Page 42 - Year-Long Plan_Neat

I recently had the opportunity to interview Lorie McCarthy who is employed by Bismarck Public

Schools and works for the Missouri River Educational Cooperative (MREC) on the Bismarck State College

campus. I began the interview by getting to know a little bit about Lorie, her past work experiences, and

what it is like to teach a virtual classroom. Prior to this interview, I had no experience with a virtual

classroom or how the ITV videoconferencing equipment even works. I was amazed at the capabilities

surrounding a virtual classroom and how Lorie manages not only the communication aspect but also the

policies, procedures, and issues associated with teaching a virtual classroom.

Teaching both a variety of online classes and ITV classes, Lorie works with 18 area schools

throughout the school year. This is her third year teaching a virtual classroom and second year teaching

online classes. She meets with all of the schools over two class periods with a two minute break in

between. All ITV classes are recorded and kept on the server for several weeks. Students can go back

and listen to a class recording if they are absent or if they would like to reference back to a specific

discussion. The learning platform that they use is Moodle. There are different methods of

communication that are used through Moodle such as emails and message boards. On days when the

classes do not meet virtually, handouts are accessible online and students can print them out at their

convenience. From the time they start a topic, there is a 2-3 week window to complete those lessons.

Policies and procedures for Lorie’s virtual classroom continue to develop year after year. A

majority of her policies and procedures are pulled from Great Western Network’s (GWN) manual. Each

school that participates in the virtual classroom receives a copy of the policies and procedures. They

must sign, date, and send that agreement back. One of the biggest issues has been the policy on

cheating. Each school involved in the agreement has their own policy regarding cheating so coming up

with a balance between the GWN policy and the school policies as been quite the feat.

Many of the classes that are taken virtually are Medical Careers classes with an emphasis on

anatomy and physiology. Those classes include but are not limited to: siseases and disorders, respiratory