SFCC to offer two DVD courses

Kelly Zimmerman doesn’t have to make the trek from Pilot Grove to State Fair Community College to attend her history course. Nor does she have to boot up her computer and log on.

All she has to do is pop a disc into her DVD player and stay home with her children.

The college is offering two courses on DVD for the spring semester for the first time. Registration for the courses, U.S. History before 1877 and Economics I - Macro, is open. The courses begin Jan. 14.

Zimmerman said she decided to take the DVD class so she would not have to spend as much time away from her children.

“It was something new, and I had tried their Web courses before, and they were a bit too fast-paced for me, having a full-time job and being a single parent at the time,” she said. Although she is married now, the DVD courses still appealed to her. They will be more like a correspondence course, which she has taken before, than like a Web class, she said.

The courses were designed for servicemen at Whiteman Air Force Base, said Jim Page, a history instructor at SFCC who will be overseeing one of the courses.

“They would get deployed in the middle of a course, and had issues keeping up,” he said. “This would allow someone to continue.”

Once the committee members started talking about offering courses on DVD, Page said, they realized they might have wider appeal.

“We got into it, and we thought this might benefit other people as well,” he said, such as shut-ins, people who can’t afford to commute or can’t travel, who do not have a computer, or who live in the country and do not have adequate Internet access.

“A lot of the students don’t have access to computers. So this will allow a student who can’t take a Web class to take this kind of class.”

In addition to a set of DVDs, students will also have a workbook and textbook, and be responsible for turning in written assignments and exams.

“I develop a writing topic over each unit that focuses their learning, so I know if they’re putting the effort into it,” he said. “A certain amount of it is that we’re dealing with mature adults that are expected to be self-motivated.”

The DVDs offer resources that a traditional class do not, in addition to convenience. The DVDs are produced by Dallas Learning Center, and are very high-quality, said Page.

“I was skeptical at first, but after I saw them, my reservations just melted away,” he said.

“If you’re studying Native Americans, say, they can bring in experts to discuss the topic,” he said. “In a regular class, students get me for 16 weeks. ... They bring in an expert for each topic.”

Depending on student response to the two courses offered in the spring, the committee is discussing offering DVD courses in sociology, English composition, American government and health.

The classes are a little bit more expensive than a regular class. In addition to the cost of the DVDs, workbook, and textbook, there is a $40 license fee associated with the course.

“I think it’s well worth it. You think about the extra that you’re going to spend in your other classes ... you have to buy the books anyway, and a lot of times you have to buy the computer program anyway. So it’s well worth it,” said Zimmerman.

agualtieri@sedaliademocrat.com