When Cheryl J. Wachenheim, an associate professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, says she taught her courses last year from a remote location, she means a desert nearly 7,000 miles away from her Fargo campus.
A captain in the Minnesota Army National Guard, Ms. Wachenheim deployed to Balad, Iraq, just north of Baghdad, in August 2008, for a 10-and-a-half-month stay. She continued teaching courses in micro- and macroeconomics online, from a fortified trailer crammed with medical supplies, body armor, the M-16 rifle she was required to carry wherever she went, and a computer.
Online courses have long been a boon for soldiers who want to participate in college despite geographic displacement. It’s usually a student, however, and not the professor, working from the far-flung location.
Using her personal laptop to run the courses, Ms. Wachenheim posted discussion questions and assignments using the Blackboard course-management system, and even video lectures using the audio and video software Wimba.
Distance education at traditional schools ain’t just for the students anymore.
Not like it should have been only for students, but that’s been the most common practice.
Posted via web from David Middleton’s posterous
