Teaching Sociology in a Virtual Classroom

A Classroom? is a teaching and learning environment located within a computer-mediated communication system. Software tools to enhance teaching and learning activities were added to the standard features of a computerized conferencing system to produce a prototype Virtual Classroom. A variety of courses was offered, some totally on-line with matched face-to-face sections, and others in mixed mode, partially on-line and partially in the traditional (physical) classroom. Overall, outcomes were favorable: students reported increased convenience of access to educational activities and improved quality of learning. Outcomes varied greatly, however. In this paper we describe and contrast experiences in teaching a totally on-line version of introductory sociology and mixed-modes sections of two upper-level sociology courses.