Category: Leadership

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Myth Buster

There are many online teachers that are dedicated to the modality and have figured out some great strategies and best practices. However, there are a few myths about online teaching and learning that still exist. Here are a few:

**Teaching online is not an enjoyable experience

Many teachers in higher education don’t see online teaching as a rewarding experience. In fact, many teachers report that teaching in-person is a much more rewarding and enjoyable experience. Perhaps this is because teachers that have made the switch to on-line teaching find they are doing much more administrative work than expected. If teachers simply log on, grade student work, review discussion posts, and manage other basic functions it may seem that this modality is not going to be enjoyable.

Teaching online courses can be very rewarding. From my own experience and experience of some of my closest colleagues, I would say that a majority of the online students are not only working but are also caring for children or other members of their families. These students take online classes because it’s the only way for them to pursue higher education. Many online teachers report getting a closer glimpse into the personal lives of their students, those experiences, and those challenges that the students choose to overcome when taking online classes. An experienced colleague of mine recently told me that the opportunities provided by a classroom without walls and across great distances are how they find joy in teaching online.

**Teaching online classes doesn’t work

In 2017, EDUCAUSE conducted a survey on faculty and information technology and discovered that approximately one-half of these faculty didn’t agree that online learning was effective. There is plenty of evidence that online courses can produce student learning outcomes that are comparable to those in-person courses. This evidence continues to roll in year after year. Just like any in-person class, the high-quality on-line versions will require excellent on-line teachers. It is the responsibility of the teachers and the designers with which they work to create a highly engaging and effective on-line classes.

**Students that take online classes are lazy

Some students that take on-line classes may put in a minimal amount of work, and just enough to get by with. Does this mean that lazy students are more likely to take an on-line class? Or have we as educators created an environment on-line that contributes to this type of student disengagement? Things to consider:

  • Are we offering these courses to a student population that is more likely to be working and raising a family?
  • Are we offering these courses to students who do not have the adequate equipment to be successful?
  • Are we asking faculty without experience in on-line education to lead these courses?
  • Are we presenting an unorganized and confusing course design that is less than appealing to the students?

Any one of these items can make on-line learning a challenge. A combination of two or more of these items can be a disaster.

Successful online learning requires a certain level of skill that some students simply do not possess. This means that on-line students must be able to manage their time well, motivate themselves, direct their own learning, and seek help when it is needed.

Successful online teaching requires that faculty make an extra effort to help those students persist. This takes awareness of the challenges of on-line education as well as careful thought, expert planning, empathy, and a high level of comfort with technology. 

**Online courses can run on auto-pilot

Some on-line teachers subscribe to the idea that on-line courses, once created, can simply be run by themselves and students can successfully meet the objectives. Maybe this is because online courses take such a tremendous effort to prepare before the very first day. In theory, all assignments, activities, discussion prompts, and the gradebook should be created in advance so that students can see everything from the first day. Unfortunately, some online teachers feel that students should be able to walk themselves through the on-line course without much engagement or guidance from the teacher.

On-line teachers should plan to guide their students through the course by being active and engaged weekly. Best practice includes blocking out time on the weekly calendar as if you’re attending the class in person. Be available, post announcements, reply to discussions, and grade students’ work on a regular basis. Just like an in-person course, teaching online requires continuous involvement from the teacher.

-RG

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Continue To Improve

Good teaching, like any other profession, requires continuous improvement in order to create the best experience for students and faculty. A small investment of time and energy will help faculty develop as a professional, regardless of the modality in which they teach. The smallest of efforts can lead to BIG impacts.

Teaching online is still a relatively new method of delivery when compared to teaching in person, here are a few things to consider to improve the experience:

  • Use a RSS feed or email to subscribe to articles related to teaching and learning
  • Seek out best practices be used by other faculty members – ask what others have done 
  • Read books and consider joining a book club that reviews effective strategies to be used with students
  • Enroll & participate in workshops that are offered by your institution or technology vendor
  • Get Help – ask for student volunteers to help run discussions, manage technology, and assist other students that may have questions

Pursue your own professional development as a commitment to yourself and student success. Sharing what you have learned with other faculty and your students will not only engage those involved, but will also energize you.

