Reflections from IMC Online Faculty Panel at TEACHx2017

In May at TEACHx 2017, three faculty members from the Medill's Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Online program participated in a panel to discuss their experiences teaching online.  The panel gave them an opportunity to reflect what they have learned from teaching online, how their teaching overall has evolved.

Here are some of the high points that were made by the questions posed:

Judy Franks
Lecturer

IMC Lecturer Judy Franks joined the Medill IMC faculty in 2008 following a 23-year career in Chicago’s leading ad agencies, where she rose to the executive ranks across both the media and creative strategy disciplines.

What is the most important difference about teaching online versus face-to-face classes?

  • Distance does not get in the way when teaching online.
  • Online teaching helped me be more of a facilitator of learning than a fountain of information to dispense.
  • Engagement online occurs with more regularity so there is a presumption that exposure with the material is not “stop – start,” but fluid.

Stephen Hersh
Adjunct Lecturer

Stephen Hersh is an adjunct lecturer in the Medill IMC program and teaches Consumer Insight. His areas of expertise include brand strategy, brand image, brand advertising, account planning and Freudian psychology.  

How different is teaching online than what you originally thought?

  • When teaching online, students think about a problem and write very concisely and clearly. It goes very deep.
  • The importance of clarity in presentation of content and instructions is paramount.
  • Teaching online is an evolving process allowing for trying different ways of presenting content.

Tony Poidomani
Lecturer

Tony Poidomani is a Certified Public Accountant who has taught executive MBA accounting courses at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management for over 20 years and leads many corporate financial workshops for companies, government units and associations. 

Now that you have experienced this, what advice do you have for an in-person teacher who might be asked to teach online?

  • Put into perspective the approach that made you successful in class and know that there is an evolution to be an effective instructor.
  • You have to set the stage from the beginning of the course with clear expectations so there are no gray areas.
  • Student feedback is important as it allows for fixes/changes to the class.

For further insight into teaching in an online environemnt, attend the upcoming TEACHx Conference in May 2018 at Northwestern.