In her role as the School of Communication’s online and hybrid course coordinator, Senior Lecturer Bethany Barker aims to create engaging and productive online learning environments for students while also providing support for fellow instructors.
Barker’s role as online and hybrid course coordinator focuses on informing instructors on best practices for teaching online while staying up to date on any new or upcoming technology-related topics.
Many of the School of Communication’s courses are hybrid and other courses are taught exclusively online. Barker helps instructors use technology to maximize these formats for students. Well-developed online courses can encourage active participation from students who be hesitant to speak up in person or in a larger group format.
“When you’ve got 100, 200 people in this big lecture hall, and you have a question, you don't want to raise your hand because that's really intimidating, but it's so much easier to then maybe pause a video and send an email,” Barker said.
Barker also notes that online courses often result in things like stronger peer reviews from students. She finds the student reviews are more thorough because students can take time to further develop their ideas on what worked well and where there’s room for improvement in each other's work.
As online and hybrid course coordinator, Barker serves as the liaison between the School and departments and offices on campuses responsible for technology and distance learning. She stays up-to-date on changes and best practices in online and hybrid teaching and brings this back to the School of Communication faculty, supporting them both in planning for optimal online/hybrid teaching and in implementing and managing various technologies to maximize their teaching.
Barker’s interest in online teaching practices traces back to 2017 when she was a graduate student in the School. During this time, she obtained a specialization in teaching and learning that included courses on best practices for teaching online.
This piqued her interest, inspiring conversations with then-department chair, Daniel McDonald. who was in the process of developing the first online course for the School of Communication. Barker joined as his teaching assistant.
Barker then transitioned to a lecturer role and ultimately added on the role as the school’s online and hybrid course coordinator.
“I knew that I wanted to teach,” Barker said. “And the opportunity came up that I could be a lecturer here, and, within my first year of being a lecturer, it was kind of discovered that we needed more online classes and help developing those.”
Barker currently teaches Introduction to Organizational Communication and Principles of Effective Public Speaking as online courses and Media Writing and Editing and Introduction to Lantern TV in a hybrid format.
Barker said the hybrid design in Introduction to Lantern TV is helpful because it gives students days to be creative and gather content outside of the classroom. Afterward, students can discuss with Barker what they filmed and any difficulties they had.
Before coming to Ohio State, Barker worked as a freelance editor for WBNS-10, where she edited news and sports stories. Her experience in the news inspired her to become a teacher. She was often asked to help new interns and loved seeing them start to apply new skills on their own. It brought her joy to know she was helping them in their career.
“I loved working with college students,” Barker said. “It's a really cool time in someone's life, and I enjoy being a part of that.”
A particularly rewarding aspect of teaching is seeing her former students succeed.
“If I could play any small role in that, it makes me feel successful,” Barker said. “And it's been really fun to see some of my former students go out into the professional world and really kill it out there.”
Article by students Taylor May and Jessica Barboza
