Written by Heather Walker, Program Coordinator, DigiTex
Glenda Cotton is a mom of seven who has found success with digital course sharing through DigiTex, powered by Acadeum. Originally from Munday, Texas, she has worked for the Brownwood Independent School District since 1994 and has aspirations to become a coach who moves about among the campuses in the Brownwood school district. She quit school to have her first daughter when she was seventeen, but she made a promise to herself at that time that she would go back to school once she had put all of her children through school; and that’s exactly what she’s doing now! She is currently working on her Associate’s degree in General Education at Cisco College and will graduate in May 2023.
To complete her degree, she needed a Biology course but soon discovered that she could not take this class through Cisco College at the time that she needed it. So she did some research, and in doing so she learned about course sharing through Acadeum and discovered that Western Texas College, a DigiTex member institution, offered the class that she needed. At first the class was somewhat challenging because navigating an online learning management system was new to Glenda. Having been used to paper and pencil previously, she would sometimes print out materials from the course to help her study. However, she persevered and asked the instructor for some assistance, and she soon discovered that it was easy to find the things that she needed to complete the course. Her instructor was particularly helpful and was always ready to help out when she didn’t understand something. She also really enjoyed interacting with other students through the discussion board and felt that she learned a lot from the class.
Being able to take her Biology class through DigiTex course sharing powered by Acadeum has definitely helped Glenda to stay on track for her degree completion, since it would have taken her an extra semester to graduate without it. If she hadn’t found this course when she needed it, then her other option would have been to take a Horticulture class through Cisco College. This would have required her to drive into the campus one day per week, and that was something that she didn’t want to do. When she found the online Biology course, she knew that this was her answer, and with her completion of this course, she is on track to graduate this May 2023.
To any students who are considering taking digital classes via course sharing, Glenda says, “Do it!” We know that this hard-working mom, who was also recently named paraprofessional of the year for Brownwood ISD, will be a big success in her future career as a coach!
