Righting the Wrongs: Mistakes Made in the Virtual Classroom

When teaching an electrical engineering technology course in the virtual classroom, instructional challenges are magnified in both course development and course delivery. Among these challenges are learning course management software, maximizing student motivation, enabling group learning and communication, and ensuring clarity of instructional materials and assignments. Although difficulties with many of the issues were anticipated during initial course development, experiencing them first-hand enabled us to identify their resolutions. Technology is developing at a rapid pace. In order to keep up with all the challenges these developments impose, it is essential that educators not only learn from their own mistakes, but that they share those experiences with colleagues and together advance the field of teaching. We will address problems encountered by both instructors and students and discuss how we improved our course delivery for subsequent semesters.