As the University of Wyoming makes an effort to integrate technology into the college classroom, outreach and distance course offerings have increased.
English professor Arielle Zibrak knows firsthand the struggles and joys teaching distance classes. First hired by the University of Wyoming in 2014, she was, in her words, “stationed” in Casper to teach Outreach courses there. She describes the experience as similar to her duties here on the main campus.
“I was working basically the same job in Casper, teaching classes in person, ” she said. “I’d have to come up to Laramie for a meeting every two weeks anyway, and Zoom in the rest of the time.”
Zibrak, known to her students as “Dr. Z,” came to Laramie as a full-fledged instructor last year, and this semester is her first teaching completely traditional, non-distance classes in Laramie. She noted the differences in education between traditional lectures and distance courses.
“In Casper, the class sizes were a lot smaller, we’d have nine or ten people in a class, and it was wonderful. You’d get really tight-knit,” said Zibrak. “I also had a lot more non-traditional students, people with all this life experience that, in some cases, were older than me. In Laramie, we don’t really get that heterogeneity of experience.”
In addition to her outreach classes in Casper, Zibrak has also taught online courses and classes that are a hybrid of physical lectures and distance education. Last semester, she led a course where she taught students in a physical lecture and students who teleconferenced in, all at the same time.
“It was hard, because I didn’t want any of my students to have a disparity of experience. I want everyone’s classroom experience to be exactly the same, and that was logistically challenging,” she said. “I try to cultivate a culture of the classroom, where everyone knows each other and can work together. With a blended class like that, it’s hard to integrate the distance learners.”
Zibrak tried techniques like using online forums to spark debate, as well as more complex schemes. She spoke about a time when she tried to integrate distance learners by putting each of their feeds on a laptop, and then having in-class students work in groups with each laptop. This strategy worked, but its long set-up times made it nearly impossible for everyday use.
Zibrak’s teaching style puts an emphasis on the connections between students. She said she feels that English is a medium through which connection can be forged without all the tedious small talk.
“Most times we try to talk to each other, it’s a negotiation. We’re trying to negotiate each other’s worldview by asking interrogatory questions like ‘Where are you from? What do you like to do?’ until we find a commonality,” she said. “Teaching English, we can come to a text, and now there’s 20 people in a class all with one commonality, our communication is mediated through this text.”
The UW College of Arts and Sciences awarded Zibrak the Extraordinary Merit in Teaching Award in 2017. In addition to her classwork, Zibrak has published many articles on topics in 19th century literature. A collection featuring some of her work is set to come out in 2021, and she is working to publish an essay collection.
