Jennifer Merlic

Professor

“VOH succeeds because students have no trouble using the program. You click, you get answers—it’s fun!”

In SMC’s not too distant future, the only office address you may need to know is the following: http://voh.smc.edu. It’s a place on the Web where SMC professor of Chemistry Jennifer Merlic virtually lives these days while overseeing some very high-tech innovations. “VOH stands for Virtual Office Hours; a World Wide Web-based system that originated in the Chemistry department at UCLA, where my husband is also ‘Professor Merlic,’” explains Jennifer. “What it’s really becoming is a kind of ‘office hours’ where students can ask faculty any question—24 hours a day, and from home or wherever they may be. This means a lot to students who work or raise kids or have to study at 3 a.m., because they’ll get the answers they need without having to make a trip to campus.” But easy access is only a small part of the VOH picture.

“This is a completely open system where students from all over the world can get answers from SMC professors,” says Jennifer. “But more importantly, SMC students can browse for frequently asked questions, access databanks of previous tests and their answers, and get the class syllabus, hand-outs, and test-and-answer keys. And animation is entering into the science programs,” she adds excitedly. “Computers have the power to present cute cartoons of molecules interacting that convey the mental image a scientist has of a chemical process. In this sense, we’re handing over thought processes directly to our students.”

Jennifer extends thanks from all of SMC to the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, which provided the grant for VOH, now a reality that is growing exponentially. “The SMC department chairs are responding affirmatively to becoming a part of this project as well,” she adds. “It won’t be long before all the knowledge at SMC becomes available, in some form, on the Web.” But SMC, itself, still awaits you at 1900 Pico Boulevard. And—with virtual certainty—it always will.

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