Mass communications graduate student Wen Weng
Dr. Teresa Taylor, assistant mass communications professor
Virtual class becomes reality for JSU students BY DOMINIQUE MOORE Last fall, Jermaine Patrick took a graduate course at Jackson State University called “Race, Gender and Media,” but rarely saw his teacher and fellow classmates in person. His class met only online. “I am able to meet with the professor if needed,” says Patrick, a mass communications graduate student. “We have class online and I can email questions to the professor.” Under a pilot program, the Jackson State mass communications class has joined a national trend at colleges and universities where students are allowed to attend classes in a virtual setting. The virtual classes differ from earlier online classes because instead of just receiving and sending assignments from teachers via computers, virtual classes actually meet during a designated time, and students interact in real time with each other. In addition to exploring group and individual learning activities, the virtual class also allows students to take quizzes and participate in surveys. Dr. Teresa Taylor, assistant mass communications professor, says the virtual setup allows her to teach her students just as if they are in a physical classroom by using a computer, telephone and sometimes a webcam. Taylor says she decided to explore the use of a virtual class after noticing that Patrick and many of her other mass communications graduate students were non-traditional and struggled to attend her 1 p.m. Wednesday class. Wen Weng, a mass communications graduate student from Zhejiang, China, said she enjoyed Taylor’s online class because it was convenient. “I’m an international student and I don’t have a car,” Weng said. “Being online meant I didn’t have to struggle or rush to get there. Also, sometimes when she (Taylor) was talking to the class and I didn’t under-
standing something, I was able to look up the information online since I was at the computer. It was good for me.” Although Jackson State has had the ability to offer virtual classes for several years, there was never enough interest to pursue it, Taylor says. But with students facing greater challenges in attending classes, Dr. William McHenry, executive director of the Mississippi e-Center @ JSU, says it was only a matter of time before virtual classrooms became a reality for Jackson State students. “It’s becoming more popular than ever because of challenges that students face on and off campus in attending class,” McHenry says. The pilot program was made possible through a National Science Foundation grant designed to enhance distance and classroom learning. “Ten virtual rooms were purchased,” McHenry says. “The only thing that Jackson State had to do in order to utilize this technology was to renew the WebCT license.” According to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, Jackson State has the highest number of distance learning online courses among historically black college and universities in the state. Academic instructional technology specialist Emily A. Miller-Bishop, says Jackson State also is the only HBCU in Mississippi to team up with Apple iTunes – an online music, video and podcasting service – to offer some of its public and private podcasts online. With the use of technology growing every day, McHenry says he’s anticipating Jackson State’s online offerings to grow as well. “It’s going to be big! In two respects…one, this program will reach more of our students, and two, the nature and type of students will be more broad,” he says. “Everyone is using technology today in their everyday lives.”