“It’s a Jing thing,” says Associate Professor of English Cathryn Smith. Her summer project supported by an online development stipend from the Curriculum Office involved Cathryn recording audio and video files using the program JING PRO. These supplements are helping her students better navigate the online environment. For example, Prof. Smith’s five minute video clip, “Is Online for You,” offers students the opportunity to critically evaluate whether learning in cyberspace matches his or her own life and learning style. While text content has always been available to help students make that determination, Cathryn’s video makes the content more personal. Another video, “Online: Registered and Ready,” helps students who have committed to the online program prepare for this new adventure by taking them through the often overlooked student tutorial. “JING PRO is great!” Smith says, “Students feel like I’m actually there, guiding them through the tutorial and my hope is that they will actually take advantage of a resource they might otherwise skip. It is like I am looking over their shoulder,” she says. As an experienced online instructor, Prof. Smith is always looking for ways to improve the students’ success rate. She says, “anything to keep them better educated about the online environment could bode well for retention. That’s my goal.”
Stuart Blacklaw
Curriculum and Program Development
10/21/2009 |