Colorado Mountain College eNews

College honors Burke as adjunct faculty of year for distance learning

By Suzie Romig

When Glenwood Springs resident and longtime local nurse Judy Burke wanted to earn her bachelor’s degree years ago, she turned to a then-new partnership at Colorado Mountain College.

In the 1980s, Burke completed her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing through a cooperative program between Colorado Mountain College and Mesa State College. Now, Burke is giving back to CMC through an even-more-cutting-edge training opportunity for those wanting to enter the medical profession. She teaches medical terminology via online distance learning.

In recognition of Burke’s work, she recently was named adjunct faculty member of the year for distance learning.

The nurse has plenty of experience instructing medical terminology after teaching 16 years in the 1med-prep program in the Roaring Fork School District. In 1992, she began teaching dual-credit college and high school courses in the classroom for Colorado Mountain College.

In 2005, Burke tried her hand teaching online. At first she didn’t know if she would like doing most of her teaching from a computer, but she has excelled as a part-time instructor in the virtual world. Currently, she teaches three to four sections of the high-demand class each semester.

Daryl Yarrow, chief executive officer for distance learning at the college, said student evaluations note that Burke is patient, organized, highly responsive, an exceptional teacher, caring and motivated to help her students. These are skills necessary for any instructor, but critically important for teaching students new to Web courses like Burke teaches, or other distance courses taught through interactive video.

“Judy’s high standards and expectations have provided a unique learning experience for her many students,” Yarrow noted. “Judy has a reputation as an outstanding educator who is competent in her field.”

Burke keeps in touch with her students through numerous means: calling and e-mailing them, visiting some at their medical jobs and training others in person to use technology such as the Blackboard computer program that’s required to take the online class.

Students of widely different skill levels take medical terminology, working from their own computers from across the college’s 12,000-square-mile service area and beyond. With the flexibility of online teaching, Burke has even taught during her travels across the U.S.

“There is a fine line between using as much technology as we have available and a comfort level for the students, and I usually try to balance that and make myself available by phone and e-mail,” Burke said.

Since starting her career in Minnesota, Burke has worked as a nurse for 43 years. In 1972, she moved to Glenwood Springs and started working at Valley View Hospital. She remains committed to patient education and care, and still works 12-hour shifts as a critical care staff nurse. She also serves as a preceptor, shepherding and training new nurses in the hospital’s nurse residency program.