Dr. Leah Kinniburgh

“The more I learn about teaching online, the more excited I become.”

When Dr. Kinniburgh began teaching her Reading Methods class online, she thought that there was “no way reading can be taught online.” Like many first-time online instructors, she had to figure it all out on her own.  Although she could see how it would be beneficial, it took a while for her to be convinced that her true personality would shine through.  “At first, I didn’t like it because I felt that it was taking ‘me’ out of [the class], but once I got into it, I began to realize that they can still get me.  In fact, they get more of me.” 

How do her students get more of her?  Threaded discussions are, by far, Dr. Kinniburgh’s favorite feature of the e-college platform.  She requires threaded discussion participation from all of her students, but the key to the discussion’s success is that she also requires participation of herself.  She checks the discussion at least twice a day and responds to each student every week.  This encourages thoughtful dialog in which the students learn from each other as well as from her.  Dr. Kinniburgh explains her dedication this way:

“I love teaching.  I’ve been teaching for 31 years.  The teacher is the key.  You have to have passion about it.  If you don’t put your whole heart into it, the students get nothing out of it.  The major complaint that I hear from students in [some] online classes is that they get nothing back.  How many classes do I have where I can have one-on-one discussions with everyone like I do with these threaded discussions?  I work twice as hard on my online classes.  I am so sold on it.”

The next step in fostering dialogue is live chat.  She recognizes that some of her students are not yet fully comfortable with technology and sees live chat as an optional activity to provide her students with an opportunity to get to know her.  As she puts it, “If I can just get on there the first week of class and say, ‘Calm down.  I’m here, and you are going to be fine because I am going to help you.’  It’s going to ease their nerves immediately.”

Dr. Kinniburgh has been in the Leadership in Teacher Education department for three years.