Talking Less but Saying More

After years of teaching in person at a large public university in Virginia, I decided to move my undergraduate U.S. history courses for that school online.I did so for one reason: the online format allows me to off er a better history class.Online courses are popular among students and represent a growing market for cash-strapped universities. 1It seems unlikely that online courses will go the way of the Betamax videocassette recorder anytime soon, so it behooves faculty to learn something about the online environment rather than rejecting it out of hand, as they often do.A few years ago my university held a technology fair to encourage faculty to incorporate new technologies into their courses, and the organizers asked me to demonstrate how a history class could be taught online.I was not the fair's star attraction; most of those attending nodded politely at my demonstration before moving on to the display of voice recognition software at the next table.Th e few who did pause were more interested in telling me why online versions of courses are inherently inferior to what they did in their classrooms.I would have been more understanding had these professors been familiar with what an online class involves, but they admitted they were not-they simply hated the idea.Th e online format is not suitable for every history course, nor for every history student or history professor.At their best, traditional face-to-face classes off er a unique and memorable learning experience.After teaching U.S. history online for fi ve years, however, I have found that the online environment, when organized and executed well, off ers merely a diff erent teaching and learning experience, not an inferior one.In some ways, in fact, the online experience may be superior because history is a subject well suited for presentation in an online environment. How I Gave Up the Podium and Became a Virtual PresenceI like teaching, I like students, and, judging by my teaching awards and student evaluations, I appear to be reasonably good at it.So it was not unease with the traditional

Class (philosophy · Face (sociological concept · Mathematics education · Multimedia · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Psychology

• Flight of the Dodos

  Open Access•Ryan M Irwin, Ryan Irwin et al.•Journal of American History•2024

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