Suzanne James currently splits her time between teaching in the Department of English and the African Studies Minor programme. Prior to teaching at UBC, Suzanne taught high school students for almost 25 years. Although she misses the “energy of kids…[and] the structure of high school”, she finds working with post-secondary students, at this point in her career, to be more intellectually stimulating. She also finds that teaching at the post secondary level allows for more time to engage in research. A big part of why she enjoys working with post secondary students is reflected in having the option of teaching both via distance and on-campus.
During our interview session with Suzanne, it was clear that flexibility was the main benefit for her as an instructor teaching via distance. Similar to how students seek scheduling flexibility and a balance between their school and personal life when taking distance education courses, Suzanne shares that instructors equally benefit from the flexibility afforded to them when teaching in an online environment. She notes, “you need to be constantly available online during regular hours, but there is the flexibility of not having to be committed in the classroom between 3-4pm in the afternoon.” Aside from this, Suzanne also brings flexibility to the design and content of her online courses. She designed the structure of the course to be easily manageable by students and also adaptable for other instructors who wish to follow a similar teaching format. Suzanne spent one year co-designing ENGL 112: Strategies for University Writing and ENGL 468A: Children’s Literature with Gisele Baxter, a fellow instructor in the Department of English. Before launching the courses, Suzanne and Gisele considered the importance of an online course “that didn’t need major changes from year to year…[and] one that would allow the flexibility for other instructors to come in and teach it.” Furthermore, the courses have been designed in such a way that every section of the course is slightly different. Even though the framework and assignments remain the same, the texts will vary each term and the students will write a new exam for every section of the course. The result, Suzanne shares, has “worked well, [especially] with the senior course [ENGL 468A].”
Suzanne has been teaching via distance for almost two years now, and she has found that it is crucial for the instructor to be very careful and concise in terms of writing and providing feedback. Due to the nature of an online course, students cannot come up to the instructor after class and ask questions, like they can in an on-campus course. Suzanne also emphasizes the need for students to be “comfortable communicating in writing with their instructors” and with this type of communication. She notes, for “the students that do, it works out well.” Suzanne is currently teaching the online version of ENGL 468A and will be teaching the online version of ENGL 112 in January. With the start of a new school year, Suzanne is looking forward to meeting and interacting with her students: “It’s fun when you occasionally get students coming into your office, and you actually have a face attached to someone that you have been writing back and forth with.”
Suzanne shares more of her experience teaching via distance in the video below.