ELearning/Teaching online/Overview

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Teaching is teaching, right? Well, yes and no. Let’s do a little comparing and contrasting between teaching in the classroom and teaching online. While acknowledging that there are a variety of ways to blend the two, here we concentrate on the two dichotomous ends of the spectrum – the synchronous “real time” classroom and the completely asynchronous online class.

A diffuse presence

The first thing we notice online is the lack of other people “in the flesh.” This is quite obvious to all, but it can be a bit of an emotional shock to instructors who have never taught online. If it’s not shocking, a sense of loss may still creep in after a while. No doubt, the immediacy of the live classroom gives way to a more diffuse online presence for instructors and students alike. Everyone logs in when and where it is convenient; perhaps THE reason people like the online world so much. This fragmentation reflects the reality of the digital world, where text messaging now exceeds voice traffic, where e-friends are more numerous than friends in the flesh, and where people are connected everywhere all the time. We used to lament the mesmerizing effect of television; that’s nothing compared to the iPhone.

However, this fragmentation does not imply that a shared experience, a community of learners is not possible. Just as in the classroom, it must be designed into the course and the instructor must foster its development. Instructor practices that promote community are addressed in the next two sections.

Physical space and temporal space

To be successful at online instruction, we need to reconceptualize the teaching space. The physical space of the classroom gives way to the temporal space of the online class. Whereas we manage the classroom in real synchronous time, we manage the online space at intervals asynchronously. While students are logging on and participating in learning activities 24/7,with milestone dates for each task (Figure 2 below), the instructor monitors this activity, reading email messages, discussion posts, assignments, etc. on specific days of the week.

1. Physical space 2. Temporal space
1. Physical space 2. Temporal space


Think for a moment about how you might fill in your personal calendar for the classroom setting, and then again for an online course. They’re likely to look quite different.

Day Classroom Online
Sunday
Monday Review lecture notes, revise as needed Check email, discussion posts, create assignment reminder announcement (assignment appears automatically)
Tuesday Lecture, discussion, announce assignment 10-11:50am
Wednesday Office hours 3-5pm Check and respond to email, review discussion posts and add comments as appropriate, online office hours 3-5pm
Thursday Lecture, discussion, answer assignment questions 10-11:50am
Friday Check and respond to email, review discussion posts and add comments as appropriate
Saturday
Sunday Check assignment dropbox, do some grading
Monday Review lecture notes, revise as needed
Tuesday Lecture, discussion, collect assignment 10-11:50am, begin grading assignments Check email, review discussion posts and add comments as appropriate


Recommended video: Managing your time when teaching online

Facilitating Learning

3. Facilitating learning

The teaching role is really a composite of several roles, some being:

  • Cheerleader
  • Educator
  • Facilitator
  • Coach

Online, the course itself becomes the primary source of information - through text, audio, video, and interactive learning activities. This is so because these must all be prepared ahead of time and available for 24/7 access. In a very real sense, then, the instructor becomes a guide and facilitator of learning, with the non-transmission roles taking on greater significance for student success. Course designers (perhaps you) do their best to provide clear instruction, precise expectations, and useful feedback via the technology. But with human diversity being what it is, we know this doesn’t ensure success (unless the topic is strictly limited, in which case it becomes training, not education). Human instructors, with our ability to sense lack of understanding, confusion, and conflict need to be ready to provide direction, guidance, additional information, explanation, encouragement, or whatever the student needs to grasp and integrate the essence of what is being taught. Online, instructor presence is different but no less vital.

This is not to say that you don't have additional information to share. In fact, your knowledge and experience are vital to successful student learning. Methods for adding this "up to the minute" contribution include announcements, posting the first message on discussion boards, weekly instructor guidance, summarizing discussions and sending e-mails to all students. You should also consider pod-casting!

Recommended video: Engaging and motivating students

Technology

Considering whether you view technology as (a) evil incarnate, (b) the savior of humanity or (c) something that can be learned with more or less difficulty, your experience will be very different. Either extreme is unhealthy for teaching online. If we fear and loathe technology, every action will be fraught with tension and dread. We won’t be happy and neither will students. On the other hand, if we put too much faith in the technology, we may be tempted to let it run itself – everything is ready and scheduled, so all students have to do is follow instructions. In this case, two things will happen: there will be a technology glitch and we won’t be around to intervene, and students will sense our absence and feel abandoned. “Is anybody there?”

