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Despite Blizzard Profs at Marshall University Continue Classes via Wimba

MU professors teaching live online

To read the original article in The Huntington Dispatch, click here

by Bill Rosenberger


HUNTINGTON—Two weeks ago, when ice and snow pummeled the Tri-State, some who lived on hills were unable to get to work.

One of those was Marty Laubach, a sociology professor at Marshall University. But that didn’t stop him from holding class—from his home.

Laubach is one of three Marshall professors using Wimba Classroom for Higher Education, a live, virtual classroom environment that features audio, video, application sharing and content display. It is designed to allow educators and students to engage as if they are face to face.

“I couldn’t make it here, so I had a grad student set it up, and I came in from my office in my home,” Laubach said.

He is using Wimba for three classes, including two Intro to Sociology courses that have about 56 students each. That day, he said, more than half logged in through Wimba as well.

Though Laubach has held prior classes through Wimba with a laptop on a cart and a stationary camera that followed him, there are a few classrooms on campus equipped specifically for a Wimba trial run. In Smith Hall 531, for instance, there are two cameras and a microphone mounted on the ceiling.

But the classroom works for another reason. While it’s a large room, there aren’t enough desks for 56 students. When it is full, there is only room for about 40 students. It provides the perfect example for the space a Wimba course can save.

That’s why Marshall President Stephen Kopp mentioned it at the Feb. 18 Board of Governors meeting. He said based on increased applications and admissions, there could be record freshmen enrollment this fall, making physical classroom space a premium.

He offered three solutions: Saturday classes, a summer academy to allow freshmen to start early and programs like Wimba.

Laubach and Tracy Christofero, who teaches graduate classes at the South Charleston campus, said the technology part isn’t too difficult to get used to. It’s remembering you have an audience that’s not right in front of you that can present challenges.

“I have one class of 30 students, and the past couple of weeks, one has been coming and 29 are online,” Christofero said. “With one or two, I end up staring at them.

“It does take time to get used to,” she added. “I have taught from home, and the only beings there are my dogs.”

For her, though, it has meant retaining students who have moved away or switched jobs. She currently has two students in Arizona, one in South Carolina and Massachusetts and the rest are scattered around West Virginia.

Both professors said they constantly check with students who come to class and those who log in to see if they are comfortable with the setup. They said they are getting positive responses.

In one of Laubach’s recent sociology classes, about 30 students came to the classroom, and about 20 logged in from elsewhere. That day, the class watched a movie, and for those online, they could carry on a live discussion about the film.

“The dialogue is rather effective,” typed Nathan Crescenzi. “It helps the exchange of ideas between us while, at the same time, the video gives us more to discuss.”

Students in the class—many of whom said they had logged in through Wimba at some point this semester—also offered strong feedback. One of them, Michael Booth, said he likes the ability to log in to the archived video to review class content.

Laubach said as part of the pilot program, he is studying the grades of students who primarily attend class using Wimba versus those who physically show up.

“People on Wimba are less likely to take the midterm,” he said. “But of those who do, there’s no difference in grades.”

Laubach said administration and faculty need to prepare now for the possibility of needing Wimba this fall. That means organizing the technology, allowing professors time to set up their syllabi and providing time to try it out.

“If they are serious about this, there is a lot of set up and there are some faculty who are not ready for this kind of thing,” he said. “But once you get into it, it very quickly becomes part of the class.”