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Online Course Journal
Getting started First week Open class letter I recently signed up for a 10-week writing course at Gotham Writers' Workshop, a school that has offered its popular writing curriculum online for several years as well as onsite in New York City. I offer this ongoing journal of the online experience to in the hope that my experience may give you some insight into online learning and help you decide if it's right for you. Getting started: I signed up and received my log-on instructions. It's not so hard. They sent me the URL, which I bookmarked. All I have to do is enter my user name and password and I'm in. It's no harder than ordering my favorite books from Amazon. Logged on to take a quick tour and practice submitting material. That's easy, too. I'm already working in Microsoft Word. All I do is copy my paragraphs and paste them into the form in the "Submission" area. Everything works. First week: The students all get a bio and welcoming email from the instructor urging us to submit our bios as soon as possible. Oh, my! Who am I? Why am I here? Do I really belong here? Am I crazy? A writing workshop–me–without credentials, time or anything important to say? Bios get posted on the site and simultaneously emailed to each class member. The first bio appears in my mailbox. Fascinating, and gives me some ideas to work with. Then five more, one on top of the other. How did they all get their thoughts together so fast? Very intimidating. Everyone seems much younger, much more experienced, much cooler. There's no way I can do this. Maybe I'll drop out. Can I get my money back still? Then I start to be intrigued by the bios. I had thought about the difficulty of not being able to see classmates and instructor – appearances, gestures, mannerisms, all the visual clues that tell us so much about each other and that we're so accustomed to relying on for understanding and reacting. And I knew it would be hard to interact without audio clues. Tone of voice adds so much meaning! But I never really considered how much we learn from written communication, especially as it can be so hard for many of us. I was immediately impressed. This is much better than a quick intro in regular classroom. You know - "My name is Nancy, I live in New York, I work in advertising, I've been out of school for 20 years" – the superficial, cocktail-party intro. No, we learn not just who our classmates are, but how they express themselves, what their interests are. And although we don't know what they look like, we do learn how they see. I jump right in and write up a few paragraphs. Now I eagerly anticipate each email. There are 16 students signed up, 11 women and 5 men. Most don't share their ages, but it's easy to see they run the gamut from early 20s up–a good mix. Interestingly, 75% are from the New York metropolitan area. Although the same courses are offered onsite, it looks like online is the only way to fit into the busy lives of city people! By the time all the bios are in, it feels like we're a team ready for an adventure together. The expedition has gathered at base camp. Top | 
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