The Continuing Importance of
Teacher Involvement in the Online Class
(Version III – please ignore
previous versions)
In Brinthaup et al’s paper, What
the best Online Teachers Should Do (2011), there is a lot of emphasis
not so much on the online elements but simply the qualities and activities that
all teachers – regardless of contexts or resources – should do. They cite such
sources as Grandzol and Grandzol (p. 7), who contend that ‘the most essential
factor to a successful online education experience is creating a community of
learners where the quantity and quality of interactions with peers and faculty
foster student engagement’. The learning environment will also promote
student-to-faculty interaction as the pre-eminent dynamic, but where
student-to-student interaction closely follows. They also cite Clark-Ibenez
& Scott (p. 7) who aver that students should ‘feel a personal and emotional
connection to the subject, their professor, and their peers’, particularly with
regard to the fact that the online learner requires a greater degree of both
self-discipline and self-motivation as compared to students in more traditional
learning situations.
Brinthaup et al go on to assert
that, while such elements as online messaging, discussion forums, blogs and
chats are all useful tools to help promote student engagement
and subsequent inculcation of the relevant
subject matter, they should nevertheless still just be seen as opportunities to
build the over-arching requirement of establishing a community of learners
which fosters the primary dynamic of providing the forum in which students can
learn from each other as well as through tutor-directed means.
Similarly, Ladyshewsky (2013, p.
19) highlights the desirability of promoting productive discourse in the
learning environment, citing Overbaugh & Nickel: ‘The task of
facilitating discourse is necessary to maintain learner engagement and refers
to focused and sustained deliberation that marks learning in a community of
inquiry.’ Ladyshewsky (2013, p. 19) also cites Shea, Li, & Pickett,
who point to a package of classroom dynamics that in their opinion
facilitate positive discourse, including the teacher: ‘identifying areas of
agreement and disagreement; seeking to reach consensus and understanding;
encouraging, acknowledging, and reinforcing student contributions; setting the
climate for learning; drawing in participants; prompting discussion; and
assessing the efficacy of the process’.
Ladyshewsky (2013, p. 18) also
references another study exploring factors impacting on learning quality. ‘The
investigators found that instructor mentoring and pacing of the course content,
were the most important variables linked to learning quality’ (Peltier,
Schibrowsky, & Drago, 2007). Here, the teacher’s ability to establish
sufficient social and teaching presence is seen as vital in furthering the
over-arching requirement of facilitating creative discourse in the context of
the online lesson.
Jenkins (Martin & Madigan, p.
162) though, stresses the importance of tackling e-learning programmes at the
initial point of programme design. He contends that the majority of
e-learning developments are supplementary to face-to-face teaching, which means
that support elements are best planned as part of the curriculum design or else
risk not being fully developed. There is often the prospect therefore of the
teacher being unable to exploit the full potential of e-learning applications
when they are merely ‘bolted-on’ to more conventional and traditional modes of
learning, as opposed to those planned from the outset. Jenkins (p. 170)
accordingly calls for a more holistic approach in the facilitation of
e-learning, where the various learning elements are integrated in a way that
maximises the full potential of e-learning methods and resources within the context
of promotion of positive intra-classroom interaction (both between
teacher/students and student/students), and in terms of the overall learning
goals of the class.
References:
Brinthaupt, T., Fisher, L.,
Gardner, J., Raffo, D., & Woodard, J. (2011). What the best online teachers
should do. Journal of Online Learning and
Teaching. Middle Tennessee State
University, Murfreesboro,
TN 37132 USA. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from:
Jenkins, M. (2006).
Supporting students in e-learning, in Martin, A., & Madigan, D.
(Eds.). Digital Literacies for Learning.
London: Facet Publishing,
Ladyshewsky, R.( 2013). Instructor
Presence in Online Courses and Student Satisfaction. International Journal for the
Scholarship ofTeaching and Learning, Volume
7 | Number 1 Article 13, 1-1-2013.Curtin University, Perth. Retrieved March 30, 2014, from:
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