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News: Teaching with technology: How Roane State faculty use tech to enhance student learning

Dr. Teri Gergen

Feb. 21, 2017

By Bob Fowler
Roane State staff writer

Roane State has long been a leader in using technology to enhance instruction. The following are three stories of how faculty use technology to enhance student learning.

Tech ‘great way to teach and learn,’ OTA director says

Class is in session when Dr. Teri Gergen, director of Roane State’s Occupational Therapy Assistant program, puts a “do not disturb” sign on her office door, sits in front of her computer monitors and slips on her headphones.

Through high-tech innovation and “the cloud,” the 27 students in her second-year class – all in different locations - can interact with her and each other, even drawing images on a virtual “white board” to illustrate concepts in an OTA lesson.

She can also share presentations, video clips, and her iPad screen which might display the electronic text or relevant apps.

Students, wearing headphones and in front of computers in a variety of locations, can chime in to ask questions. There’s a chat room for comments, and students can be divided into small groups for interaction with the teacher.

Gergen, director of the OTA program since 2008, is one of Roane State’s most adept online instructors and teaches all of her courses online. “It’s a great way to teach and learn,” she said.

When she first started teaching, “students met face-to-face with the instructor, and technology was minimal.”

That changed in 2011 when Cleveland State Community College proposed an alliance with Roane State and Chattanooga State to offer classes via distance technology.

The OTA program wanted to be a part of that, Gergen said, because the other community colleges wanted to offer OTA, and it’s “very costly to start a new program.”

Now, first-year OTA students sit in a classroom on the first floor of the Goff Building on Roane State’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus, while Gergen teaches both them and students in Chattanooga from her office.

“The Roane State OTA faculty recognized a unique opportunity to expand their accredited program to underserved geographic regions of Southeast Tennessee,” she said.

The first distance cohort enrolled in 2013. Online and hybrid courses are coupled with face-to-face labs. “A combination of technologies are used to support the development of strong learning communities and ensure that all students have the same learning experience regardless of where they live,” Gergen said.

Technology Tuesday

Elizabeth A. Weaver, now in her second year as an assistant professor of mathematics at Roane State, says she’s “never met a technology need that has not been solved” at the college.

Weaver teaches math for elementary teachers, statistics, pre-calculus and calculus, all mainly at the Oak Ridge Campus.

From apps to iPads, from calculators to interactive slideshows that can include quizzes, Weaver often employs a variety of technological tools in her lessons.

For statistics, students use TI-84 calculators for calculations and simulations. She uses an app called Explain Everything on her iPad to project her notes onto a classroom TV and to answer homework questions via e-mail.

Students also have access to iPads for their lessons on what Weaver calls “Technology Tuesday.”

Weaver said she can project onto iPad screens the day’s lessons and multiple choice quizzes for students to take using Nearpod, an “interactive presentation and assessment tool.”

“My main philosophy on using technology in the classroom is that it needs to benefit the learning environment,” Weaver said. “I try to avoid using technology simply to say I’m using technology. You don’t always need technology,” she said, “sometimes you can have notes on paper. I just have them take notes and work examples using pencil and paper.”

Creating video lessons

Associate Professor Gary Heidinger, who has taught at Roane State since 1972 – the college’s second year of existence – has no qualms about calling himself a “tech dinosaur.”

“I’m kind of old tech,” he admits, saying he prefers face-to-face interaction with students. Still, he says, in the rapid-fire pace of today’s world, “these online classes fit the bill.”

Heidinger, who teaches sociology, says his inspiration for online video lessons came from the late John Thomas, who taught U.S. History at Roane State. “He had created some video lessons that he incorporated into a web-based course.”

Heidinger said that with help he created an online introduction to sociology class with more than 70 video lessons, ranging in length from 10 to 17 minutes, that are arranged to follow the curriculum. The college’s Center for Teaching Arts and Technology assists faculty with their technology needs.

After students log in on the Roane State webpage and click on the course – SOCI1010 – they have access to the course syllabus, and a trio of study guides and review guides. “Everything associated with the course comes up.” There’s also an orientation tape, he said, “which I hope most students will watch.”

His students can take the online course from any location with a computer, but they are required to take exams in a Roane State testing center.

“By and large, I think it’s been pretty successful,” he said of online learning. One caveat, he said: It’s largely up to students to be self-motivated in online classes and keep up with the course load.

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