PULLMAN – Students considering the new WSU Winter Session have an early ally: the professor.
In a series of videos, the faculty member for each of the five online courses gives prospective students a personal introduction to the class.
“We wanted to give students a feel for the course and the instructor,” said David Cillay, associate dean of the Center for Distance and Professional Education, which includes WSU Online.
Winter Session allows Pullman campus students to take one online three-credit course between Dec. 18 and Jan. 7.
The faculty members are Roger Chan (General Education 110), Nancy McKee (Anthropology/Women’s Studies 316), Robert Rosenman (Economics 102), Clif Stratton (General Education 111), and Richard Taflinger (Communications 101).
The videos are posted alongside the course descriptions. Faculty members describe their backgrounds, course materials and syllabi, and offer strategies for success.
Chan, for example, notes that the accelerated schedule means students will do about a week of work each day.
“Consider this a 100-yard dash, not a marathon,” he advises students.
Taflinger provides links to lecture outlines and study tips – “a distillation of years of answering students’ questions on ‘What do I do?’”
McKee tells students that slow and steady won’t win this race.
“Here it’s going to be fast and steady,” she says. But help will be close at hand: “Call me on my cell phone,” she says. “If you have a problem, give me a call and we can fix it.”
For more information on Winter Session, go to http://winter.wsu.edu.