-RG

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Walk A Mile

When online students are in their class, they aren’t anywhere near the faculty member. The students aren’t there physically. Most online students do their coursework when they are alone, and that means either at home or in a public space such as a library or a local coffee shop. These online students are not able to simply raise a hand and ask a question or turn to another student who is seated next to them and ask for clarification. This creates a strong sense of isolation and sometimes overwhelming need for support. Much different then when classes are conducted in the traditional in-person setting.

Faculty that have taught in a traditional classroom setting can pick up on those nonverbal cues from students. It is much easier to determine if students are tuning out, becoming bored, not understanding or just confused. Faculty can make adjustments on-the-fly much easier in a traditional classroom setting. When working with online students, faculty aren’t able to determine if students are puzzled over what has been presented to them or if providing simple clarification is needed. 

The question then becomes how do online faculty support online students just as they would in a traditional classroom setting. By walking a mile in the shoes of an online student faculty will be able to anticipate their isolation and plan for it in better course design.

Instructional designers will encourage faculty members to try to make sense of what is being presented on a computer screen. It’s necessary for faculty to get outside of their own head where their own online course makes perfect sense to them and everything is clear. Faculty need to try to envision how their students will experience the course. Some questions to consider:

  • If your online course uses discussions is it crystal-clear how long the students’ responses should be? And should students cite their sources?
  • Are there detailed grading rubrics being used for all assignments? Will students be able to view the grading rubric before beginning work on any particular assignment?
  • Will examples of successful projects from previous semesters be provided to the students?

Faculty that are offering their courses online should work closely with an instructional designer, and if possible ask a trusted colleague to evaluate their online course and explore the course as if they were students. Faculty may be surprised by the feedback they get by following through on this course review exercise. Common feedback may include things such as course materials being presented in an unorganized fashion, intimidating tones being used in assignment instructions and a lack of clarity of what to do on the very first day of the course. Faculty should take whatever feedback is provided and consider making a few adjustments to the course.

In a perfect situation, students should know exactly what is being taught and what they are supposed to do as a result. Online faculty must be intentional and put themselves in the shoes of the student and designing for clarity must be the priority.

-RG

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You Do You – Just Be Yourself

Many faculty that enjoy teaching in-person report that they like to interact with students, share their experiences, passion for their field and be present when understanding takes place with their students. Faculty will often feed off of the energy from their students during classes that take place in a traditional in-person setting.

With online classes faculty may lose some of these built-in opportunities to connect with their students. This is starting to change. However, the primary vehicle for communication and online courses is still written, in one form or another. Presenting students with just a page of text can create high levels of anxiety and do very little to motivate students. How can we make this more personal and enjoyable for students and for faculty.

Video is a great option to deliver messages, lectures and class expectations to students in an online course. The best practice is to simply do what you would do in-person,  just be authentic. In other words, You Do You.

It will be difficult to avoid using any written content and an online course. The goal is to try to use your own unique voice in the course. Consider this for any lectures, course tours, lesson tours, assignment tours, answers to questions and weekly announcements. Here are a few things to consider in your online courses:

Support – when writing to your students, be supportive. For example, rather than say “You won’t pass the class if you skip the quizzes”. An alternative here may be saying something such as “Thank you for all of your hard work in this class. I know it can be tough to juggle online courses with other responsibilities. Don’t forget to take all the quizzes to help you be successful. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns. Looking forward to your future contributions. Thank you”.

