Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

On Line Classes at New Horizon's Academy (NHA)

One Line Classes at New Horizon’s Academy (NHA)

As most of you already know I teach an E-Class at New Horizon’s Academy, called the One Act Play. It is a very positive and satisfying experience. If you are not aware it is essentially voluntary (GPs don’t really count as compensation in my view) for the instructors and the purpose is to help developing writers at the site to get better. These classes are non-accredited and while some instructors give grades, (again my view), they don’t really count for much. In a nutshell the whole reason a student takes a course is to improve and the whole reason a person teaches one is to put back into the world some of the training, skills and experience they have gathered over a lifetime. It is to make the writing world a better place and foster skills in developing writers that will make them better at the craft.

Many of the Instructors have educational backgrounds, experience and/or commercial success in the areas they teach. As I have become involved in this type of teaching I have noticed a number of things that are different from teaching in a traditional stetting. There are advantages and disadvantages to both and indulge me while I review some that jump out.

Here are some of the Negative differences.

1. The instructors are marginally compensated.

2. Teaching an e-course requires significantly more in advance class preparation. (I will be talking about why I see this as true at NHA)

3. Some of the students are more talented and experienced than the instructors.

4. The relationship between instructor and student tends to be more peer to peer than teacher to student

5. There is no real classroom everyday discipline that can be imposed on the students to complete assignments and achieve course standards.

6. There is a huge variation in the writing talent and skills of the students.

7. There is no threat hanging over a student’s head like grades or a diploma that really compares to a traditional setting.

Here are some positive differences.

1. The instruction is affordable to the student.

2. The instructors don’t have to worry about big brother/sister breathing down their necks.

3. Instructors have a greater freedom and latitude in teaching their courses

4. Having some really bright students results in the teacher learning as much as they “Instruct.”

5. Students seem to have a greater desire to learn and appreciate more the mentoring of the teacher.

6. Since there is no fear based component, the instructor has recourse only to a positively fostered learning environment.

7. The instructor can easily assess the base level skills of the student by visiting their ports.

8. The instructor, (Not the Academy), owns the course they teach.

9. The quality of the course is ultimately determined by student word of mouth and the reputation of the teacher.

I am sure there are plenty more but the ones listed above come readily to mind.

So what kind of approach is a teacher encouraged to follow in this type of a learning environment? I’m reminded of the ten commandments and I think I could come up with ten good ones for teaching an E-Course. For now however, I think there’s an overarching one, analogous to the “Biggie” pointed out in the New Testament.

For the E-Course Montra, I will steal a line from an old US Army recruiting slogan. “Be all that you can be.“ I think the E-Class Instructor would be well advised to start here. The “You” in this slogan refers to the student. Help the student to be all that they can be. Now in the Army there was a carrot and a stick to motivate the soldiers to show due diligence. However in the E-Class there are only carrots and really that is not such a bad thing.

I say this because of the range of talent and experience a student brings to the table. It is simply not possible to apply a single standard to each and every one. I’m sorry it just isn’t possible. I have students that I hesitated to explain anything much to because they were so awesome… they bring more excellence and experience into the classroom than I do. Then I have others who are hard pressed to write a coherent and lucid sentence. Trying to apply the same standard to everyone with such a wide spread simply won’t work. Thus the “Be all you can be approach.“ Here in a nutshell is how I use it.

Once I have the class roster set, I spend an evening reading over the student’s portfolio. This is a huge advantage an E-class here at WDC offers and it gives the teacher a big edge over a traditional classroom. After several hours of reading through a student’s port it becomes self evident where they are in their development as writers.

Once the teacher understands this they are much better postured to help the student with the material. Let me say here that writing a drama is a complex undertaking and a One Act Play requires all the ingredients of a full blow three act. So when I get a writer who is in way over their heads I have to decided how to handle it. My first thought was prerequisites. For reasons I can’t really explain, I eliminated this as a possible screening technique. Actually I do pretty much know why I don’t wish to go down that road

Let me quit for now and pick up on this whole E-Class notion in the next few days.