It was a natural fit since much of the original, traditional course was already Internet-based in that each student maintains a web page to post assignments, and quizzes take place online. Adjustments were necessarily made in the transition to a fully online format, and since the course debuted in the shortened summer-session, the course was condensed as well. Knowing that traditional lectures couldn't simply be transcribed to web pages, Steve re-envisioned his course, breaking course units into mini-lessons. "My goal was to have each lesson take about 20 minutes to complete, with another 10 minutes spent on an interactive unit 'wrap-up' at the end of each lesson." A quiz and programming exercise would conclude each unit, same as with the traditional class.

An aspect that makes Steve's story a bit different from most is that he not only created the course, he built it from the ground up. "Rather than use a commercial package, I wrote CGI programs in the C language to handle password access, grade posting and tabulation, as well as assessment of assignments and automatic grading of quizzes."

Steve also developed the course infrastructure and navigation elements that enable students to see their grades, send email and participate in discussions. "I had two main goals when designing my course: the first was to create an easily grasped navigation system; I wanted students to easily understand the pacing and structure of the course. To that end, I created a very structured design with a course menu that lists each of the learning units, and a home page for each unit that links to the lecture, quiz, and a homework assignment." Steve explained that a unit equaled about a week's worth of work.

"Procrastination is the greatest enemy of the online student," exclaimed Steve, who built in milestones for students to complete and keep pace with classmates. "Small, consistently-paced deliverables is a way to keep the students involved." Steve does his part: students receive quiz results and homework feedback the day after they are submitted.

As with most online instructors, Steve encourages students to post questions to the discussion forums not only to minimize time spent answering redundant questions sent via email but to get online students involved and interacting with each other. He reports success for the most part, and integrates discussion participation into student grades, but admits he is still experimenting with motivating students to make good use of discussions.

"In the traditional course, two hours of each week is spent in lab. Students use lab time to help each other out with assignments," Steve said. "Email and online support don't seem to offer the same amount of help." Yet, for students who would not otherwise be able to take the course, Steve sees the true benefit of online instruction. "Several of my students told me they could not take the class in the traditional classroom format. One student, who got the highest grade on the final, told me he had never taken any formal programming class before. I think it's great if we can reach students we could not reach in any other way."

With items such as carpenter and chicken picker on his resume, it's clear that Steve is a "hands-on" guy. No stranger to hard work and manual labor, he acknowledges that online course construction is time consuming. "It's more like writing a book than teaching a regular class." Being a perfectionist may add to this woe: "I really want things like the quizzes and student feedback to work in a particular way, so I've ended up writing a lot of custom software that is always a challenge to maintain."

And yet, it is obvious Steve is not only proud of his accomplishment, he is also eager to share. "I really believe in the principles behind the open-source and free software movements: an open exchange of information that enhances the community in general, rather than the range-war mentality that tries to fence-in the intellectual range."


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Steve Gilbert is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA. He has developed and taught several online Computer Science classes and is the co-author of four books on Java and C++ programming. After completing an AA at OCC, he went on to earn his B.S. in Business Computer Methods from CSU Long Beach and M.S. degree in Applied Computer Science and Technology from Azusa Pacific University.