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TEACHING NOTES: EXPERIENCES
IN ONLINE TEACHING
Lavin, David
Florida International University, Retired
lavin@fiu.edu
ABSTRACT
Last year at Florida International University (FIU), I created and taught an Online Intermediate
Accounting class. After over 30 years of teaching, I felt that an Online approach could not
possibly accomplish what a traditional live face-to-face class can do. The problem was that I
was thinking inside the box and not willing to do things differently. An Online course has its
advantages and disadvantages. This paper will explore what I did to create and teach the course
and present these advantages and disadvantages of an Online accounting course.
INTRODUCTION
Last year I created and taught an Online Intermediate Accounting class. After over 30 years of
teaching, I felt that an Online approach could not possibly accomplish what a traditional live face-
to-face class can do. The problem was that I was thinking inside the box and not willing to do
things differently. An Online course has its advantages and disadvantages. This paper will
explore what I did to create and teach the course and present these advantages and disadvantages
of an Online accounting course.
My teaching of accounting has primarily been in the financial area. I have taught both the
graduate and the undergraduate. I have taught large and medium size classes since only twice
have I had fewer than 20 students in a class in my teaching career. In addition, I have prepared
students for the CPA exam and have taught continuing education of CPAs. All of these teachings
were live classes. Even when I taught hybrid classes, they were live with the use of a computer in
the classroom for current events and exams.
Since I was one of the top teachers in accounting, I was approached by the Assistant Director to
create and teach an Online Intermediate Accounting class. I was not very excited to take on this
task since I felt that my teaching success came from my lively lectures and knowing every student
in the class. All of the other Online classes in the College of Business have been more of a self-
study class with little interface between the students and the professor. The students worked
independently on their own and in some cases the professor would join the class in a chat room.
After a few weeks of pondering how I could improve on the existing approach to the Online
courses, accomplish my task and still maintain my teaching successes, I came up with the idea of
video taping my lectures.
I had video taped a couple of my classes many years ago. One was done in a studio while others
were done during a class. The one that was done in a studio was very sterile. I was forced to stay
in one place and it was done in the infancy of the University when the equipment was not that
sophisticated. My later tapes were very lively and animated. The camera was portable and
capable of following my movements and was also able to capture my writings on the overhead
projector. I was able to stop the taping and ask the class for questions. I then used those questions
to explain the subject better in the taping that followed. The students that used these tapes and
knew my style of teaching often said to me that it was as if they were actually in the classroom.
Many often remarked that by the end of the lecture any questions that they had had during the
lecture were answered by the end of the lecture.
Now I had to deal with studio taping once again since I did not have a live class to perform in
front of while the tape was rolling. I was fearful that the taping would be cold and sterile as it
ASBBS E-Journal, Volume 4, No.1, 2008 128