PPEL – Online teaching techniques

Centre for Teaching and Learning. Good practice – Integrating technology, available at http://www.queensu.ca/ctl/goodpractice/technology/strategies.html. Accessed on 22-11-2009.

Strategies for Teaching in Online Environments

Teaching Strategies

• instructional design is critical
• design it ahead of time and think through everything you are asking the students to do – and make sure it works
• relax and have fun learning about the new experience
• remember it takes time to develop a teaching style online
• evaluate your course regularly
• keep web pages up to date and current
• the most important role you will have is as a cheerleader and motivator, as people tend to get very unmotivated in an online environment
• be prepared
• tools are secondary — learning is critical
• try to push the limits of what’s possible, I know this advice doesn’t solve practical problems but have to get beyond them
• trying to replicate what you do in the regular classroom is pointless if not impossible
• make sure you know what you are getting into, expect to work harder than with any other course
• try not to feel that you have to respond to every comment
• use time-management strategies for online teaching and feedback

Engaging the Students

• course development must be student friendly and where students are active participants rather than bystanders to learning
• the same pace, content and approach will produce different results with different people
• encourage mentoring relationships and learning communities
• be explicit to students about the norms and grading
• don’t underestimate how much time students are spending online, doing readings, reading each others discussion and posting – think about the workload – and don’t overload them

Technology Related Strategies

• have students experiment more on the web so they aren’t afraid of the technology
• ensure that good technical support is in place
• use the web once or twice a week purely for fun, that way you can become comfortable with the technology
• keep track of any difficulties with the technology or course design
• learn how to work effectively with students who are anxious about online learning and listen to and diffuse any concerns about the online learning process
• campaign for more resources; e.g., improved access, adequate equipment, and technical support

PPEL – Online teaching techniques

Modelling new skills for online teaching, available at http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane99/papers/salterhansen.pdf

In this article, the authors talk about the use of technology by both teachers and learners. They mention that teachers who have good experiences with technology have more probability of integrating technology into teaching, however ‘traditional’ methods of training are still clearly favoured over online methods.

In online courses there’s the need to provide a clear structure for activities and to structure online discussion groups.

The article states the need of making online activities interesting and relevant to life

Another aspect that is mentioned is the fact that not only teachers need to be trained on the use of technology. Students may be able to access email, but may ‘have difficulty building mental models of the multi-layered electronic’ learning environments (Witmer, 1998).

Students need to have the right and appropriate support in order to achieve successful learning outcomes.

The article also refers to PlatformWeb, which is a web-based teaching environment developed at UWS, Macarthur.

PPEL – Successful online courses

Young, Y; Cornelious, L. (2005). Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction, available at http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/yang81.htm. Accessed on 22-11-2009.

In this article the authors talk about the key aspects of designing and providing successful online courses. They mention the following criteria that should be taken into account:

• the challenges and obstacles that the online instructors have to go though. Most of the online instructors were in-classroom teachers a few years ago. Some of them need to learn how to work with the technology in order to be able to provide good online support to their learners;
• Online instructors are changing their role of leading speaker to the role of a facilitator
• The learners themselves also have a new role
• Use of new technologies
• there are new ways of interaction and communication between the learners, the learners and the teacher and the learners and the material
• There are new ways of learning and evaluating. trying to ensure academic honesty and integrity in online courses is another challenge for instructors
• The instructor and the learner have to develop a new attitude towards learning and teaching
• The need of developing an online learning community

I agree with all the aspects above. The teachers that provide online courses but also the classroom teacher have to develop technical skills. The students nowadays ask for that. Our society is more and more turned towards technology and the school needs to provide students with tools to follow that.

In the article it is mention the 10 keys to quality online learning courses:

• Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted.
• Students can take full responsibility for their own learning.
• Students are motivated to want to learn.
• The course provides “mental white space” for reflection.
• Learning activities appropriately match student learning styles.
• Experiential, active learning augments the Web site learning environment,
• Solitary and interpersonal learning activities are interspersed.
• Inaccurate prior learning is identified and corrected.
• “Spiral learning” provides for revisiting and expanding prior lessons,
• The master teacher is able to guide the overall learning process. (p. 6-17)

This article also points the factors that can influence the learner in achieving successful learning outcomes.

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus Group-paced learning (Post 8)

Hi Marco!

