The Waiting Room

I've been teaching an online course at a HBCU in Elsewhere. The job was a last minute hire, leaving me very little time to learn the ins and outs of Moodle. Although, I had used Moodle before for training classes and monitored Moodle use while at Tech College, I did not know the mechanics of running a course.  I completed the training in about 30 hours. I bought a Moodle For Dummies book and jumped into the class.

After about two months, I can say that online teaching is not for me. First, I am too much of an extrovert with my teaching style. I like having my students involved in the learning process. I also like being able to look across a classroom of students and see if they are getting it or just a bunch of deer caught in the headlights. It's important for me to connect with my students and I just do feel I can do that online. I do send the class an email at the beginning of the week, reminding them of deadliness and just giving them some words of wisdom. They really appreciate that contact.

 That's not to say that I have not found some value in teaching an online class. I enjoy the discussion forums. My students have some great insight with the topics that i present. I've found them to be willing to present a different point of view, yet respect those views that they don't agree. 
Their interaction is very genuine, not forced. It definitely helps those student who do not feel comfortable speaking up in a fact-to-face class. I think I will use this format in my face-to-face classes, once I find a gig that will let me do that.

I'm glad I have this chance to experience online teaching. It's not my preference, but for now it works.  I am hoping that I will get a full-time teaching gig soon.