Teaching Online Weather Studies as a hybrid course in traditional classroom setting

Online Weather studies course will be taught first time during the fall semester, 2005 at UTB. It will be offered with one 3-credit hour lecture and two 1-credit hour labs format. According to the current UTB course enrollment website, 30 students are enrolled for the lecture. Most of them are non-science majors. About 43% of them are sophomore-level students. Together, freshman- and sophomore level students make up 70% of the class.

Teaching methods to be implemented for the course, and their results will be discussed. Online weather studies listserv was beneficial in formulating teaching methods and strategies. The lectures will be generated in powerpoint format. Lectures will have question and answer structure. Study sheets for the chapters will be provided. Two lecture seminars by National Weather Service-Brownsville forecast office (NWSBFO) professional will introduce students to the climatology of the region and to the related meteorological phenomenon. Testing will be conducted with 4 scheduled exams and 4 pop-up quizzes format. Course requirements will include weather journal and a field trip to NWSBFO. Weather journal will require students to observe local weather conditions and to apply classroom concepts. A visit to the NWSBFO will enable the students to understand weather forecast instrumentation and methodology.