Normalizing an Off-Campus Course with Video-Conferencing

Off-campus credit courses requiring substantial travel on the part of the instructor are often presented as a series of intense workshops (e.g., 36 hours presented as four 2-day workshops). Although this traditional off-campus course presentation mechanism keeps both travel costs and time manageable, such an approach does not appear to be ideal for either the students or the instructional process. More specifically, instruction provided in such a lumpy context is not an ideal way to provide students with sufficient opportunities to process new information and procedures or assimilate or accommodate new concepts and ideas (Bruner, 1966), nor does it provide students with opportunities to attempt to apply the ideas presented or to reflect on their experiences before a new topic is presented or addressed. Additionally, such a course format limits the opportunities that the students have to interact individually with the instructor (i.e., office hours) and limits the opportunities that the instructor has to reflect and act upon formative assessments to better meet the needs of the students.