Dr. Mark Zieber and joerdis
This conversation is based on an interview done in the Summer of 2018.
Mark was an early adopter of online teaching technology and has since very much enjoyed creating that virtual space where his students can “come out of their shells” and participate in vibrant course discussions. Find out more about his “relaxed” approach to teaching online.
TC: What motivated you to teach online?
I’m an early adopter and everything goes back to the time when I did my Master’s at UBC in the late 1990s. At that time, UBC had developed WebCT, a virtual learning environment, to which I had easy access as a graduate student. I had my own practice course, which was great because I could ‘play’ around with it. I am a bit of a computer nerd, and developing an online course seemed like a lot of fun. Once I was hired as an instructor, I started using it as a teaching tool for my courses as well.
In the beginning, I used the online space just as an add-on to my classes, where I would be posting extra class materials. That’s what could be called a ‘softer’ blended approach and I taught that way for about two years. Then I came to Lethbridge, where the campus worked with the proprietary software Blackboard. Of course, I started using that virtual space as an adjunct for my classes here as well. At some point soon after, I collaboratively developed a course together with an educator from the UK named Paula Proctor examining the use of information within Healthcare. That course was designed with a blended approach and it quickly became very popular with people who were either doing practicums or needed more flexible access for other reasons. Gradually, we started doing less and less face-to-face until we reached a point where there was only one mandatory face-to-face activity at the beginning of a term. Eventually, we cut that out as well after too many students told us their schedules conflicted with the dates we had set for them. Since then I’ve been teaching that course fully online.
TC: Were you the initiating force in your department to create more online courses across the Health Sciences programs?
I was definitely one of the first people in my faculty, but there are a few others that have been influential in shaping the blended/online delivery mode for our programs as well. I’ve always enjoyed it, because I find that if it’s done well, it’s almost magical how I get all or most of my students to contribute in substantial ways. I find it particularly helpful, for instance, when working with ESL students, because it allows those students to really come out of their shell and participate in our discussions despite their lack in oral English proficiency. In our online space, we can have these brilliant conversations because the pacing is more individual and thus, students can take the time they need to draft their contributions.
TC: How do you address the concern some instructors have relating to the difficulty of designing authentic activities