I teach in our Legal Assistant Studies program which is housed in VSU's Political Science Department. We have been moving our program from strictly face to face to online. I enjoy the flexibility and challenge of being able to teach online. I have taken online courses myself when I completed my LL.M. in Elder Law. It is great to be able to conduct classes from home or on vacation!
Outside of the eMajor delivery system, I try not to do anything differently. I encourage open discussions in my face to face courses and have translated that into my onine dicussion boards. I am very interactive with the students in my online courses so that they get the same feedback as my face to face students. I am very active on my discussion boards so the students can get feedback. But in the online environment you do need to be more careful in your communications as emails/postings can be interpreted in more than one way.
In the past to change things up I have taken away exams and use alternative assessments. I give real world based projects that students can expect to get in a law office. Our clients have been Kermitt Frogg and Under Dog.
An interesting event that happened on a trip was at the Special Needs and Trusts Conference in St. Pete Beach in October. This is conference that is hosted by Stetson College of Law where I got my LL.M. in Elder Law. I ran into my Ethics professor and she asked me to help critique her Moot Court students who were about to go to competition. Moot Court is appellate brief writing and oral arguments. It was fun to watch and reminded me of my law school days...and how I sometimes miss the courtroom.
Funny job story (aka things we do for money): When I was in high school I worked at a grocery store called Hy-Vee. The Nabisco representative couldn't come every week so he "hired" me to help him make sure his stock was full on the shelves the weeks he wasn't there. But, then one day he wanted to do a promotion that involved handing out cookies...and I had to dress in a Ernie the Keebler Elf costume...and I am a short woman...I stand about 5 foot 1. My co-workers called me Keebler for 6 months after that. I still won't eat those darn cookies.
*eMajor students have access to great faculty like Kendra Hollern who teach great classes and as you can tell from her story is not afraid to go above and beyond for her students. Take a look at eMajor to learn more.
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