Thanks to the support of the Asian American Journalism Association (AAJA), NewsU was able to create its first online group seminar (OGS).  An OGS is a e-learning module that allows for more interaction between faculty and participants and among the participants themselves. Mae Cheng, one of the more forward looking journalists at the association, saw e-learning as an opportunity to provide additional services to AAJA members.  Mae asked about the possibility of working with Poynter on e-learning even before Poynter had received the Knight grant for the NewsU project.  Here’s her October 2002 email to Paul Pohlman and other members of the faculty.  I was the Institute’s Presidential Scholar and wouldn’t join the faculty until January 2003.

—–Original Message—–
From: Mae.Cheng@newsday.com [mailto:Mae.Cheng@newsday.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:46 AM
To: paulp@poynter.org
Cc: Evelyn Hsu; Howard Finberg; Chip Scanlan; Al Tompkins
Subject: aaja

Hi Paul,
I hope this finds you well.
Just wanted to check back with you on two fronts:
The first is that our convention co-chairs and I have gone through your 2003 course offerings, and the following list are the sessions that most intrigue us. Do you think there’s any way we can get a couple of these sessions to San Diego for our convention in August?
1. Poynter leadership for mid-level editors
2. tough choices: doing ethics
3. advanced power reporting for reporters/photojournalists
4. collaboration conference: storytelling partnerships
5. enterprise and investigative reporting for broadcast
6. reporting on race relations.

The second thing I wanted to ask you is if there’s been any further
thought at Poynter about partnering with us to offer an online training program. [Bold added –Hif]

Thanks.

Mae