During spring quarter, I had two classes online at SCAD. One met 8- 10:30 AM Mondays and Wednesdays and the other from 5- 7:30 PM. My art studio resides in a building of art studios about a 20-minute drive from my home. I would often go to my studio to paint late morning and by the time I needed to drive home for the 5:00 class, there wasn’t enough time to clean my brushes and palette and arrive for the start of class.
Students are not required to attend class synchronously at SCADNow. We can consume recorded classes and participate via discussions in place of attending. However, I like participating live for the engagement it provides and some professors do prefer people to participate if they are able.Though no one has mentioned it, I personally think it cannot hurt your grade to attend and participate in person.
SCAD has three tools for accessing online classes from my computer browser: the SCAD portal (MySCAD), the LMS (Blackboard) and Zoom. Keeping this in mind, I brought my laptop along to the studio to join class there. Blackboard is accessed after authenticating through the portal and Blackboard links to Zoom. I start class this way with my camera on to greet everyone. Since class continues until 7:30, which is dinnertime, I am not interested in staying in the studio for the entire 2.5-hour class. Since it takes longer than the mid-class 10-minute break to drive home, I needed to drive during an active part of the class.
Initially I was trepidatious about testing the mobile tools in the midst of class, but necessity is the mother of invention. I downloaded the MySCAD, Blackboard Learn, and Zoom apps on my IOS phone and initiated the Blackboard course from the Blackboard app directly, using SSO with my SCAD credentials. From Blackboard, I used the course Zoom link which took me to the Zoom app. Initially, I struggled to get into Zoom. SCAD tech support instructed that I needed to set up a SCAD Zoom account. After that, Zoom access worked well. My phone seamlessly switched from the wireless internet at my studio to cellular as I moved to my car, continuously using my Apple Airpod earbuds. I was able to easily transition, though the professor did need to readmit me to the class, no differently than if my internet had temporarily dropped. I left the camera off while driving to avoid the distracting image of my being on the move. I obviously listened while driving rather than viewed the screen. Fortunately, it was primarily discussion of reading assignments rather than slides to view.
After arriving home, I could stay on the phone for the remainder of class, turning the camera back on, or switch to my home desktop (again needing the professor to admit me to class). After realizing how effortlessly this process worked, I planned my class days around it. This allowed me to stay at the studio working just until class started, clean brushes while listening to the first part of class and then drive home to finish the end of class and be there for dinner when the evening class ended. The technology allows me to operate in a truly mobile mode with the flexibility to move around in the studio or in the car with the wireless earbuds and mobile device while happily and conveniently engaging in truly mobile learning.
