Dr Coker

Dr. Coker is the chair of the Philosophy department and has been teaching online classes since Spring, 2003. Curiosity inititated his online teaching career experince. Curiosity initiated his online teaching career experience as he wanted to see what would happen if the philosophy classes were taught online.

His thoughts on online classes are positive. Diverse student interaction and feedback from the students increases the excitement in the course. There are many students who never participate in classroom discussions because they are shy or just do not like drawing attention to themselves. With online classes, everybody's opinion is important and valid. Email, threaded discussions, and chatrooms are some of the ways he gets interaction from his online students.

When asked about what he wanted to share with other online instructors, Dr. Coker simply said, "the toolbox in eCollege is enormously helpful, use it to get the most out of your course development."

Since Dr. Coker started teaching online, all of the other professors in the Philosophy department have followed his direction. The department has had its highest enrollments during the summer semesters with students from all over the world. Students in his class have to write research papers instead of writing exams. The students have a tremendous amount of research to complete throughout the course which he believes adds more educational value to the online classes.

Dr. Coker is the leader and instigator who has taken teaching of philosophy classes in his department to a whole new level.