Relationships and Influence (Part 3 - Online Teaching)

by Steve Huerd

Last year I began teaching an online master’s level course.  At first I admit to being overcome and even intimidated by all the technology and the speed at which I had to learn it all.  Being that I was located a thousand miles away from the university where I was teaching, the only real instruction I received was watching online videos dealing with how to use blackboard.  And, of course, I had problems!  However, with patient email interaction with the university, I was finally able to communicate with my students.

I somehow obtained pictures of my students’ faces and immediately printed them out in color along with other vital information so that I could put a name with a face.  At the outset, it seemed like there was no one out there, only dark blackness!  I was posting all of this information, syllabus, pictures, etc. without seeing anyone or hearing anything back.

Then one by one, they started to respond with, “Hey, is this such and such a class?  I just found out that I was taking this course and …”  The first assignment I gave them was to pick out who the prof was in a group picture I had put on the main page.  I wanted them to put my name with my face.

A couple of students “forced” me to initiate with them individually since they hadn’t initially responded to my online stimulus package.  During our first “discussion thread interaction,” there was hardly any interaction at all.  So, I decided to apply my old coaching philosophy of coming down hard the first week of practice and laying down my expectations.  I told them, “I can’t give you full credit here since you didn’t interact with at least two other people in here.”  They responded well to that and I began to see much more traffic the following week.

In an effort to further establish relationships, I offered times for them to Skype with me but no one responded.  Then I knew that the “relationship” I had with them was just going to be different and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it.  So, I threw caution to the wind and just kept encouraging and constantly sending them relevant materials right up to the end of the course.

The result?  I received good instructor ratings with one student commenting to another professor that this course was in the top two he had taken during the whole master’s program!  The next semester another student from that initial cohort signed up for another online course I taught.  To this day, I’ve never met any of these students in person, but at least I know I made a small difference in their lives!

Online Non-Discussions

by Sharon Warkentin Short

            One of the strengths of online education that especially attracts me is its potential to stimulate deep interactions between professors and students and among the students themselves. When class time is not restricted to the several hours a week during which students and instructor gather in a college classroom, good discussion does not have to end because a bell rings. The conversation can keep going as long as anyone has anything to add. Furthermore, students do not need to feel frustrated because other students’ questions are using up valuable minutes. Individual students’ concerns and requests can be handled via private emails without taking away any time from the presentation of course content, and confused students can ask for clarification as many times as they need to. Finally, students who are not good at speaking “off the cuff,” or who feel self-conscious about speaking up in a class setting, can formulate their contributions in writing and can take as much time as they need to present clearly what they want to say.

            However, it occurred to me recently—to my surprise—that this very advantage of online education might also work against student participation in meaningful discussions. Precisely because learners and teachers are not present together in the same physical space, professors are not able to call on reluctant respondents in the same way that they might in a traditional classroom. Students are insulated in cyberspace from the looks and prompts that a professor might use to get them to speak up. Similarly, because they are not sitting together in the same room, students do not feel the awkward silences that can ensue when nobody attempts to answer a professor’s questions. When a course is presented via the internet, the non-responsiveness and the silences can go on for days!

            How can online instructors compensate for the absence of these incentives to get students involved in meaningful dialogue? Several suggestions come to mind:

1. Professors can still call on students through personal emails, encouraging them to add their ideas to the ongoing discussions. “I’d like to hear what you think” could be just as motivating if stated in an email as stated in a classroom.
2. Instructors can set a pattern of positively acknowledging every contribution without dominating the discussion. A simple “Thanks for sharing that thought” or “Good question! What do the rest of you say?” lets the respondents know that someone is actually reading the dialogue and appreciates their efforts.
3. Establishing a series of deadlines for responses might help to keep conversation moving. A professor might remind the group, “By Tuesday at midnight we need one idea from each of you about this topic.” Then several more deadlines could be set for responses to the initial items.

            Instructors do have some leverage when students are being graded on the frequency and quality of their input, but even so, stimulating genuine communication among online course participants is relentlessly hard work. The very structure that enables students to participate whenever they choose from wherever they happen to be also allows them hide from instructors and classmates alike, and to safely not participate in the discussions at all. This reality presents a new and unexpected challenge for online educators.

Stage Plays and Distance Learning

by Sharon Warkentin Short        

       Very early in my explorations into online teaching and learning, I encountered an illustration that proved to be a defining moment in my comprehension of this new educational medium. The article described how motion picture technology was at first used mainly to film stage plays for viewing by audiences who were not present at the actual performances. Movies, in other words, were simply a means of watching live stage productions second hand. Over time, of course, the unique capabilities of motion pictures have been developed and refined to generate dramatic experiences impossible to achieve on any stage.

As I have continued to research online courses and programs offered through many different colleges and universities, I have encountered a vast variation in what schools consider “distance education.” Some of the schools seem to use internet technology to offer classes in roughly the same manner that movies were once used to present plays: the live experience is recorded and made available visually and audibly to people who were not actually there. Online resources are used, in other words, to allow students to participate in actual classroom experiences second hand. When internet capabilities are employed in this way, most of the unique strengths of online education remain unrealized. As authors Conrad and Donaldson (2011) comment: 

New media offer a wealth of opportunities for interaction, yet many times are employed in a non-interactive mode that tends to focus on creating an online lecture. (p. 4) 

The participants’ experiences end up being similar to sitting passively in a classroom and listening to a monologue—only worse. At least in the classroom, the lecturer can respond to visual cues conveyed by the students, and the listeners can respond to the speaker.

            The alternative, which expert online educators vigorously promote, is to explore, develop, refine, and capitalize upon the capabilities inherent in internet technology to accomplish learning tasks that would be impossible (or at least much more difficult) in live classes. Collaboration on documents and projects, for example, is vastly simplified using online tools. Students as well as instructors can act as generators of knowledge using online resources (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).

            Most educators (including me) are only beginning to discover the riches of teaching methodology possible online. The application is clear: let’s not limit our online teaching activities to what we are able to do in a classroom. Let’s not get stuck screening stage plays when we could be creating cinematic wonders!

Conrad, R.-M., & Donaldson, J. A., (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.