Cathy Snoddy: Junior college works to expand online courses

Huntington Junior College, which celebrated its 70th year in downtown Huntington in 2007, has been working to expand the distance education courses available to students.

The college offers eight associate degree programs and three certificate programs.

The college offers a Realtime Reporting program to prepare students for jobs as court reporters or broadcast captioners. Students learn how to translate the spoken word into written text at 225 words per minute. This expanding career field provides a valuable service to the judicial system and ensures that people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing have equal access to information.

The college also introduced a new medical coding program. This program was put in place to meet Tri-State employers' growing need for medical coders. Students in the Medical Coding program learn how to convert patient activities that occur in a medical office into codes that are used to bill insurance companies. This program already has seen successful employment opportunities for its graduates.

In 2007, the college participated in a program to test an online classroom that will allow more interaction between students and teachers. This classroom environment promotes interaction between students who are separated by both geography and time. Even though students do not have to be logged into a classroom at the same time, they can still work on projects and share personal experiences about the material being covered in the class. The new technology also makes the learning experience easier for the students to access.

In 2008, the college is receiving a federal grant, with the help of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., to expand the distance education classes offered in the Realtime Reporting program. The funds will be used to increase the number of courses offered online along with the technology used to offer these classes.

The college is one of the few schools in the nation to be using new technology such as Second Life, a virtual world created by its users, in the classroom environment. Students are getting the opportunity to interact with people from different cities, states and countries to understand the impact of different cultures on world events. Students are getting the opportunity to express their personalities through the creation of avatars, blogs, Wikis and personal Web pages.

The college is looking forward to the next year working with the community to continue to provide high quality education for students and the community.

Dr. Cathy Snoddy is assistant director of Huntington Junior College.