Reflection: Balancing Substantive Feedback with the Desire for Immediacy

Online learning has many wonderful qualities - as well as some big challenges. One such challenge is the expectation of immediacy. The on-demand nature of the internet and social media has created in students an expectation of rapid feedback. Even when they know intellectually what the university’s feedback policy is, at an emotional level, they still want a quick turnaround of their work. The biggest challenge I encounter in giving feedback to students that reasonably addresses this need for immediacy while still providing me with the time to review each student’s paper in depth and provide substantive feedback. Yet in-depth feedback is exactly what students need if the integrity and the quality of the course and the student’s education are to be respected. University guidelines become the faculty member’s friend, but only if he/she sticks to them. If I’m going to ask a student to be patient and wait for substantive feedback, I’ve got to make sure I provide that feedback within the timeframe defined by the university. Only by working within the guidelines can the students’ need for substantive feedback be balanced with the desired for immediacy.

 

Creating and Maintaining Presence: The Biggest Challenge in Motivating Students in the Online Classroom

People feel motivated to participate when they feel engaged, connected. In the online environment creating that sense of connectedness and engagement that stimulates motivation is without question the number one challenge.  The key to engagement, connectedness and motivation all lie in the same teacher/classroom attribute: presence. I call presence an attribute because in the online environment, just as in the f2f environment, presence is more than physical proximity: it is a feeling tone created by the instructor. It is the assurance students have that the instructor is there with them; that there is a real person who cares on the other side of the computer screen.

How does an instructor create presence? Being in the course on a frequent basis is a start, but only a start. The quality of the interaction with students when the instructor is in the class defines the nature and extent of the presence conveyed by the instructor. A personal introduction, helpful comments in clear, but friendly language, quick responses to student e-mails, timely return of work with substantive personalized feedback, availability to students through a variety of means (telephone, Twitter, text, Skype, etc.)….all of these things create a presence that is real and caring. That type of presence engages and motivates. Creating and maintaining that type and level of presence is not easy – which is what makes it, in my opinion, the biggest challenge in motivating students in an online class.

 

Challenges Teaching in the Online Classroom

Diversity in the range of technical skills is a huge challenge for an instructor in the online classroom, and it continues to be so for me, semester after semester. When planning an online course, my experience has been that students come with a wide range of ability levels with regard to technology skills. It is quite a bit different than preparing for a f2f class. When you are teaching at a graduate level, as I do – or at an under graduate level, for that matter, you can take for granted as instructor that your students have the basic technical skills for the course. They can read and write, listen and see, (perhaps with adaptive equipment or accommodations of some sort). When you are teaching online, your students come to you believing they have the skills, but in fact, some are quite proficient, while others struggle to navigate the online classroom. Their heads spin. New students have to conceptualize virtual reality and within that reality, the virtual classroom. Once the structure of the virtual classroom is established tools, processes, menus, and links all fall into place. But until then, there is a broad continuum of technical skill levels that have to be accommodated while orchestrating substantive group discussion and keeping everyone moving forward together through the syllabus.  But if the Cat in the Hat can balance books on his head and a fish in a bowl on the end of a rake while holding a fan in his tail – simultaneously – I’ll keep doing my best!

Online Instruction and Web 2.0: Richness and Diversity

As you probably know, I have been teaching graduate school for a long time – since 1977, long before desktop computers, let alone laptops, tablets, or mobile computing. It was all f2f.  Actually, it was face-to face; f2f hadn’t been invented yet.  Then, in 2003, I made the leap, first to  a very clumsy form of hybrid education then in 2004 to a fully online learning environment. Now, I’m bi-lingual: I can do f2f, hybrid, or fully online, although even in a f2f environment I make heavy use of online tools.

At this point,  I can say my teaching has fully transitioned to online. At the same time, I am still transitioning into what feels like a new frontier: the rich and amazing format of web 2.0. Just when I think I have mastered the skills of online instruction, some new web 2.0 tool comes along, and the possibilities for communication and online instruction seem endless. With each new Web 2.0 tool, I gain expertise, a new way to reach my students, and with that ability, I acquire more confidence not only as a teacher but as a citizen of the Web 2.0 world in which I now live and teach.

