Karen LaMarsh is an online M. Ed, Adult Education alumna. She finished her M. Ed degree program up in 2005, and is now working on her Ed. D with UGA, intending to finish by December 2015. She is currently the Interim Director for Continuing Education at Clayton State University.

UGA Online: Where are you from and where did you get your undergraduate degree?

Karen LaMarsh: I got my undergrad of health systems from Georgia Tech, which was a traditional right out of high school thing. I was a stay at home mom, and I went back to work when my children got a little bit older, and I went to Continuing Education at Kennesaw State. I moved up there, and realized I’m learning this on the job when I’d like some more formal education to learn why we do the things that we do. Of course, I couldn’t just stop working to step out and get an education, and UGA started this M. Ed online cohort program, so my associate dean recommended it to me, saying, “I know you’re looking for something more.” I was able to do that, and did it totally online. There’s no way I could’ve achieved that if it hadn’t been online. I couldn’t take time off work and couldn’t drive up to Athens. 

UGA:  Was this your first time taking an online class, or have you had experience with them previously?

KLM: It was totally my first time.

UGA: What was your biggest surprise?

KLM: Navigating the platforms was a bit of a surprise initially. Also, in traditional class you can be so spontaneous, and people aren’t recording you, but online, when you’re posting things, it’s out there.  It becomes a thread and people can see it. So you’re very conscious of what you’re writing and communicating well. Someone might come back and challenge you on what you just said, which is good, since it made you be more thoughtful about what you were saying. Sometimes, I would read a perspective I had never thought of. I had a certain mindset, and I would read a different perspective, and I had time to process it and think about it and many times I would expand my thinking based on what they had proposed or what they had shared.

UGA: What was it like having solely virtual communication with your classmates and professors?

KLM: What I learned through an online course is that you don’t perceive people by what they look like and what they do. All you have online is what they say, you don’t have any biases, you’re very truly listening to what they say and you’re very careful about what you’re writing up because you know they’re reading your stuff. At the same time, we finally all met at graduation, and that was great.

UGA: Why did you pick UGA to do your Master’s program at?

KLM: Well, I looked at some other institutions–once I knew about the online program, I searched to see what else is out there, and I looked at it and like Georgia State and some other programs, but I chose UGA because of the professors. The people that they had teaching the courses. They were internationally recognized people in their field. The part I love so much about being at UGA is especially with adult education, we’re actually in a class where our professors are people who are in the adult education Hall of Fame. We read articles and journals, and they’re the very people who are teaching our classes. They just want to share everything that they know with us and that’s been great.

UGA: Tell me more about yourself outside of academic information. What are your hobbies?

KLM: I do like to travel. I like to go to Europe. And cruises, I like those. Anything with a beach, I’m good. France is my favorite. My favorite cruise is probably the Western Caribbean, that was Cancun and Cozumel. I’d really like to do the Southern, to Aruba and that area, and there is a lot in the States I’d like to see. I’ve gone skydiving with my daughter when she turned 21. I’m a little bit of a risk taker, I guess. I’ve also got a pretty committed family life, since I have grandchildren. Trying to work around class was kind of hard. I also love to read.