.

Heightened caution with online communication and a significantly longer time commitment are two major adjustments students and professors must make for a class on the Web. Extra care must be taken to make sure all communication between students and professors is clear and there is minimal room for misinterpretation, Roberts says.
 
Many instructors check their online classroom daily to field student questions, post assignments and contribute to the students’ virtual discussions. Offline, planning for each class “meeting” is more time-consuming than in a traditional classroom because everything must be written down. 

“Any disadvantages to being online are outweighed by the benefits,” says Elisabeth Wray, adjunct professor of history and humanities and coordinator of the SCS liberal arts program.

The online classroom extends an education to students who physically would not be able to come to campus, whether limited by geography or time. Students access their instructor’s “blackboard”—an online interface—by logging on with a username and password through UR’s Web site. Instructors post assignments, and students log on at times that best fit their schedules. Students complete the assignment, post comments, and reply to questions and comments from other students.

Wray says she really loved teaching in a traditional classroom, but she knew online courses filled a real need for SCS students. She taught her first class on the Web last year. “I realized people were working at 11 at night and at two in the morning, and in fact, I was doing it too,” she says.

Online courses at Richmond range from hybrids—classes taught partly online and partly in a traditional classroom—to entire online degree programs. Walter Green, associate professor of emergency management and emergency services management program chair, says he’s accustomed to spending long hours online for his courses.
 
“If I was giving a two and a half hour lecture course, I’d be done in two and a half hours,” he says. “To do the same interaction with students online takes about 15–20 hours.”

Some courses are perfect matches for the Web because they are already computer-driven. John Alley, an adjunct professor, teaches Adobe Photoshop online for photographers.

“You do have to work around the one-on-one help with students—that’s something that I enjoy, and I had to figure out a replacement for that as well as the lecture part of it,” he says.

Catherine Herweyer, an adjunct assistant professor who teaches art appreciation and literature, agrees. “Part of the experience is talking and generating ideas about what they’ve read,” she says.

Whether part of a course or an entire degree program, students and professors have embraced the online classroom at Richmond. Wray says she is keeping an eye on student demand and is adding more.