Be Yourself – sometimes the obvious distance between the faculty member in the student and online courses comes across via written communications. Don’t add to this inadvertently, be mindful of your tone. Use a sense of urgency. For example at the end of your instructions you might consider using something such as: “please reach out to me at any time with questions or comments of any nature related to this assignment. You can do this!” This will come across as being much more supportive than: “Questions – use the Q&A discussion forum.” 

A great way to bring your presence into an online class is to simply record yourself. This could be as simple as an audio recording, an informal video recording, or a more professionally done video created in a fully functional media studio. Your understanding of their needs will come across better using this type of technology rather than written communications. The audio and video recordings do not have to be professional. Many faculty will simply use a handheld smartphone to capture their thoughts in the moment and quickly share that recording to the LMS or video server if one is available.

Your online students will appreciate seeing you or at least hearing your voice as you talk about the content within the course. Many students have reported that they enjoy the informal nature of recordings as opposed to the highly rehearsed videos created in a fully functioning media studio. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake or allow a pet or child into the room while videos are being created. This simply lets your students know a little bit more about you as a person and helps to build rapport which ultimately leads to retention. The goal is to simply find ways to be yourself in an online class using technology just as you would do you in a traditional in-person classroom.

-RG

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Online Faculty Should Be Present In Class

In general, effective teaching requires that faculty be present with their students. When faculty are teaching in-person they don’t leave their students. In fact, in a traditional classroom setting faculty engage their students in a number of ways. For example, by answering questions, offering explanations, asking questions, providing leadership and guiding them through the course. Many faculty may arrive early to get ready for class and even stay afterwards to talk 1:1 with students who may need extra support. The bottom line is, these faculty are present and available to their students.

For many faculty who began their careers in traditional classrooms and have made the transition to online courses, being present in the class has been a challenge. Without a regular block of time to meet students in the classroom, prepare content and review student work many faculty may go several days without being present in a class.

A colleague of mine shared a simple suggestion for faculty that may be looking for opportunities to be more present in their online classes. This suggestion was to create a very basic calendar and consider how many hours a week is spent teaching them in person course. Perhaps it’s 10 to 15 hours a week if combining actual in-person classroom time with the time that’s needed for preparing content and grading assignments.

The idea here is to schedule the same amount of time to be present and engaged in the online class. Here are some tips that will help faculty be more present in their online courses:

Weekly announcements – this is a great way to provide an overview of what is expected during the week. This can be done in a couple different ways including a basic email or an informal video. For faculty that are comfortable with an informal video, a video of 1 to 2 minutes is suggested.

Response time – clearly articulate at the beginning of the class and during every weekly announcements that any questions that are received via email or through a question and answer discussion area will be replied to in a specified time frame. Most faculty report that they are comfortable responding to students in 24-36 hours.

Availability – holding regular Office hours and scheduling Time with students by appointment are both going to let students know that you’re available and willing to help if need be.

Discussions – be involved, engaged and talk with students in discussion forums available in the class. This is critical when working with students who have never participated and online class previously. Many faculty members make the mistake of assigning discussion items without clearly explaining or modeling what the expectations are.

Something to consider…faculty who self-report being more present and engaged in their online classes, also report having students who are more present and engaged in the class.

-RG

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Jack Of All Trades

There have been many good conversations lately related to the hiring of instructional designers. And one of the topics that has been brought up time and time again is that of folks positioning themselves as a “jack of all trades” vs “a master of their trade”. Depending on the needs of the hiring committee, this will ultimately determine who is selected to fill an open position. Recently several candidates have had questions related to this and have asked for advice when applying for positions and securing interviews. Should they position themselves as a “jack of all trades” or as “a master of their trade” (being an expert in a smaller range of skills rather than simply being aware of many skills).

After speaking with a number of colleagues it was clear that hiring committees were looking for an individual who might be considered “a master of their trade”. Basically this is someone who has a well-established skillset and not only understands the technology but also understands the psychology of working in the area of instructional design.

