E-Learning

The E-Learning Program

Delta State University

College of Education

Aimee Henderson, Teacher

James M. Ewing Hall 239

DSU Box 3121, Cleveland, MS, 38733

662.846.4391

Kim Nance, Teacher

James M. Ewing Hall 240

DSU Box 3121, Cleveland, MS 38732

662.846.4307

Robert Strawbridge, Director of Distance Education

James M. Ewing Hall 321

DSU Box 3121, Cleveland, MS, 38733

662.846.4498

The E-Learning pilot, a program envisioned by President John Hilpert, began at Delta State University in 2003. Housed in the College of Education, one instructor taught Spanish I and Spanish II classes to three schools in the Mississippi Delta. Norma C. O'Bannon High School in Greenville, Mississippi, Riverside High School in Avon, Mississippi, and Eastside High School in Cleveland, Mississippi were participating schools in the initial project. Two of the original pilot schools, Norma C. O'Bannon High School and Riverside High School, are still participating in the E-learning program. To meet the demands of an expanding program, two teach

ers, Aimee Henderson and Kim Nance, now deliver Spanish I and Spanish II curriculums. The program has expanded to ten class periods daily in fourteen participating schools. Almost 300 students throughout the state of Mississippi are now being taught through the E-learning program at Delta State University via interactive video. The goal of the program is to encourage and promote learning to the schools in Mississippi, especially the Mississippi Delta, by offering courses which are unavailable to students at their physical school locations. The program
serves schools from several counties throughout the state, many of which are in the Delta region.

E-learning teachers teach students from Biggersville High School, Broad Street High School, Houlka Attendance Center, John F. Kennedy Memorial High School, Madison Shannon Palmer High School, Newton High School, Norma C. O’Bannon High School, Okolona High School, Ray Brooks School, Riverside High School, Simmons High School, West Bolivar High School, Humphries County High School, Ethel High School, Ashland High School, Coahoma A.H.S., Richton High School, Charleston High School, Rosa Fort High School, and William Sullivan High School. Currently, the E-learning program is offering Spanish I and II courses and Advanced Placement U.S. History.

Since many of the schools are within the Delta region, the teachers are able to make site visits. The site visits allow the teachers and students to meet each other face to face. The teachers are also able to view projects and work done by the students during class. Additionally, the site visits allow the instructors to further their partnerships with the facilitating teachers in the classrooms. The nature of the instructional delivery does not prohibit interaction between the teachers and the students. The teachers are able to use the same teaching strategies as in a regular classroom. The electronic classroom simply requires more creativity in the execution of the strategies. For example, the students in the Spanish I classes recently built three dimensional models of cities. The teachers successfully supervised the student's progress with the help of the facilitating teacher.

For more information on the E-learning Program at Delta State University contact:

Robert Strawbridge, Program Director, email: rstrawbridge@deltastate.edu