Your arguments are good but we are hard to convince

You say that the teacher can help the learner who works in a group to become more active to successfully achieve the goals… in our view that is not specific from a group-based learning process. so we won’t consider it as an advantage

You mention that students might help other students without delaying the process… well they might not delay the process, in a structural way, but they are delaying themselves as they need to wait for other people to reach their level. they could go much further in their studies following only their own pace.

And when a student posts a comment or question in a forum, like moodle, it is definitely true that that question will be answered. However, studying alone, the student can use web 2.0 tools and use his connections and learn strategies to FIND the answer to that question. Isn’t this a sign of being more active and of independence development? Then, the student doesn’t need to follow the timings of others, but his own.

Ladies

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus Group-paced learning (Post 7)

Hello!

In some of the previous posts the men mentioned that small groups would contribute to a more successful learning that big groups. Well, we said already that in this way of thinking a self-paced learning process would be more effective.

The problems with big groups can be the possibility of conflicts, problems with the decision making due to the amount of people involved, a feeling of intimidation by less extroverted learners, the fact that some learners can avoid working relying on the other members and learners with a faster learning pace having to wait for others to progress.

However, small groups also have plenty of disadvantages. for example: in case there’s a conflict it can be more devastating to the group, than when it happens within a large group;and also the level of intimacy tends to be higher, which some people can feel uncomfortable with.

None of these things happen when a learner is studying on his own and following his own priorities.

The ladies team, again!:)

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus Group-paced learning (Post 6)

Hi:

Group-based courses have some limitations, because people work in different rhythms. Sometimes students working in a group must adjust to what others are doing, being slowed or forced to go faster to catch most of the class. In a group, when a member goes slower then the other students, it can be a great disadvantage to the well-being of the group, it can cause conflicts, or lack of motivation among the members, or, finally, be the cause of the whole group failure.

Another problem involved with group-paced courses is centered in a key-word: leadership. So many times there´s the question of a member tending to assume the role of the leader, this way students don’t have the same opportunity to learn, or to express their points of view, or to express their doubts, and some students may feel that they are put aside, that they are completely ignored and inhibited to participate in the learning process.

Sometimes, students who are more reserved, more shy, tend to perfom a passive role in a learning process that is group-based, not feeling comfortable when expressing their ideas within the group. One could argue that these students could be better working in small groups, but conflicts in a small group can be even more devastating. In group-paced courses, the tutor provides tasks for the “average” student, without thinking about individual differences, experiences, paces or goals.

The ladies team, again!

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus Group-paced learning (Post 5)

Hi Luís!

We believe in the need of getting connected but that does not necessarily imply that the learner needs to follow a group-based learning pace. The learner learns through connections, possible by the rise of web 2.0 tools but still, this is done at his own pace. he doesn’t have to be integrated in a group where all the members have the same timings and deadlines in order to learn through connections.

Why do you say there’s a lack of motivation when doing a self-paced learning course? we have come up to some advantages of this kind of courses to the learner’s motivation in previous posts. These kind of courses, for sure, lack interaction, but interaction with peers, not with material or the teacher. In fact these learners get much closer to the teacher and the teacher is able to give the support according to the learner’s needs, taking into account only that learner.
Which doesn’t happen when a teacher has to support a group with different kinds of learners. So how can you value individuality this way? If the groups are taken into account as a whole and not as the parts (meaning the learners) that form it?

And not speaking of conflicts that may occur within the group, even segregation. One individual can feel intimidated or not comfortable with asking questions or sharing his knowledge with the others? how can this lead to a successful learning path if each learner doesn’t solely focus on his own learning?

The girls!

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus Group-paced learning (Post 4)

Hello Marco!

We are replying to your last post but we decided to continue the dicussion under the topic discussion so we don’t end up with a lot of open topics.

Reading your post makes us wonder about some of the things you mention.

You say that the facilitator may provide information about how the participants will work as a group… that is a very passive way of organisation for the learners. And then you add that the role of the facilitator may change in order to correspond to the group’s purposes and goals… but are the group goals (when it comes to learning and skills development) the goals of each learner in their individuality?? We don’t think so!

“The consensus among group theorists is that smaller groups, those of six or less, tend to be more cohesive and productive than larger groups.” So you are basically saying that the fewer we are, working together, the best are our achievements. In that way, we dare to say that one learner on his own works much better and is more successful than if that same learner is part of a group.

