Today's the end of the first week of the Winter Quarter 2003. I'm very happy that I was able to help "one student" meet a special need. That's one of the greatest joys of being a professor. I get to reach out and see the world that I touch.
One of the classes that I'm teaching this Quarter is a course called Accounting 373. It's the second course at CSUSB in the three-course Intermediate Accounting sequence. The class that I'm teaching is a "live" section.
A young lady called me and asked if I would be willing to work with her so that she could take A373 as an independent study course. She's had some problems that make it difficult for her to attend "live" classes on campus. She's very close to graduating. But, without A373 (and other classes) graduation won't happen.
Independent study arrangements create tons of paperwork and administration. As an alternative, I suggested that she enroll in my A373 "live" class section, but attend the class "online."
I introduced her to "Groove" and showed her how the distance-learning process can work. She accepted my offer and we're off and running.
I asked one of the best students in the "live" class to join the young lady's Groove workspace and to participate as a "study buddy" for the online student. He accepted. Workspace participants now include the young lady, another student, and me.
The young lady will meet the same requirements as students in the "live" section. She will take the same exams, and meet the same deadlines.
My challenge is to turn lectures and class discussions into a format that streams from my website, so that the young lady can enjoy and benefit from the interaction that takes place in my "live" class.
I'm already working on ways to do this. Here's one way to reach this goal:
- Create a "mindmap" diagram to illustrate the topic being discussed. The mindmap diagram can be printed so that the young lady has the picture in front of her.
- Use the "notes" feature within the mindmap diagram to provide detailed discussion notes to each chapter topic.
- Create "limbs" in the mindmap that link to support html pages .
- Hyperlink from "limbs" to audio/video streaming materials that will explain important points in the discussion.
Groove enables me to work one-on-one with my students. For me, this is the essence of what Ray Ozzie envisions as being collaborative. We will communicate. We'll meet the student's learning objectives. We'll get the job done.
In future "blog" comments, I'll share more about how this process has worked.
Best wishes,
Rick Lillie
Email: rlillie@csusb.edu
9:37:11 PM 
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