At West Coast University's 2026 Process Education Conference, Dr. E brought the Teach It Like You Stream It framework home to the institution where he has taught online since 2019 — a hybrid workshop on making Zoom learning genuinely engaging for the faculty who teach distance students every day.
Why this room mattered
West Coast University is one of the leading nursing and health-science institutions in the country, and most of its general-education courses are delivered online to students working toward demanding clinical degrees. As online faculty at WCU since 2019, Dr. E proposed a session to share the synchronous and asynchronous practices he has refined in his own virtual classrooms — directly with the instructors building those same online courses.
A face to the name
Because all of Dr. E's WCU classes are online, the conference was the first time many colleagues met him in person. After years of teaching for the university entirely through a screen, finally putting a face to the name made the workshop feel less like a guest talk and more like a reunion.
Making online the main classroom
The core message was simple: when most of your courses are online, the online experience is the institution. A Zoom call is a meeting tool by default — but with a few intentional shifts in layout, scenes, and camera presence, it becomes a place students can actually feel engaged in. For an institution whose students are online precisely because they are working toward a better future, that quality directly shapes whether they finish.
When most of your courses live online, the screen isn't a backup — it's the front of the room. The tools to make it engaging are already in your hands.
Key takeaways from the workshop
- Online is the main classroom, not a backup. Where most general-ed courses are delivered online, the quality of the online experience directly shapes whether students complete their degrees.
- Broadcasting tools make distance learning feel close. Scenes, layouts, and intentional camera presence turn a routine Zoom session into something students can actually engage with.
- Faculty development is the multiplier. Sharing a repeatable toolkit with instructors who already teach online spreads the impact across every course and every cohort.
What people said
"This is a great way to make use of your tech and translate your passion for teaching using our studio lab at WCU — a new collaboration."
What this session opened up
Beyond the workshop itself, PEC 2026 opened the door to a new collaboration — bringing Dr. E's broadcasting approach into WCU's own studio lab so faculty can build engaging online lessons with institutional support. For a school that takes pride in serving students across the country online, it's a natural next step.