Cyber Class Proving Convenient, Even for Gulf-bound From: University Currents Date: April 26, 2000 Story and photo by: Dawn Fuller Phone: (513) 556-1823 Photo By: Colleen Kelley, Courtesy of John Mercer Archive: Campus News UC information technology major John Mercer is continuing to pursue his baccalaureate degree, despite some time constraints this academic quarter. In addition to attending the College of Evening and Continuing Education two nights a week, Mercer is working two jobs and is also an in-flight refueling specialist with the Air Force Reserves. The military job will take him over the skies near southern Iraq in May, where he will also take a long-distance UC accounting course that continues to be a popular choice for students on the go. When business technologies professor Sanford Kahn first offered his CyberClass three years ago, six students enrolled in one accounting course in which students received instruction and took tests online. Today, CyberClass now features an entire online accounting sequence, "Principles of Accounting I, II and III," with well over 30 students enrolled in the introductory computer classrooms. "People absolutely love it. I don't understand it, but they absolutely love it," says Kahn, who worked with Southwest Publishing to develop CyberClass. "The demand is tremendous." "I think students see this as a unique and different kind of experience that doesn't tie them down. CyberClass provides for contingencies that a traditional class does not." Mercer's mission with the Air Force Reserves is one such contingency. Mercer will leave Cincinnati May 1 to spend a two-week tour of duty in the Persian Gulf. He refuels planes in mid- air by flying on a KC-10A aircraft, the largest refueling tanker used by the Air Force. The mission is tied to Operation Southern Watch, which protects the southern no-fly zone over Iraq. "My intent is to log on to CyberClass while I'm there, depending on how much down time we get," says the Oakley resident. "We do have limited Internet capabilities, but I hope to log on and utilize my down time." Mercer doesn't have much leisure time. The 1985 Loveland High School graduate is also an independent sales rep for American Family Life Insurance of Columbus, Ga. (AFLAC), and owns a part-time travel business. UC student John Williams found he was so successful with CyberClass Principles of Accounting II, the 53-year-old major in human resource management enrolled in the third sequence of the computer classroom. Until CyberClass, Williams says he was having a tough time getting through accounting and was forced to drop two traditional accounting classes because he was struggling. "I just didn't get it," explains the Woodlawn resident and part-time instructor for Scarlet Oaks Vocational School and part-time instructor at Scarlet Oaks Academy. "I had mentioned to one of my fellow students that I was having trouble in accounting and she suggested I take CyberClass. She said she was successful with it." "I could literally work at my own pace and if I ran into trouble, I called Professor Kahn. I also liked that I could take tests any time of the day. I preferred to take them late in the evening, around 10 or 11 o'clock at night." "I never felt like I was pressed," Williams continues. "I had to be disciplined, but I could work at my own pace. I'd pick one day of the week, usually a Friday, and dedicate the entire day to CyberClass to read, study and do the homework." "When I was successful last quarter, my wife even asked my how I did it. I really got something out of it and learned accounting is not as hard as I was trying to make it out to be." CyberClass is not for everyone, particularly procrastinators or students who need a little push to get things done. "I think you have to have your act together to take a course online and I think a lot of people look at it and say, 'Oh my goodness, this is great. I can take my own time and it looks pretty easy,'" says Michael O'Brien, senior sales consultant of Southwest Publishing. "Sandy has mentioned to me that in the fall quarter, right around Thanksgiving, people 'get religion.' They may try and cram a quarter's worth of material into two, three or four weeks." Kahn expects to hear from more CyberClass students who are in the military, as well as students who previously dropped out of college because of a bad experience and decided they wanted to give it another try. Students from UC's College of Applied Science, the College of Mount St. Joseph, Ohio State University and UC's main campus all are signing up for the class, and Kahn has found that ironically, he's developing a close relationship with students even though he doesn't see their faces. They keep in touch through e-mail. "For my traditional classroom students, I'm just a guy who's there and as soon as class is over, out the door they go. But when you're sitting alone at midnight, it's an entirely different relationship." The CyberClass series is listed in the Ohio Learning Network, the online course catalog that features more than 500 distance learning courses statewide. Beginning this summer, "Managerial Accounting I and II" will also be available in a computer classroom.