Guidelines for Successful Teaching and Learning ‘Online’

1. Guidelines for Successful Teaching and Learning ‘Online’ John R. Savery, Ph.D. Director of Learning Technologies The University of Akron e-Read Ohio Summit

2. Talking Points • Challenges of teaching in 21st century • Challenges of teaching in current schools • Expanding the concept of ‘classroom’ • Visiting a foreign land • The VOCAL model e-Read Ohio Summit

3. Challenges of 21st century teaching • The technologies that support the ‘Information Age’ have made available unimagined amounts of information to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. • ‘Lockstep’ age/grade level approaches to education are being questioned as the appropriate way to prepare students for the coming decades. e-Read Ohio Summit

4. “We are living in exponential times. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet using technologies that have not been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q e-Read Ohio Summit

5. Classroom Teaching Environments • Sadly, the dominant model for public education continues to mirror the industrial age ‘assembly line’ approach. • Produce the most product (to standards) in the shortest time with the fewest defects. • Instruction typically occurs in a room with teacher and students ‘same place - same time.’ • Content (curriculum to be learned) is usually organized by topics and taught in time slots specified for that topic. e-Read Ohio Summit

6. Expanding the concept of ‘classroom’ • Current K-12 students are digital natives. • Their familiarity with technology is impressive as is their ability to pick up on new technology. • This does not mean they are better learners or better students - just different. • The variable that has changed is ‘time’. e-Read Ohio Summit

7. Educational advantages of online environments • Supplementing a course with web-based tools may help by: • Enhancing student-to-student and faculty-to-student communication. • Enabling student-centered teaching approaches. • Providing 24/7 accessibility to course materials. • Providing just-in-time methods to assess and evaluate student progress. • Reducing "administrivia" around course management. • Source: Benefits of Online Learning, (1999) white paper prepared by Blackboard Inc. e-Read Ohio Summit

8. Learning outside the classroom • Homework - with embedded guidance • Students that need it can access it • Students that do not can skip it • Rich multimedia resources to augment what can be shared in a classroom. • Ability to individualize instruction on BOTH sides of the middle range. e-Read Ohio Summit

9. Growth in Online Learning • A survey of 2 and 4-year educational institutions reported that in the 12-month 2000-2001 academic year, there were an estimated 2,876,000 enrollments in college-level, credit-granting distance education courses, with 82 percent of these at the undergraduate level. • Waits and Lewis (2003) e-Read Ohio Summit

10. Growth in Online Learning • 2002-03 survey of public school districts: • 36 percent had students in the district enrolled in distance education courses • an estimated 328,000 enrollments in distance education courses among students regularly enrolled in public school districts • Source: Setzer and Lewis (2005) e-Read Ohio Summit

11. Visiting a foreign land • Teaching online is like visiting a country where you do not know the: • language • social norms • how stuff works • …or even where stuff is located • The unfamiliar can be BOTH exciting and scary - but it is seldom boring. e-Read Ohio Summit

12. So why do we travel? • Curiosity, desire for change or adventure • Willingness to explore and learn • Chance to change routines • Teaching online has similar motivations • After a few visits the ‘unknown’ becomes ‘familiar’. e-Read Ohio Summit

13. "means of assistance" • Gallimore and Tharp (1990) describe six teacher strategies. • Modeling - is the offering of behavior for imitation. It is usually non-verbal. • Contingency Management- is used by the instructor to reward desired behaviors through praise/encouragement, or to control undesirable behaviors through punishment in the form of reprimand/censure. e-Read Ohio Summit

14. Feeding Back - is responding to learner performance in relation to a given standard or set of criteria. It often includes grades. • Instructing - is concerned with direct teaching/telling and the assigning of tasks. It is usually embedded in other means of assistance but may be identified as “whenever the teacher assumes responsibility for assisting performance.” e-Read Ohio Summit

15. Questioning - is used to assist the learner as a prompt or to assess as in a test question. Questions are used to stimulate thinking - to provoke creations by the student. • Cognitive Structuring - is used to help the learner organize 'raw' experience. The teacher provides a structure for thinking or acting. e-Read Ohio Summit

16. Translate to Online Teaching • The six ‘means of assistance’ are very applicable in an online environment. • When the only means of communication is text - precise writing is critical. e-Read Ohio Summit

17. BE VOCAL Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors e-Read Ohio Summit

18. Full disclosure • The Vocal model grew out of my efforts to teach experienced classroom teachers how to be successful in online learning environments: • as learners in a new format for professional development • as teachers in a new delivery format for instruction e-Read Ohio Summit

