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Meet Rick Martinez
Professor of Mathematics
Interview with Dean Sinou

Sinou: You've been teaching online for many years now. Would you say that it can be as effective as traditional teaching?

Martinez: If it couldn't, I wouldn't be doing it. Don't get me wrong, an online class is not for everyone. To have a chance at success in an online class you must have a strong internal motivation to stay on track, some comfort with technology, and a willingness to believe that you can succeed at it. There are definitely aspects to teaching online that can make it more difficult for me to explain some concepts, but it does work.

On the other hand, there are some extreme advantages students have in an online classroom environment that they don't have in a traditional classroom. For example, if students in my traditional class have questions, they have to wait until class time to get an answer; my online students can ask ( or answer) a question anytime of the day or night. The magical part of my online classes is the interaction - the amount of which would be impossible in my traditional classroom.

Sinou: Teaching math online must be especially challenging. What are the obstacles and how have you dealt with them?

Martinez: The technology is still not sophisticated enough for good and timely interaction between student and instructor or student and student. Textual interaction is fine, but mathematics interaction over the Internet requires equations and graphics. When a picture is worth a thousand words, you can't afford to type out the thousand words - you need the picture. I have had success at explaining mathematical concepts by strategically combining graphics, equations and explanations to give students a mental image of ideas. The problem with this approach is that it is incredibly time consuming and requires additional software as well as some expertise using graphics packages. I have also begun integrating some flash animation, in conjunction with audio explanations, to help explain difficult concepts. The feedback from students on this is very positive so far.

Sinou: You are still the only math instructor teaching online at Foothill. Do you see others following in your foot-steps?

Martinez: I truly hope so! As I show my colleagues what I am doing, and as technology improves, faculty in the division are showing more interest in teaching online classes. While no other instructor in the division has a class exclusively online yet, there are many that have added an online, course management, component to their courses. Also, in addition to hybrid courses, some faculty are even in the initial stages of planning online courses. It's only a matter of time.

Sinou: I understand that you are teaching online from Fresno. How does not being physically at Foothill affect you as a faculty member?

Martinez: I do greatly miss seeing my colleagues on a daily basis; however, I think it is very important to maintain a significant campus presence. I serve on several committees, both inside and outside the division and attend department and division meetings. I also go to campus to meet with faculty who are pursuing the possibility of teaching online classes or hybrid classes. I don't know if it is my subconscious acting out, but I seem to find some reason to get to campus almost on a weekly basis.

Sinou: Do you think that more faculty will be teaching full-time completely from a distance in the future? Do you see benefits or disadvantages to this potential development?

Martinez: In order to meet the demand of students, the number of online classes will have to increase. That opens the door for more people to do what I'm doing (and some will); however, I believe most faculty will want to maintain at least some classroom presence. That's my biggest loss - I miss seeing my students and "performing" in front of them. While I feel that online classes can be of extreme benefit to students and a valuable part of their education, virtual learning should not replace the valuable face-to-face interaction between students and educators. Rather, online classes should just be a part of a student's overall learning experience. The internet is changing the way we learn, but shouldn't change the way we interact as a society.

Sinou:  I taught two online courses (in addition to two traditional ones) for three years, and I knew I could NOT teach a third online class. Teaching full-time online, like you do, must be exhausting. How do you handle the workload? You must be online constantly.

Martinez: I'm online with my Statistics, Calculus, and Algebra classes so much, that when I have a break between terms, I go through internet withdrawal - literally. I find myself walking over to my computer, sitting down, and only then realizing that I don't need to log in to class. I think my saving grace is that my time is my own; in other words, since I have no in-person classes, I can log in to class whenever I want. When my two-year old daughter knocks on my office door and wants to play, or I want to cuddle with my two-week old daughter, I can do it. That's what keeps me going.

Sinou: Are students more ready for this method of learning?

Martinez: When I first started teaching online about five years ago, my class was the first online class experience for ALL of my students. Now, for at least half of them, it is not the first online class they have taken. In fact, I am finding that there are a select few who are online students exclusively. It's still very new and it takes the students some time to get used to the idea of never seeing me, but they are better than me at adapting to change. The number of students who are technologically savvy enough to be comfortable with online classes increases every quarter.

Sinou: How do you reach your students?

Martinez: I reach my students by convincing them they are not alone out there. If a student is having trouble understanding a concept, and I can explain it via the internet, I've got them! It is then that they realize that an online class can work. I show them that, by means of the class web site, they have a conduit to my knowledge, as well as the help of EVERY student in the class - classmates from around the globe - classmates that care about each others' success. When they grasp the concept and work with it, their success is very likely, and they know it. It's a beautiful thing to watch my students succeed.

Sinou: How is technology going to change the nature of the future classroom?

Martinez: There is do doubt about it, e-learning is here to stay. The demand for online classes is growing by leaps and bounds. As long as we can keep it effective and fair, there will always be instructors and students who embrace online education. In a very short time, I predict that there will be very few classes that don't have at least some type of online component. Furthermore, by the time my daughter goes to college, I predict there will be more hybrid courses than traditional ones. That might be a bold statement to make, but at the pace things are going, I'd bet money on it.

Sinou: No, that's not a bold statement. I think we'll be there by 2005, if not sooner. This quarter, have over 7,000 students logging into Etudes. That's more that 1/3 of our total student body. Only 3,500 of them are logging into online classes. The rest are taking hybrid or web-enhanced classes. It's hard to predict our daughters' college experience, isn't it? Anything else you'd like to share?

Martinez: Sorry, my daughter is knocking ! :)

____ Professor Rick Martinez: Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Martinez comes from a family of teachers (father, mother, brother, grandmother are all teachers). He attended Foothill College and holds a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Statistics. He has been teaching for nine years, five of which have included online instruction. Martinez lives lives in the Central Valley with his wife, and "two perfect daughters." He truly believes that "going to Disneyland and being a die-hard S. F. Giants fan are paramount to living."

11/30/2006

Past Weekly Features:

Sandi Watkins
Lyn Paulos
Jerry & Angie
Rick Martinez
Dolores Davison
Mimi Will
Academic Dishonesty