I could never leave Web 2.0 world. It is too interesting, and offers too many opportunities  not only to do new instructional things, but to do very old instructional things better with greater outreach , more lasting impact and more fun for my students – and yes, for me. Consider, for example, my newest Web 2.0 tool: BlogTalk radio. I have so much to learn! Yet in the 3 weeks I’ve been using it, I already see that it is a powerful tool for Socratic learning and amazingly, although I have a class of 12 students nearly 2000 people have downloaded our BlogTalk radio discussions, and the papers I receive from the students after one of our discussions shows a level of critical thinking that is remarkably higher than I have seen in other classes of the same course. WOW! This Web 2.0 tool is pretty powerful stuff! Then, I set up a special Twitter account (another Web 2,0 tool) just for the BlogTalk show, and link the show and the Twitter account. The Twitter account was picked up by an international news service which is now directing people to the discussion site. So now I need to set up a Facebook page and link everything to my blog, which I have renamed. So much to do, so much to learn!

It would be a mistake to think that I have the necessary skills to be an online instructor and stop experimenting and searching. I have the skills to be an online learner and share with others what and how I learn in the amazing Yellow Brick Road of Web 2.0 as it leads to…….Web 3.0?  What do I want to learn? Whatever I can and as much as I can.

It's a new day, new blog, new approach

Things have changed on my blog! My thought process has evolved, and my and with it, my inner blogger has blossomed and expanded into internet radio. I've combined by blogs and and linked the resulting single blog to my new BlogTalk Radio show  All Things Education. I invite you to visit the  show page, where you can listen to archived shows online, download shows as podcasts for listening later, and follow the show to be notified of future shows. Currently, shows are scheduled for Sunday evenings at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, but additional shows will be added at a later date.

 

Why the change? Previously, I had two blogs, each with a different and specific focus. I was finding myself interested in topics outside of the areas covered by those blogs - with my background and experience in education, I am naturally interested in All Things Education. Thus, it made sense to have a blog with a focus that reflected that broad interest and also connected a number of media. 

Please let me know what you think of this new, broader format. Please visit the the BlogTalk Radio show All things Education. Also, I invite you to follow me on Twitter.

Join me in the great adventure of exploring All Things Education.

             

Hootcourse: Link between social networking and learning platforms

Hoot course is a very useful tool for a couple of reasons. With a younger  cohort of students, it makes use of a familiar communication tool that  they use every day and incorporates it into learning. Thus, as an instructor, I enter into the students’ world. I meet them on their own turf and invite them into a common learning environment. With older students who do not use Twitter every day, Hootcourse serves as an introduction to a communication tool that is as common to younger students as telephones and televisions are to older students. In order to survive intellectually and professionally, we need to help our students remain relevant and contemporary. Sometimes, that means pushing them beyond their comfort zones. Although Hoot Course may not be the perfect learning platform, it  bridges an important social networking tool to a blogging tool that can be embedded in a more sophisticated classroom platform. It can also combine the social networking environment with a traditional F2F environment.  Hootcourse is not meant to be used alone, but combined without learning tools it can be part of an effective learning system. I intend to use this tool again.

My biggest challenges in transitioning from F2F environment to an online environment

It’s hard to believe, but I’m in my 10^th year of teaching online! At this point, all I feel comfortable saying is that I have learned a lot about online learning and I know the difference between online teaching and F2F teaching. That may sound like a simple – even silly – statement. But I didn’t always know the difference. In fact, when I started teaching online, I was completely unaware that there was a difference between the two, other than the fact that one was in real space and time and the other was in virtual space and time. The hardest transition for me was developing a new set of teaching skills specifically designed to capitalize upon the strengths and advantages of virtual space and time and minimize the disadvantages. The training and resources available to faculty now are so much better, but even if I had the advantage of those resources, I would still need to expand my consciousness as a teacher in ways I did not imagine in F2F teaching.  I had to learn not just about making myself present in virtual time and space, but how to use my own virtual presence to draw others into a virtual instructional space that was engaging and transformative. My ability to achieve these goals is developing over time. I realize in the course how little I know and how much I have to learn.  Between the technologies available to teachers and the research about teaching and learning that is continually coming out, I have realized that I am always going to be transitioning because virtual learning is dynamic. The day I say “I have transitioned’ will be the day I hang up my laptop.