Welcome to the Adventures of an Online Instructor!

I am currently a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts teaching English, English as a Second language, writing, and business communication for over 15 years before I decided to begin teaching online for the university. I love teaching on campus, hybrid, and online courses. Teaching face-2-face and online courses is fun and challenging at the same time. So it is wonderful to have the opportunity to experience both worlds.

Wanting to teach online and actually teaching courses via the internet takes a lot of preparation and training. For one thing, I had to learn how to use blackboard, a learning management system that would host my courses. I also had to learn how to design online courses, which is quite different from designing for face-to-face courses. So far I have been teaching online for 6 years and it has been quite the adventure as the endeavor has been both enriching and educational, to say the least.

What I did not account for when I decided to teach exclusively online was not being able to see and talk to my colleagues anymore; at least not in a way that I use to. There is no sticking your head into someone’s office to say hi and ask for feedback on a lesson plan. Or run into somebody in the hallway and have a wonderful impromptu conversation about what is going on in the classroom. So I decided to start this blog and share my adventures of online teaching and what I discover along the way. Thanks for visiting!

Katherine