During the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) have increased their efforts to harness the latest software and advance with innovative technologies. These promising efforts further enhance the delivery of online instruction to better recruit, retain, and graduate students. Additionally, TCUs have long encouraged their faculty members to explore innovative methods of teaching that motivate and support students. In doing so, TCUs periodically update, enhance, and improve their methods of instruction, which includes honing their computer skills, identifying which learning modalities best fit a particular discipline and/or curriculum, and recognizing that what works in the classroom may not work via remote learning and vice-versa. Moreover, TCUs stress that mainstream pedagogy must correlate with the technology to adequately articulate and convey the epistemologies, philosophies, cultures, histories, languages, and experiences of Indigenous peoples.

During my undergraduate years at Navajo Community College (now Diné College) from 1990 to 1992, the internet was still an unknown medium for many Navajo students, and computers were mostly utilized to type and develop final research papers. At that time, our college offered no online courses, no forms of distance education, and no correspondence courses. A couple of years later when I entered military service, I discovered that the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves provided military correspondence courses via snail mail. An enlisted Marine could sign up for various correspondence courses related to his or her military training and occupational specialty. I participated and quickly discovered that it was really boring. The process involved flipping through a red booklet comprised of black and white print of technical writing and then filling in the circle-dots with an accompanying folder. I just did not have the interest or motivation. This whole thing was so tedious and monotonous that it actually reminded me of the Indian Boarding School’s Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). To give you an idea how un-motivating and uninspiring these standardized tests could be, friends would playfully create artistic and geometric Navajo rug designs as they filled in the little circles. The standardized CTBS testing was an annual occurrence in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education systems. Fortunately, researchers, educators, and scholars have argued that standardized testing methods are inappropriate for Indigenous students.

In time, I discovered and learned about the multiple benefits of distance instruction when combined with the convenience of computers. I began exploring the world wide web, harnessing the internet, and utilizing email. This new way of collecting, sending, and exchanging data and information through technology would alter how I saw the world. The possibilities became endless.

My first stint with online instruction began at Diné College (DC) in 2001 with the help of an international professor named Dr. Mikal Moskow, who was working at a Swedish university and was instructing an intercultural course. Together we collaborated on a cross-cultural exchange project in which her students were encouraged to learn about Navajo society and my students about Sweden. Dr. Moskow was kind enough to set up an email exchange between our students, a chatroom where they could engage in conversations, and periodic teleconferences. This international project made me realize that I could potentially go beyond the traditional four walls of a classroom by harnessing multiple technologies that could enhance students’ learning experience. Two decades later, Dr. Moskow and I still keep in touch via email.

Around the turn of the 21st century, DC was increasingly incorporating and promoting the delivery of television-satellite courses where faculty could interact with three different groups simultaneously. Over time, I noticed that each group would attempt to present in a manner that was an improvement upon what the previous group had done. It worked very well for my political science courses. Lectures had a causal approach, and students were encouraged to work together in order to produce a PowerPoint and to provide an overview of the assigned amendments and articles.

By 2009, as I was taking graduate courses in history at the University of Arizona (UA), DC encouraged me to consider offering online courses. As an adjunct faculty member living in Tucson, I jumped on the opportunity, exploring ways to harness the software and setting up my curriculum. I continued this process of investigating the best practices to communicate with my online students during the following two summers. I found that online instruction worked well for history courses, which were presented in a linear fashion.

In the fall of 2011, as I was pursuing a Master of Arts degree in higher education at UA, Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC) hired me as faculty. I had to commute 70 miles to work in Sells, Arizona, and then another 70 miles back to Tucson—a daily round trip of 140 miles, which I made Monday through Friday. This would ultimately strain my wallet and resources, including the wear and tear on my vehicle. I could have commuted with coworkers who carpooled in a company van in the mornings and evenings, but I had to return early to Tucson to attend graduate courses.

Fortunately, my supervisor allowed me some flexibility and agreed that I could offer hybrid courses at TOCC. I followed a teaching method I observed while taking HED courses at UA. My hybrid courses at TOCC were offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, enabling me to provide in-person lectures in Sells on Tuesdays and to collect online assignments and respond to emails from Tucson on Thursdays. TOCC’s videographer assisted me by recording some of my lectures to share with students who missed one. This process was convenient and saved me a lot in gas money. I can still recall how happy some of my TOCC students were about a hybrid course because they also often commuted across the Tohono O’odham reservation, traveling a total of 60 to 100 miles to attend. They were just as glad about saving gas money as I was. Moreover, my TOCC students had expressed concerns about the reliability of their vehicles, worried they’d break down and be stranded while commuting to campus. The lesson: the stress of commuting to a TCU campus can be lessened by developing more online courses and accommodating our students, who often live far away.

As I pursued my PhD at UA in the fall of 2014, Navajo Technical University (NTU) hired me as an adjunct faculty member to instruct online history courses. Again, making use of technology enabled me to procure additional teaching opportunities to earn money and to cover my rising living costs and expenses while residing in Tucson. As before, online instruction allowed me the flexibility to study as a UA graduate student and serve as a graduate teaching assistant during the day and then as an online adjunct faculty member in the evening.

DC hired me part-time in the summer of 2017 to instruct online Navajo Nation Leadership Certificate courses, including a couple of online Navajo language courses for the School of Diné Studies and Education. I continue to instruct a combination of online and hybrid courses for DC’s School of Business and Social Science. Teaching courses in economics has allowed me to explore other online publishing resources, software, and websites to enhance the learning experience for my students. When there are not adequate textbooks available for certain courses, I scour the internet for resources, checking academic journals, websites, videos, and news articles. Sometimes I produce my own lecture videos and share them with my students. And despite having years of online teaching experience, I am in the process of pursuing online teaching certification through Quality Matters.

My online educational journey has been a long endeavor and is an ongoing learning experience. It’s lasted more than three decades, through phases of my life as an undergraduate, graduate, and professional development student. I am grateful for the multiple experiences and the knowledge I have gained through three different TCUs, including the personal challenges that have forced me to think creatively and respond strategically by harnessing various technologies to my advantage. Such experiences, both positive and negative, have informed me about my limitations as well as the options and opportunities I could pursue to empower myself. Over the years, different TCUs and TCU students have contributed to my understanding about distance education.

Gregory I. Redhouse, PhD (Diné) is faculty at Diné College.