For those that want to establish themselves as an expert in the field, an honest assessment of their skills is required. This will position them to be in constant demand and be able to articulate their value. This is exactly what is needed to build a solid reputation. There are a number of ways to gain the expertise needed – such as attending conferences, workshops, webinars, following blogs and listening to podcasts.

How to become an expert? Here are a few things for individuals to consider to become an expert in instructional design.

  • Create a list of current expertise and interests
  • Gain an understanding of what’s trending
  • Interview others in the field (either in-person, via email or through social media)
  • Identify gaps and ask others where skills can be strengthened
  • Clearly define how are you work and prefer to communicate

In order to become an expert you should consider the questions that may be asked by those that have a hiring need. For example: 

  • What are the most common problems you are faced with?
  • What do people do to solve the problems in this area?
  • What mistakes are made time and time again?
  • What do the users need more of?
  • Is there something users are overlooking?
  • What’s growing? What’s fading?
  • What works well? What doesn’t work well? Why?

-RG

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Strategies For Engaging Students

For faculty, encouraging student engagement is important in the online environment as the drop-out rates are significantly higher than the traditional face-to-face courses. Engagement like many other things in online education may have a different meaning based on perspective. Here are a few strategies for engaging online students in your online courses, from the faculty perspective:

Feedback – timely feedback on assignments will allow your online students to incorporate the feedback and make improvements for future assignments. This may seem nearly impossible for larger courses. A good strategy that many online faculty use is that of providing examples, templates or models of well-written assignments, this will allow the student to focus on the goals of the assignment. Having a well-written rubric available for online students to review before they begin their work will help them focus on the desired expectations. Online faculty should consider reusing feedback from the previous semester. Based on experience from previous semesters, faculty can proactively address items where students typically run into obstacles and provide clarifying directions as needed.

Interaction – online faculty must be present in their courses in order to engage the students. Faculty can be present in their online courses by participating in discussion forums and asking students probing questions and encouraging the students to ask probing questions of each other.  Faculty can also be present by emailing individual students, groups of students and providing announcements, as needed to keep the discussions moving along.  Group collaboration tools are also becoming more popular and online faculty are finding success in messaging students directly, outside of the LMS. [Slack is a great example of this technology.]

Application – many online students are also working adults and ensuring the content of the course is relevant and can be applied to their real-life/real-world experience is a key item in the effort to keep them engaged. Those students that consider themselves to be working adults are more likely to voice their concerns about an assignment being “busy-work” if they feel that it doesn’t apply to their work life. Online faculty should invest the time at the beginning of the course to get to know the students and the type of work they might be involved in as well as their expectations for the course. Engaging assignments will involve some type of research, developing an original idea and using their critical thinking skills to solve some problem they might be faced with in the workplace.

Interesting – online courses that include some type of hands-on learning activity will generally be more interesting and more engaging.  By asking students to communicate what they have learned about a new technology and how they can apply its use to their current profession/future profession will make their coursework more interesting. As an online instructor, look for opportunities to replace traditional text-based assignments.  Try to incorporate more audio and video  by using online tools such as Flipgrid, VoiceThread or Jing. Using a few different options as a way to present their ideas will keep students motivated and interested in the course. Students all learn differently and providing a variety of options will only enhance the interest in the course and engage the student.

-RG

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Avoid Burnout

Many folks that I interact with outside of Higher Education are interested in hearing about my work in online education, specifically my work as an online instructor. I often hear that they wish they had this dream job and could work from home on their own schedule. What they don’t realize is that working as an online instructor is much more time-consuming than expected and can be related directly to professional burn-out.

There are a lot of reasons why online instructors may experience burn-out. For example, taking on a large number of courses, the lack of face-to-face conversations and the volume of feedback and grading that is required. And for those individuals that work as online instructors in addition to their “other job” it is difficult to provide high quality responses to discussions and emails at the end of a normal work day.