If we do accept that we will teach online, we are committing to learning a minimal level of the technology – the basic operation of the learning management system (LMS). The good news is that managing a course is simpler than building a course. The tools of teaching are generally limited to e-mail, announcements, discussion boards, using the assignment dropbox, and partially or fully grading quizzes and exams. These LMS functions are addressed in a separate section. The remainder of this section looks at specific aspects of the online classroom, beginning with an indepth look at facilitating learning, and continuing on to the vital first two weeks, and rounding out with a look at teaching best practices throughout the course.

Best practices I

Researchers have noted over the past decade that effective teaching has evolved from the role of dispenser of knowledge to being a facilitator of learning, which has influenced teaching practices in both traditional and online classes (Bailey & Card, 2009). Alison King (1993), professor of education at California State University, first coined the phrase “from sage on the stage to guide on the side” to describe this development.

The instructor who wants to become a facilitator of learning requires a different set of pedagogical and andragogical skills that focus on linking students to learning resources, encouraging student initiative, and helping students collaborate with each other in order to develop personal mastery of course content.

As mentioned earlier, online instructors fulfill multiple roles: social, pedagogical/andragogical, management, and technological. Novice instructors tend to concentrate on the management role, giving directions on assignments and referrals for technical or tutorial assistance (Morris & Finnegan, 2008) while shying away from the other roles.

When instructors teach an online course, their time is more fragmented and occurs over more days of the week. Bailey & Card (2009) interviewed fifteen award-winning instructors; factor analyzed their responses, and arrived at eight effective pedagogical practices for online instruction:

Fostering relationships. To counter student perceptions of "aloneness," instructors must tend to their social needs. This aspect of teaching online is examined at length in the Learning Communities section of Foundations. “I look forward to every e-mail. It's like, here's another opportunity. I don't ever look at 'em as a problem. You know, it's like, wow, so what can I do here to help this person out a little bit?”

Engagement. To accomplish this, they use e-mails, discussion boards, sharing student biographies and student group projects. “I think the entire online course should be focused around discussion. The output that they produce in terms of thought, in terms of their written assignments is just so much better than I ever got in on-campus classes, so much better.”

Timliness. They met this criterion by returning graded assignments promptly, frequently checking e-mails and responding to questions, plus realistically assessing the volume of time required for teaching online classes.

Communication. Instructors foster communication by giving timely feedback on completed assignments, responding to written questions, communicating requirements, and informing students when they will be away. Whenever instructors communicate through e-mail and text, they have to be very attentive to their communication styles and the words they use, since the nonverbal channels are not available.

Organization. It is important to students to be able to navigate the online course and find out what they are required to do to be successful. An instructor can provide effective organization for students by utilizing the course management software tools, providing links to Web sites and other supplemental course materials, and having all course materials available to students by the first day of class. “Many students are adult learners, and they want to know what's going to be expected of them all the way down the road. They don't want any big surprises.”

Technology. They promoted the importance of personally developing technical competency in the core areas being taught and innovations in computer hardware and software programs. Instructors reported using a wide variety of technological tools to deliver course materials and to assist with student learning. “We're seeing a lot more of even the traditional classes utilizing online technology.”

Flexibility. Keeping an open mind and having the ability to adapt. It is important to have patience when using online tools. Problems that may test the patience of both faculty and students: system delays, operating system and browser compatibility, system reliability, and being able to communicate using only the written medium. “You have to maintain that flexibility. You have to have a lot of patience, which I have learned because, yes, we are in a world where technology is widely used; my experience has been that it is not perfect.”

High Expectations. Instructors emphasized the importance of defining course goals and learning objectives and clearly establishing these expectations at the beginning and throughout the course. “Through the syllabus that I'm giving to each student, I try to make it as specific as possible, all the learning objectives, the goals, what's expected of them, what they can expect of me.” “You can't let them figure it out on their own. You have to tell them. You shape expectations right away. Students are happy, and they do better.”


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