Our own course is my first experience with an online course as a student and that’s what I’ve been: a student. I am learning a lot from resources, discussions, and comments.
I have met most of the people involved in this course only briefly for about an hour (due to schedule conflict) but when I read and reply the posts it feels as real as a face-to- face (f2f) conversation. How did this happen?
Posting the pictures on the site was a great help. They were posted soon after our meeting. I just needed to match the pictures with my memory of everyone sitting around the table, talking and laughing. Then it was the communication, there was introduction section with very clear instructions that guided us to share our professional background and course expectations, as well as our hobbies and more. In a few days, what I knew about all of my classmates and instructors was much more that I could possibly know about the students who would sit next to me in a f2f class. As a student in a traditional classroom, we communicate in real-time (synchronously) during the time of the class and perhaps during office hours or study groups. The asynchronous communication in online courses is more convenient and more frequent (I check the course website and read and reply as many as it takes: first thing in the morning, during the day/night, last thing before I sleep!). Although, we can always use technology (like chats and video conferences), to communicate in real-time I enjoy the convenience of communication at time of choice. Interestingly, through frequent visits to the class website, I “see” my classmates more than I would in a f2f setting.
I should also applaud the strong presence of our team of instructors; it had been a key factor in my pleasant experience as an eLearner and a great model in learning about successful online teaching. As a traditional instructor, we are physically present in the classroom, we enter and the students will see and hear us. For an online instructor, being in the virtual class and reading the posts is not enough, they need to actively participate in the discussions to be “visible”. There is no exact time for class meeting, as convenient as it is to be a student and attend the class at your convenience, it wouldn’t be an easy task for the instructor to keep up with such schedule. In addition, developing the closeness can be a challenge. In a f2f setting, we provide individual attention to our students, we provide 1on1 communication, we listen to them and address their questions and concerns as soon as possible. But in an online setting, it takes much more time and effort to clarify, answer, guide, and be there for our students when they need us.
Being a successful online educator might be much harder than being an eLearner. For now, I am a happy student in an online course; I have great educators as classmates and instructors. I am learning how to be co-creators in learning, how to use technology effectively in online teaching and learning, and I am enjoying our rich (and expanding) library of multimedia and educational resources. What a great summer!
Your last comments about how being an online educator might be much harder than being an eLearner was interesting. I think student expectation is one of course organization and logistics. With technology tools, this becomes more complicated and requires additional knowledge and skills than just the material. It certainly requires more work on the instructor's part.
ReplyDeleteI can see that having a "team" of instructors, as you put it, is really key to making a course work well. Many school systems see elearning as a cost effect way to reduce staff, but I believe more than ever that it is staff heavy, with all the feedback and monitoring functions required...
ReplyDeleteThe observation about asynchronous and synchronous communication is an interesting one. I also login frequently. The asynchronous dialog allows me to be more creative and reflective. There are times, though, I would like the interaction and response to happen more quickly.
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