Christian Purvis-Aldrich
 
 
Maybe you’ve already taken a dozen classes online, or maybe this is your first time.  I’ve taken online classes and they are DIFFERENT and a challenge.  Online classes are convenient, since you can fit them in to your busy life when you have the time.  As an online student, my experience has been that I felt fairly isolated.  When I was confused with an assignment, it seemed like I had to wait FOREVER to get an answer.  In reality, my classmates or instructor would get back to me with help in a few hours, but the lag was really frustrating, especially if I was working on a project late at night and would have to wait until the next day for help.  I certainly don’t want to scare you away from this class.  Actually I want to encourage you to work through the initial frustration and know that even though you can’t see me, I’m here.  

One of my biggest priorities is to build a sense of community in the classroom, to give everyone a place to have real, honest and open discussions about ideas that are important to your life.  For me, meeting new people with new ideas and perspectives is one of the most valuable parts of taking a class; it’s also one of the things I enjoy most about teaching.  So if you are sitting at your computer at 2 a.m., wondering where everyone is and how long it will be before you get an answer to a question, please try to be patient and know that I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.   I know online learning can be frustrating, but I will do my best to close the gaps in communication that are inherent to the process.  I hope you will join us.
While I’m waiting for my De Anza website, I’ve put together this site to show you the basic information for my EWRT 2 and EWRT 1B classes
 
Information for My Online De Anza Students