Another thing: “we consider that group members regularly meet to study together”… it means that all of them need to adjust their lives, their priorities according to everybody else’s availability. we see a lot of dependence there which is not the purpose of online education!

“The group tries to ensure that all members clearly understand the important points”. So, even if 1 of them already understood all the points, that fast-paced learner has to wait until the other colleagues get there as well! how does that improve the learning process and keeps the motivation on a high level?

the girls!!!

PPEL – Self-paced learning versus group-paced learning (Post 3)

Hello dear Paulo!

Alright… You are making group-based learning look very pretty but it is not that perfect!

You are right, quantity is not quality but someone had to start!

Second, yes, we are doing the activity in group because we are a team and we decided to do it that way. And because of this specific experience we can say that group paced learning is very difficult to do. We have been suffering all the the effects of doing the activity this way. It is not easy at all! We have to meet, talk, discuss, use collaborative tools so in the end we have a post that we are all happy with. Whereas if we were doing this same activity individually, each of us working at our own pace, our advances would be way quicker, we could look for information, read it, pick the interesting parts and then write a post without discussing it with the other team members. So the rhythm of this discussion would flow faster. but we like difficult paths so we decided to do it in group!

Third, if a learner is motivated enough to follow a self-paced course, they won’t take ages to finish it! If they do take that long time, it means they really made the right choice because they couldn’t follow a course with strict deadlines and structure. You are applying the word “classroom” here… but if we are talking about self-paced learning we can’t say that! if 2 learners can start the course at the same time and finish it in different timings then it shouldn’t be called classroom in the traditional meaning of that word. Also because learners can have the possibility of starting the course whenever they want to… so, are we talking about classrooms here? Isn’t it self-paced? because the way group-based works is very difficult to start a course if we suddenly see it and want to do it but… sadly it has already started… and we need to wait for next year’s schedule… Does this waiting process bring any motivation to someone that was so excited about learning new things?

And you talk about the teachers dealing with self-paced learners… and dealing with so many different learners, at the same time, with so many different paces and learning styles? Isn’t that difficult?

Fourth, “show me the proves” People can learn individually, without having to be in a group. The tools that Internet provides allow us to do that. More and more we have the possibility of staying home and learn with no limits! Someone that embraces a self-paced learning course doesn’t want to be ruled by the teacher’s pace. And just because you learn at your own pace it doesn’t mean you are passive! it is exactly the opposite! You are VERY active in your learning process: having to choose you path, selecting material, doing research and being more and more independent. You end up having an even more active role in your own learning process than if you were doing it in a group. You get more involved and this brings along motivation and interest for what you’re doing.

Last, “Men rules”… only in your tiny limited world }-]

PPEL – self-paced learning versus group-paced learning (Post 2)

Hi again!

In self paced learning the teacher plays an important role: he guides the learner allowing him to take the most important decisions of his pathway. Also, the technological tools that are available (as we mentioned in our previous post) give the learner more flexibility in choosing his own path.

George Siemens (2004)* in his theory of Connectivism talks about the use of social tools that not only give the learners the possibility of being independent, and doing things at the pace they choose to do, but those tools also allow the learner to get connected to other people, to learn from and with them. The learner learns by searching information but also through connections. This way, the learner is promoting a continual learning path, not only getting new information but, the most important, knowing how to search for information in the network society. The contacts the learner gets will allow him to continually update his knowledge. This leads to more motivation and the learner ends up being more focused in the learning process.

From the teacher/tutor perspective, in a self paced learning course, more attention can be provided to those learners who need it, being able to adjust the process to the needs of each of them.

Some distance education courses combine traditional methods with online courses, but self-paced courses bring out students autonomy and independence. This way, students may start their activity at different times, following their own pace, towards their interests, in order to follow a learning path and develop certain skills. Anderson, Annad and Wark (2005) ** summarize this idea with the following flowchart:

Figure 1: A proposed model of learner paced learning support

The Ladies

Ladies 2 – Gentlemen 0

PS – Again, we wrote this post together using the same tools mentioned in the previous one.

* In Siemens, George (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Available at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

** In Andersen, T; Annand, D & Wark, N. (2005). The serach for learning community in learner paced distance education: Or, ‘Having your cake and eating it, too!’. Australasian journal of Educational Technology, 21(2), 222-241. Available at http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/anderson.html