Dr. Agnes Smith

The Organizational Power of eCollege . . . .

Dr. Agnes Smith of the Department of Leadership and Teacher Education was once a self-described “technophobe.” But Educational Leadership was one of the first departments on campus to go online, seeing a need for online courses because of state departmental changes and encouragement.

Dr. Smith then attended faculty development workshops sponsored by the Online Learning Lab, working specifically with Dr. Jack Dempsey. Now she teaches with both eCollege and eCompanion, even designing two 500 level online courses, School Finance and School Law.

Her advice to faculty members thinking about teaching a full or partially online course would be to develop structure for delivering different topics, because different subjects require different formats for instruction. Also, Dr. Smith said, “Don't limit yourself to that which is familiar. Experiment: don't be shy about trying new things.”

In her online courses, she uses many types of activities, including anything she does in a traditional classroom: small group, whole class, and individual assignments. Some of the eCollege tools she uses are threaded discussions, online chats, and exams, where she combines different delivery systems such as an objective section and another section where the students respond to different situations.

She also uses the chat function, offering alternative assignments for those who cannot make the online chat. In addition, she offers more than one chat per term, so students can schedule one even if they live in different time zones, such as one of her students who lived in Japan.

Dr. Smith said that “the students enjoy the chats, but they move fast.” So she prints out the chats, which allows her to read them and email them to students.

Another positive thing that has come from teaching online courses is more organizational skills. “I believe that eCollege may have helped me to organize more tightly. Now I approach the traditional classroom differently, leaving less to chance.” Overall, she said “online courses help strengthen the delivery in both directions.”

She encourages other faculty to try eCollege or eCompanion because it benefits delivery and it helps students who work.