So You've Decided to Develop A Distance Education Class . . . As colleges and universities race into Distance Education via the World Wide Web, instructors are asked to move out of their "safe" zones and into a new realm of teaching. (See this Website on the growth of distance education and the lack of teacher preparedness: http://www.umich.edu/pres/inforev/executive.html.) Often colleges and universities don't provide the necessary training or release time that instructors need in order to develop a successful online course. However, dedicated instructors will seek out others who are already successful in the Distance Education world and will try to find answers to the question, "How do I develop a successful online course?"Many instructors rely on their people/communication skills in order to be successful in the classroom. When talking to a student, information can be relayed because the instructor and student are completing the communication model of sender to receiver and receiver to sender. If a student is puzzled, her non-verbal cues communicate this vital piece of information to the professor. When the student needs further elaboration, he can ask questions. As a very people-oriented person, I often rely on my oral ability to communicate in order to get me through a class. I know that my personality can drive a class. But, one cannot rely on his/her oral presentational ability to teach an online class. She must find a way to use technology to convey these same messages without the same dynamics found in a face-to-face classroom.
Some Useful Programs
http://www.ecollege.com http://www.blackboard.com http://www.webct.com http://www.daedalus.com
Research has indicated that Distance Education with good interaction between students and between instructor and students may be as good, if not better, than traditional teaching with respect to completion rates (Long, Treloar, Erble). So, for those of us currently teaching online courses, who are experiencing only a 50 percent or lower retention rate, we must ask ourselves, "Am I creating a good atmosphere for communication? Am I using technology wisely?"
Facilitating learning communities at a distance requires some new approaches. Effective faculty must start with a completely new mindset about where technology fits into the teaching equation. Instructors must ask themselves, "How do I achieve the right balance between presentation and experiential activity? Between individual and collaborative learning? Between teacher-driven and learner-driven assignments?" The answers to these questions are not simple. But finding good answers always takes work. Some ideas from Lisa Kimball to help you "find a new mindset":This change in mindset can help better prepare teachers to teach in online environments. Some interesting articles have already been published regarding this change of mindset, such as Webster Newbold's article "Teaching on the Internet: Transactional Writing Instruction on the World Wide Web," and Patricia Cravener's metaconversation "Flexible Delivery Culture."
- Move From the belief that face-to-face is best to the belief that various environments support high quality learning
- Move From learning happens when student/teacher interact to learning happens in a boundary less way
- Move From being people oriented is incompatible with technology to distance education is people oriented
- Move From blaming technology when learning process breaks down to when learning process breaks down, evaluate teaching strategies
A second important step in developing a successful online course is the ability to listen to one's students. After just two weeks in my first online course, students were complaining. They tried to use the program chosen by the university, but kept reporting difficulties and frustrations. At first I thought it was a lack of interest and dedication on the students' part. After all, I had posted the assignments on the Web site and students should just be able to follow my agenda. But soon I realized their complaints were valid. You see, I had forgotten to put myself in the students' place and navigate through the site. After logging on as a student and trying to get to where I needed to be, I quickly became frustrated and lost interest in pursuing the class as a student. And if I could become this frustrated, wanting to quit, then what must my students have been thinking?
After I read students' first "formal" essays, I was shocked by the differences in writing levels between my "traditional" classes and my "online" classes. Were the students online taking the course because they were unable to write effectively and thought they could slide through because it was an online class? Looking back, I wonder why I was surprised when the level of responses to daily assignments was so varied. Surely having someone physically present to answer questions, lead students through assignments and the actual dialogue in the classroom made life easier for my face-to-face students. Common sense should have told me that. But, were there other reasons? Had I failed my students? Probably.
The following are some tips designed to help prevent new online instructors from making the same mistakes I did:
- Keep an introductory description of the course online throughout the duration of the course, and especially before the course begins. This enables potential students to communicate with the instructor prior to the class in order to get a feel for the instructor and his/her teaching methodologies, promptness in responding to students, and teaching methodologies.
- Provide students training in accessing and navigating your site. Faulkner University now requires a mandatory meeting for all students enrolled in an online course. Each instructor meets with his/her students in a computer lab and helps students navigate through the site before actually beginning the class. During this training, students have the opportunity to make sure that videos work, bulletin boards hold enough information and all navigational codes function.
