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!

Relationships and Influence (Part 2)

By Steve Huerd

One of the criteria by which college ranking organizations classify different institutions is class size.  The thinking behind this is the smaller the class size, the more personal interaction the student will receive with the professor.  Thus, personal access and instruction from a knowledgeable professor becomes premium when considerations are being made.

Yet, even within these smaller classrooms, having good relationships between the professor and the student is naturally implied.  There’s an old adage that says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much care.”  This truth definitely applies to mentoring relationships as the perceived quality of the relationship between the mentor and mentee is possibly the single most important factor to mentoring effectiveness.

I believe the same is true in teaching.  If a student intuitively knows that his or her professor not only is an expert in their field, but that he/she also cares about them individually as a person, then they tend to allow the professor greater access to their inner thinking.

We all intuitively determine who we can trust and who we can’t, sometimes without even saying a word to that person.  People’s actions publically display certain levels of trust; either inviting us to be real, to use caution, or even to be fearful.

When a teacher has shown signs of being a trustworthy person, then those around them begin to allow them access to their thinking.  This relational trust, then, enables the professor to have more influence in their students’ lives and thinking.

Granted, no one can have close, personal relationships with all their students in every class, but by simply being aware of the relational factors present within the classroom, our effectiveness as instructors is greatly increased.  Our teaching then becomes better leveraged through relational influence resulting in greater impact upon the minds we seek to sway.

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.