[media-credit name=”Ailsa Alipusan” align=”alignleft” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]It is 4 p.m. on a hot Saturday and class is in session. Cassandra Angulo is taking part in Professor Frank Paiano’s Business 123 class while sipping on a Starbucks drink. At Starbucks.
Angulo, 23, is one of the growing legion of students taking classes online and Paiano has slipped into a new generation of professors willing to give cyber learning a shot.
“At first I did not know what I was doing,” said Paiano. “In the face-to-face classes, if you ask a question you can see the look in their eyes. But in online classes you can’t. You never really get to
meet your online students. So I didn’t feel I was doing enough for my online students. I still don’t feel I am doing enough.”
Paiano created his www.wonderprofessor.com in a format similar to Craigslist. He provides the entire content of his classes through video presentations, slides and audio.
“Instead of just throwing up a presentation, I thought, there’s gotta be a way that I can capture the presentation and record my lecture at the same time,” said Paiano. “I got help from the [Southwestern College] Learning Center, from Larry Lambert and his folks, great experts! That’s when I started using this program called Camptasia that lets me do this.”
Angulo said the online option is a lifesaver. “I have a five-year-old kid and I don’t always have time,” she said. “If for any reason I can’t go to class I can go to his website and look at all the notes and it explains in handouts, and I can listen to the actual class that I missed.”
Engineering major Mario Landini is a returning student who is currently enrolled in Paiano’s online class.
He said online classes are not for slackers. “Actually, online classes are hard to take. He said. “You have to have self-discipline. But this teacher in particular, he manages his class well, in a way that you feel you are in class. You cannot miss a thing. He makes it very realistic. He has a fun sense of humor.”
From the lawn and palms of SWC, Paiano’s class has gone global. Searching “Financial Planning” on iTunes and anyone can access his lectures.
Business major Bert Trapp gave Paiano a five-star rating. “If more people took courses like this in our country, we all may be in a better place,” wrote Trapp. “The class is great and the teacher keeps you entertained throughout. Thanks Frank!!”
SWC Graphics Lab Specialist Tom Bugzavich helped Paiano post his lectures on iTunes University.
“Whether you have an Android device or an Apple device, you want to access the information without any obstacles,” said Bugzavich. “By also introducing these lectures to the iTunes library, it makes it accessible for all users.”
Bugzavich said professors with rich media content reinforce classes and make them more exciting for students.
“A traditional class just won’t fit into people’s schedules anymore whether you have work commitments or family commitments,” he said. “The older faculty members who have been teaching for 10, 20, or more years… need to realize that in order to stay current and share their thoughts and ideas, they need to accept the fact that it’s important for them to really learn the technology or work with the experts so that they achieve something great.”
