NMIX 4110: New Media Production left the physical classroom this summer and moved online for the first time. Nineteen students, the most ever for a 4110 summer session, seized the opportunity to learn skills and earn credit toward the NMI certificate.
As an instructor I entered the online experience with a good deal of trepidation. How could I lean over a student’s shoulder and point out problems with their code while I was in Athens and they were somewhere else? The actual experience was much smoother than I expected. Somehow, in the midst of summer internships and vacations, the online students did amazingly well. They completed the same assignments as students during the previous semester in our physical classroom, while managing to ask fewer questions.
The online experience also produced side benefits for the classroom version of 4110. The course is more structured than before with weekly assignments and expectations clearly delineated, and also more ambitious. This semester’s students are doing much of their work outside of the classroom, and covering more ground than any New Media Production class has ever.