A beautiful new baby, statewide recognition for her online Physical Geography course, Foothill College Geography professor Allison Lenkeit-Meezan must be on top of the world - and it's a place she knows a thing or two about. When the day comes that her daughter poses that perennial question: "Mommy, why is the sky blue?" Allison definitely has the answer. So do her students.

Unlike those who ventured into online teaching from an affinity for technology, Allison admits "I was told by my dean that I would be teaching an online course. Not too noble, eh?" Appreciation for the medium clearly evolved. "I really got into it, especially after teaching it for the first time and seeing the broad, non-traditional student population that online courses reach. I have had some of my very best students online." Allison made her online teaching debut in Fall 2000. "It turned out to be quite popular so I've taught it every quarter since then."

Fundamental to all good teaching is enthusiasm for the subject, which Allison possesses: "Physical geography is, at a basic level, understanding the 'why' in our everyday observations: Why is San Francisco always cool and mild while Sacramento has big seasonal changes in temperature? Why do we have earthquakes? Why do we not have hurricanes here in California, while they do on the East coast?"

All good questions! The guidance of Allison's course ensures that they do not remain unanswered. "I really enjoy exploring these everyday questions with my students and hopefully giving them a more rich understanding of the world around them."

To ensure the path connecting query and enlightenment is a clear one, Allison emphasizes a single principle. "Organization, organization and more organization. Especially in an online environment, having a well organized course where the expectations are clearly stated from the outset and material is laid out, is a key element to student success, or at least avoiding student frustration!" She adds: "That is why I have a 6-page syllabus, and each lecture lists the key ideas that the student should be able to explain by the end of the lecture."

Her emphasis on learning outcomes is a consistent and strong theme. "I include a lot of internal links back to the learning outcomes so that after finishing one section of the lecture, students can go back and review." Allison acknowledges that the structure of designing an online course has had a positive benefit on her classroom teaching. "It has made me a more organized in those classes too."

But wasn't all accolades and awards. With science comes the caveat of the practical. "The labs were by far the biggest challenge," said Allison. But physical geography labs have a distinct advantage. "They are a natural to put online because they do not involve special equipment like chemicals and test tubes." Allison recalls, "In my experience as a student, most of our labs were pen and paper work with maps, or special GIS [geographic information system] software in computer labs."

Creativity was required to put the material in a form that distance learning students could access, which for Allison meant learning Adobe Illustrator to create maps and translate them into PDF. In her favor: the wealth of geography data available on the web. While it has recently become conceivable that students may one day embark on interplanetary field trips; for the near future the internet certainly does an excellent job of bringing all forms of geographic data to the desktops of online students. With the assistance of a savvy instructor, the potential for learning is vast indeed.

Allison used her newly acquired Illustrator skills to create graphics that bring life to her lectures. "These are things that I'd normally just sketch on the board in class. Making a nice graphic in Illustrator is a lot more difficult than sketching on the white board." More than just another nice graphic, Allison's work is transformed into learning objects that can be used from one semester to the next. Allison found a large amount of "great data and web GIS systems that the students could use in the distance learning class that fulfilled the same objectives as the pen and paper labs. The labs are fun and I think that they are the key to students gaining a deep understanding of the material."

When the internet is the classroom, an extended world of resources is a click away. "Teaching Physical Geography online is different from the traditional classroom," said Allison. "Both the students and I use the wealth of scientific data on the web a lot more in the online classroom." In her words: "So much great stuff out there from NASA, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allows the students access to primary source data.

"It excites students to be in the 'trenches' with the real world data," said Allison. "For example, we can talk in lecture about the mechanics of different types of volcanoes, then I can 'show' them by providing links to USGS profiles of real volcanoes." Not to mention teachable moments courtesy of the Mount St. Helen's VolcanoCam. It's exciting to consider that the moon may be well within the reach of Allison's newborn daughter, should she wish to follow in the impressive footstep of her mom. . .but it's equally inspiring to know that a modem and computer is all one needs to connect learners to the findings of scientists from the eyes of recent hurricanes to, well, "infinity and beyond."


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Allison Lenkeit-Meezan grew up in the Central Valley of California, and majored in Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. Her studies continued at the University of Cambridge, Darwin College, England, where she earned M.Phil in Geography and GIS. Professor Lenkeit-Meezan has taught full time at Foothill College for five years. Her professional experience includes work as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist with an urban planning firm in San Francisco, research with the USGS Center for Earth Science Information Research (CESIR), and development of environmental science curriculum for high school students at SRI International.