19. My guiding light… e-Read Ohio Summit

20. Teaching Context • The three credit graduate course was named “Strategies for Online Teaching” • Taught seven sections since Fall 2002 including shorter summer sessions. • Class size ranged from 10 - 18. e-Read Ohio Summit

21. Blended Model • For most students this was their first significantly online course. • Class met face-to-face at the beginning, middle and end of the course. • The blended approach helped to establish and maintain relationships between the students and the instructor. • Going 100% online is not recommended as a starting point for teachers or learners. e-Read Ohio Summit

22. Online Learning Environment • The tools used were those common to most learning management systems: • Communication • E-mail messages, discussion forum, chat rooms • Content management • Content modules – documents, PPT shows, images • Learning Management • Online assignments (digital drop box) e-Read Ohio Summit

23. Communication • Typical statistics for one class • Total email messages – 1280 • Total discussion postings – 1210 • Most individual posts - 178 • Most individual ‘hits’ - 1766 e-Read Ohio Summit

24. Teaching Strategies • Modeling by Instructor • Why? • When YOU teach YOUR classes online YOU will need to do many of the same things you have watched me do in this class. • Avoid repeating my mistakes. • Critically select strategies from the many possibilities to reflect your own style. e-Read Ohio Summit

25. Teaching Strategies • Read an article – discuss an article • Why? • Develop confidence and competence with threaded discussion tools • Develop shared knowledge base • WRITE (communication model) • Time management skills • Learn to manage debate and conflict e-Read Ohio Summit

26. Teaching Strategies • Leadership roles in discussions of readings • Moderator • Yenta • Summarizer • Why? • At least 3 individuals would be on-task each article • Peer support should enhance involvement • Each role provided a different perspective e-Read Ohio Summit

27. Teaching Strategies • Teaching Activity • Hands-on practice as designers of an online learning environment. • Why? • Active learning & application of new knowledge. Choose content for learners in comfort zone. • Teammates to provide support • Share knowledge and skills • Reduce isolation • Reduce work load for each person e-Read Ohio Summit

28. VOCAL V – visible O – organized C – compassionate A – analytical L – leaders-by-example e-Read Ohio Summit

29. V - visibility • Online students need to know that the instructor is ‘there’ and aware of them. • Social ‘presence’ is critical in online environments. • Strategies to use: • Class emails (broadcast) • Private messages to individuals • Public messages (discussion forum) • Calendar and home page announcements. e-Read Ohio Summit

30. O - organized • Online students need to be organized to be successful. The online instructor needs to be even MORE organized. • Strategies to use: • Detailed course syllabus (and follow it) • Online resources (accurate & complete) • Schedules with due dates • Contingency plans developed (but hopefully not needed) e-Read Ohio Summit

31. C - compassionate • Online students have complex ‘real’ lives outside of class. Technical problems and personal issues can impact on ability to participate. • Strategies to use: • Build in flexibility for assignments (time windows) • Build in support systems (groups or buddies) • Know your students and scaffold their learning • Don’t lose sight of the ‘people’ in the class e-Read Ohio Summit

32. A - analytical • Online environments (LMS) provide instructors with data sources that can help them to manage the course. • Strategies to use: • Smaller frequent assessments and prompt feedback (diagnostic & directive) • Use file-naming conventions consistently for ease of managing submitted student work • Use the management tools built into the LMS to sort data, record grades, track student learning patterns e-Read Ohio Summit

33. L - leader by example • Online students will model their behavior on their perception of the instructor. Everything done in the ‘public’ learning environment contributes to that perception. • Strategies to use: • Share information about yourself - photos, website • Model effective organization and communication • Spell check everything e-Read Ohio Summit

34. VOCAL V – visible O – organized C – compassionate A – analytical L – leaders-by-example e-Read Ohio Summit

35. Resources Kirkley, S. E., Savery, J. R., & Grabner-Hagen, M. M. (1998). Electronic teaching: Extending classroom dialogue and assistance through e-mail communication. In C. J. Bonk & K. S. King (Eds.), Electronic collaborators: Learner-centered technologies for literacy, apprenticeship, and discourse (pp. 209-232). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Savery, J. R. (2005). BE VOCAL: Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors. Journal of Interactive Online Learning. Vol. 4, Issue 2 Fall 2005 ISSN: 1541-4914Available online: http://www.ncolr.org/jiol Setzer, J. C., & Lewis, L. (2005). Distance education courses for public elementary and secondary school students: 2002–03 (Report No. 2005–010). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Available online: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005010 Waits, T., & Lewis, L. (2003). Distance education at degree-granting postsecondary Institutions: 2000–2001. Available online: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/publications/2003017/ e-Read Ohio Summit

36. Thank You! e-Read Ohio Summit