- The course syllabus should be presented no later than the first class date. I'm always amazed at how many instructors wait to post their syllabus for an online class. These same professors would never consider entering a face-to-face class the first day without a syllabus. Remember! The syllabus is a contract between the instructor and student. Waiting several days to post a syllabus means you are not honoring the contract.
- Make online material attractive. Web sites that appeal to students make learning fun. Use your creativeness from the classroom on your Web site. Incorporate videos. Don't be afraid of clipart and pictures.
- Use a wealth of links to other sites as part of your curriculum. Your face-to-face classes are not linear. You bring in handouts and speakers. Do the same with your online classes. Link them to a video of Martin Luther King presenting "I Have A Dream." Fly them through the Parthenon while music from Star Wars permeates the air. Make your classes come alive. These links will also aid you in reaching students with all learning styles.
- Provide a timeline for students and expect them to meet all deadlines. Many instructors give suggested deadlines but require all work to be turned in at the end of the semester. For writing teachers, this attitude teaches our students that writing can be "cranked out" at the last minute for the purpose of receiving a grade. How can students learn about the writing process, much less employ said process, without deadlines. We do not allow our face-to-face students to write everything in a week, why would we allow our online students to do this?
- Be accessible for your students. Set up email office hours. Keep up with online questions and bulletin board responses. If you expect students to meet weekly and interact, you should do the same. I am very cognizant of the fact that students have more questions when deadlines are near. Therefore I try to check my email on an hourly basis throughout the day and early evening so that students will receive quick responses to their questions. Webster Newbold discusses this in detail.
- Organize email messages by topic so that students are given the chance to participate in class and show a part of themselves and their thinking processes. This also allows the instructor the opportunity to see where students are having difficulty and note whether other students can provide the guidance or whether the instructor needs to step in with assistance.
- Organization. Organization. Organization. In our face-to-face classes, we often work in a very linear fashion. Many programs are not linear. If you don't understand your overall organizational structure, neither will the students. One of my biggest downfalls during my first semester teaching DE was the fact that I was unable to follow the "logical" sequence of the program we were using. My students noticed my failure in this area very quickly.
- Probably most important – keep class interesting. None of us would consider lecturing for a whole class period. So, why would we expect students to sit and read through notes for an hour and a half? Avoid too much text without a break. Vary activities. Incorporate lots of different colors. Try not to be too formal in your writing. Make your presentation fit your personality and the style you would portray in an actual face-to-face classroom.
I also talked to several others on campus about the difficulties they were having. Many of the problems were the same. When I found out that we were all having similar problems, I rethought what I was doing and moved my class to my personal Web site. This Web site is more my style because I moved away from the "canned" program to a site that allowed me to develop a class that was all mine. It also met the needs of the students because I had the flexibility to tailor the class to their needs. Now I constantly rework my courses, looking at what worked and what didn't during the previous semester. I poll students and use their advice. I keep my mind open to new possibilities and attempt to step outside my safe face-to-face world and explore the unlimited potential that Distance Education provides.
Distance education via the WWW can be a very rewarding challenge for those who are willing to take risks. But for those fearful of failure, maybe you'd better stay in the face-to-face environment.
Works Cited Cravener, Patricia. "Flexible Delivery Culture." Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 8 November 2001. 5.1 (Spring 2000) < http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/5.1/news/metaconversations/q1cravener.html >.
Erble, Bonnie. "Distance Learning is Getting Nearer." Soiux City Journal June 22, A-6.
Hartley, Sarah. "Twelve Tips for Potential Distance Learners." Medical Teacher 23, Jan 2001: 12-16. Kimball, Lisa. "Managing Distance Learning—New Challenges for Faculty." Unpublished essay, 1998.
Long, Marie "A Study of the Academic Results of On-Campus and Off-Campus Students: Comparative Performance Within Four Australian Tertiary Institutions." Camberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994.
Madden, Doug. "17 Elements of Good Online Courses." Honolulu Community College 3 August 1999. 21 April 2001 < http://www.hcc.Hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/online/web-elem.htm> >.
Newbold, Webster. "Teaching on the Internet: Transactional Writing Instruction on the World Wide Web." Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 8 November 2001. 4.1 (Fall 1999) < http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/4.1/features/newbold >.
Terlour, Carl. "Evaluation of a National and International Distance Education Programme in Clinical Epidemiology." Medical Education 32, 1998: 70-75.