Episode Two: What surprised you about online learning at EKU?
Shirley O’Brien:
I’m Shirley O’Brien and I am the coordinator of our post-professional online doctoral program, and I am so excited to have quite a breadth of really qualified post-professional students here. Did anything surprise you moving into an online world from, you know, traditional face-to-face in class, brick and mortar type of classrooms? Anything surprise you about online teaching and online learning?
Dr. G. Ebony Seay:
My biggest surprise was the fact that the occupational therapy staff and faculty was very supportive. I didn’t see how that could translate online because I was used to brick and mortar and being face to face with professors and other students, so it was a big change because I found that I was not going to online school, not going to internet school. I hated online classes when I did have them when I was getting my masters and I didn’t like it, so I was just surprised and pleasantly surprised with the amount of support and the level of interaction that was facilitated even though it was online. So, even though today is the first time we’ve ever met, we kind of already feel like we know each other because we’ve had that interaction that was provided online, which I didn’t understand how it was going to happen, but it happened.
Dr. Crystal Coffman:
I was really surprised by how connected I felt to my classmates. I know I’ve built some friendships that are going to last my whole lifetime, but even just, you know, walking in and meeting each other we all knew each other and that was really fun. We already kind of knew where each other worked and, you know, if we had kids in the program and those types of things, and I was really surprised at the community.
Dr. Christina Bretz:
I was surprised with, after being out of school for twenty plus years and then going back, I was a little nervous about just the technology and if I was going to understand it and be able to keep up. I knew my own daughters would be able to keep up with it easily, you know, more than myself, but I think that that was something that was so easy to get into and the consistency throughout each of the courses made it easy to navigate, and then just the like everyone was saying just that connectivity and building that community.
Dr. Stedmon Hopkins:
What surprised me was how interactive it all was. Once again, being online you feel like you might be removed from everything, but all the classes were structured in a way to get everybody talking and really make you invested in the material that want to continue going.
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