Do you need constant validation of your teaching?
Here is an interesting article that came out in THE Journal
discussing what it takes to be a good online teacher. Many people go into the
teaching profession needing, expecting, yes, even, loving the give and take in
the classroom between them and the students. This is what the author says is
“ego-stroking”. This reinforcement validates how many of us think of ourselves (i.e. we are giving back
to society, our knowledge is bringing up the next generation of scientists,
actors, teachers, pharmacists, lawyers, etc. to be the best they can be, etc.)
and makes us who we are. This happens readily in the f2f classroom. For
example, you can see the proverbial “light bulbs going off in their brains”
when a student catches a point or is able to banter/debate the subject. It is
different in online learning. It is VERY difficult for the professor to get
that validation and if you want or need that constantly, online teaching is
probably not for you. For example, when
I don't hear anything from my students, I feel a little disappointed as I don't
know how to motivate them to participate.
Actually this is happening in my classes. The Effective Online Instruction (EOI) class
for USC faculty runs several times a year and it is highly acclaimed. It has been nominated over the years for awards
such as the Blackboard Catalyst Award. Critically,
one of the reasons stated as to why it does not win is that I don’t have enough
student participation in the course. The
EOI which is built upon the Quality Matters standards, is voluntary so how do I
get students (faculty) to participate.
You remember the adage, “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot
make him drink”. So what is a professor
to do?
I received this
article recently from a colleague in Boston. It talks about a lot of things but
re-affirms that brain imaging studies show that we can't really multi-task,
etc. We are creating a culture of distraction.http://joekraus.com/were-creating-a-culture-of-distraction
I enjoyed the quote: "The first is that we’re perfectly
mal-adapted, biologically speaking, to these devices. When our ancestors, the
Geico guys, were sitting out on the savanna and the tree next to them rustled.
The ones that didn’t look over and see the lion coming to eat them are NOT our
ancestors. The ones that did look, only to see it was a harmless bird, are.
We’re wired to pay attention to new stimulation."
Finally, one of the most important aspects of an effective
online course is the idea of building a community of online learners. Instructors
and students need to build a social presence and learn about others in the
course so they are not learning in a virtual vacuum. This is easier said than
done. This was noted recently in an article "Who Are You? Putting a Face
to Virtual Learners"
http://tinyurl.com/ajzrh93
Think about your own online courses. What would you use to
build this community of learners?
