In the Spring of 2001, Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) piloted three online courses that were taught via the internet, asynchronously, using Blackboard. Forty-four courses have been developed since then.
Typically, BMCC students are juggling the multiple roles of parent, care taker, worker and student. Thus, our intent is to develop and offer online courses that meet all of the Liberal Arts requirements so that in any given semester, a student can choose from a variety of online courses that satisfy those requirements, thus avoiding unintended interruptions in completing a degree. In the Spring ‘05, 36 online courses will be offered in a variety of disciplines including the following: Business Management, Nursing, Philosophy, Mathematics, Chemistry, English, Human Services, Early Childhood Education, Psychology, Anthropology, and Linguistics. BMCC has created a comprehensive semester-long program to develop and train faculty to teach online. We use a team approach to training faculty, with a full-time faculty member (the Distance Learning Coordinator), and the Coordinator of Faculty/Staff Development and Training in Technology as facilitators and lead trainers.
