Century College math professor Stewart Hunt used to be skeptical
about teaching math online. Now he wants to teach math exclusively
online. What happened?
"I converted about a year ago," said Hunt, who has been teaching math at Century for three years. "It's all about the technology. It is so improved that I now prefer to teach math online."
To explain why, Hunt gives the following example: Suppose you are sitting in a math class and the topic of the day is complex fractions. Maybe you were daydreaming and you missed some of the opening explanations. By the time the instructor gets to the problem "5 over 3x minus 1 over x squared, divided by 2 over x plus 3 over x squared," you are lost.
If you are in class, you may stay lost to the end of the hour. But if you are taking the class online and are watching a customized video lecture, you can stop the lecture at any time and go back to the beginning. Or, you can choose to go over and over a problem as often as you want until it sinks in. The review capabilities are impressive. "The goal of my teaching is to be as flexible as possible and to meet as many learning needs as possible," said Hunt.
Sitting at your computer, watching and listening to Hunt's customized online lectures, is fascinating. As he speaks, you simultaneously see the numerals and letters appear on your computer screen. For those in the Baby Boomer age group, it is almost like watching someone write on an Etch-A-Sketch screen. When Hunt finally completes the problem, after leading you through all the steps, he circles the answer and it disappears.
In addition to his customized video lectures, Hunt also communicates with students by posting notes online and also scheduling online interactive meetings in real time. "If students don't understand the material and want to ask questions, these web conferences work very nicely," said Hunt. "If one video lecture doesn't explain it for them, I will send them another."
Hunt has completed at least one video for every chapter in the math textbook he uses. He uses a screen recording software package called Camtasia and saves it in Flash because most computer users have it. "In the beginning, it was a lot of work to prepare all the videos," said Hunt. "Now teaching online is not necessarily more or less work than teaching in the classroom, it is just different work."
Century student Sarah Berscheid of White Bear Lake said Hunt's online math class was the best online class she has ever taken. "He has so many different ways for you to learn the material," said Bersheid. "For example, if I had a question, he would personally prepare a video response and then post it so everyone could see it*I could sit at my computer and watch the lesson 100 times, if I wanted to."
Berscheid said she works full-time on weekdays, so taking the online class fit nicely into her schedule. She took Hunt's math tests on Saturdays.
For students who are not technologically savvy, Hunt acknowledged that taking math online may be frustrating. But the demand for online classes is growing dramatically among students who are computer literate. And busy working adults and parents of small children who are unable to come to campus are finding the online math classes fit their lifestyle. "Motivation always helps," said Hunt. "I see myself as an enabler who makes sure that students who should pass, do pass."
Online students do have to come to campus to take tests. This semester, for example, Hunt gave the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Hunt allows some students to make other arrangements. For example, he has one student in Milwaukee and one student at Fort Bragg who take their tests using test proctors approved by Hunt.
A Woodbury resident, Hunt has two master's degrees in mathematics - one from Purdue University and one from Florida State University. Born in the Panama Canal Zone, he started his higher education at a community college in Florida and earned his undergraduate degree from Bemidji State University, where he majored in mathematics.
"I started in math because I was intrigued by author Isaac Asimov's
statement about the existence of different levels of nfinity," said
Hunt. "I went into it for the knowledge."