Digital learning at Virginia Tech

Digital learning at Virginia Tech

This semester I am taking my last classes. They all use plenty of digital content compared to any of the classes I took in Finland.

Scholar is the digital gateway to all my classes. Every class has its own page and these pages contain the syllabus, assignments, announcements, forums, wiki pages, polls, calendar, and other content for participants.I have found this extremely useful tool both in managing the classes I am assisting in and classes I am taking.


I am a teaching assistant in Mammary Immunology class this semester. I have the opportunity to use the scholar tools to manage the class. I have found that sending reminders via scholar to all students and posting materials have been the most useful features thus far. I would like to add interesting news articles for students to see on the front page to bring a bit of every day dairy and immunology content to their attention.

The on-line class on emerging infectious disease is naturally fully on-line. PowerPoint slides can be printed out and the visiting lecturers have a talk recorded with the power point presentation. This is still a bit passive to my tastes. Maybe because it is a pass/fail class, the content is not as varied. Preparing the Future Professoriate and Modern Pedagogy classes are a whole other story. They both have very interactive in-class formats. Both also require blogging as part of attendance. Forums are also used when needed. The blogs for these classes are designed to start us on professional blogging. This is going to be a kick-start for me to actually write every day in either blogs, forums, or most importantly my thesis.

Here is a link to my professional blog: http://blogs.lt.vt.edu/highoneducation/

Preliminary examination and CRWAD

The time has come for me to take the preliminary examination to get promoted from graduate student to PhD candidacy. Preliminary examination should test the graduate students limits of knowledge on the topics relevant to their research and studies. The committee decides if the knowledge base was wide enough or if more classes need to be taken and examination re-taken. Needless to say this is a big deal and a source of stress.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1419

The examination in my case started with 4 days of written exams, one day for each of my committee member. The committee is a collection of people with PhD under their belt, meant to help me in my research and degree. I have one expert in proteomics, department head of dairy science, and two immunologists. This all culminates in an oral examination by the committee. Never have I been so out of my depth. The cross-examination was very challenging and remembering even most basic things was a struggle due to the extreme stress. At least I recalled my own name. Apparently some people knot themselves up so completely, this simple question baffles them. Luckily I passed.

After preliminary examination the yearly CRWAD (Conference for Research Workers in Animal Disease) meeting preparations begun and before Christmas we headed to Chicago for three days. I absolutely loved it. I got to see some people I met last year and hung out with new people between talks. Sadly the boss could not be there this year. Luckily her old PhD adviser took us under her wing. Like an academic grand adviser. This year the poster competition 1st place was mine! And I did not even faint on anyone. According to the lab tradition, after winning 1st place you are no longer allowed to have posters for meetings. Next year I will have to give a talk, which will be a whole new bad off stress. But I am actually looking forward to it.