College Classroom Course “Radiates” Across CIRTL Network
Katherine Friedrich

This semester, distance learning technology has made it possible for future faculty from around the Network to attend a CIRTL course. "The College Classroom Online" course provides students with teaching and learning experience.

The course interweaves the components of successful teaching practice. Students gain experience by giving short presentations in which they learn to communicate ideas effectively to their peers. They also redesign syllabi and develop teaching philosophies which they can use in the future.

Working with 19 students from seven institutions has added diversity to the course, said Sandra Courter, course instructor and Director of the Engineering Learning Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . "There's an added dimension of learning potential."

"It's helped me to branch outside of my field," said Muslimah Ali, a graduate student from Howard University . While Ali said she has already participated in Howard's Preparing Future Faculty Program, she finds this course both challenging and valuable.

The intellectual diversity of the group sometimes produces surprising results. Recently, Anne Axel, a graduate student at Michigan State University , gave a short lecture on an evolutionary concept called "adaptive radiation." When she asked for examples - thinking of Darwin 's finches - her peers suggested CIRTL!

As CIRTL moves into its own "evolutionary niche" on each new campus, it develops new programs to meet the needs of that university. "I thought that was a fantastic example," Axel said. Axel said she thinks of the online aspect of CIRTL as part of this evolution.

Distance learning adds a twist to teaching, Courter said. Time becomes an important concern to instructors planning an online class. "We're trying to cut to the most. key principles," she said.

Courter and her co-instructors, graduate student Erica Siegl and assistant scientist Timothy Stiles, use a combination of technology and face-to-face interaction to deliver the course content. While the lectures take place over the Internet using Microsoft's Live Meeting software, students also participate in online forums and do group work with their peers.

Because the course includes teaching, Courter, Stiles and Siegl have made arrangements for some students to share their work with the class using video conferencing technology. Students also present to their peer groups and give each other feedback, and post their video on the web for peers at other institutions to review.

Sometimes, Courter uses unusual techniques to create learning community across distance. With the assistance of CIRTL staff, she sent mystery packages to each university. During class, each group opened their package. to reveal Bucky Badger pretzels one week and, the next week, caramel corn.    

November 14, 2006

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