Here are a few items that may help avoid feeling burned-out:

Management – develop strong classroom management skills. For example, often students have the same questions as in previous terms. Proactively address these questions at the start of the course or lesson. Are you providing similar feedback over and over….find a way to automate this. Establish set office hours at varying times throughout the week.

Time – have a set time of day that you log into your classes. When you finish teaching for the day, do not go back to it. And take breaks to avoid sitting for an extended period of time. Don’t do all of the grading in one session.

Talk – ask students for phone meetings as needed, rather than relying on email. Call a fellow online instructor to discuss strategies. Talk to a friend or neighbor who works in an unrelated field.

Read – read academic journals and blogs to gain new teaching techniques and strategies that you could adopt in your classes. [and of course, read for pleasure].

Health – eat nutritiously, exercise and sleep well to be fit for the job. Have some soft music playing in the background while teaching. Don’t eat in your office/workspace. Get out and go for a quick walk.

Connect – create a social media outlet where students can follow you. Set up an Instagram or Twitter account where you can invite students to view your content and help you feel more connected.

Overall, take your time, find balance and have fun!

-RG

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Top 5 List: Ideas For Training Faculty

Top 5 List

Training faculty often falls within the scope of work of those that practice instructional design and/or educational technology. This training can be challenging when it comes to the use of new digital technologies and tools. While some of my colleagues over the years have expressed how challenging this can be, I find that to be just the opposite of my experience. The training should focus on several strategies and this will lead to an effective and efficient outcome for all of those that are involved. Here are couple things to consider:

Relationship building – this strategy will offer the opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge directly into daily practice. Building a professional relationship allows the person doing the training to better understand the baseline knowledge and comfort level of the individual receiving the training. This allows open communication that can lead to possible opportunities for collaboration in the future.

Staying informed – research is a very important part of training. To research the latest trends in higher education, instructional design and learning in general can serve as a starting point for training development. Many times faculty are not able to articulate what they need because they don’t know what the options are.

Walk the walk – the person conducting the training should have an inside scoop on what is involved in teaching courses prior to conducting any training. A key ingredient will be that the trainers have first hand knowledge of the entire process of building a course: designing, developing, implementing, assessing and revising.

Build bridges – instructional designers have the opportunity to view a variety of courses across different disciplines. This offers a unique perspective and can often serve as a bridge between faculty members. Many times faculty would like to collaborate across disciplines but they’re just not aware of what others are doing. Sharing information across disciplines will benefit all involved in the process.

Leadership – successful instructional designers that do training proactively support faculty and allow faculty to share experiences with each other. One of the ways to do this is to establish an online faculty learning community within the institution. In this space ideas can be shared in an effective manner. Once established,  some of the things it can be shared include job aids, quick tips, best practices and other digital tools to increase efficiency and improve student outcomes.

-RG

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Team Motivation

Recently, I came across a problem statement from the early 1960’s and it tied nicely with the topic Mission and Vision statements.

Many years ago I was lucky enough to work with a gentleman who had made a career of providing consulting and corporate training services. While I am not sure this would classify as a Mentor-Mentee relationship, he did leave a lasting impression. 

During our time together I attended several workshops that he facilitated on the topic of Mission Statements. Many of his workshops were focused on small teams that existed inside of much larger organizations. 

The workshops were always great and he was a great facilitator…no matter the size of the audience. Very personable and connected with all in attendance. During his workshops he would educate attendees on the purpose of a vision statement and a mission statement for their larger organization as well as their smaller working group/team. 

As workshops moved along and small teams started to zero-in on their missions statements he would ask the teams how motivated they were feeling. It was no surprise that hands did NOT shoot into the air by attendees who felt especially motivated. 

These mission statements were not motivating. The problem he explained was that they are simply vague statements. Samples usually included:

  • To empower creation
  • To change the world
  • To become the number 1…
  • To give everyone power
  • Etc.

He would push the teams further to develop a vision… a future state of their smaller working team. This helped with motivation, but only slightly. 

The real change came about when he introduced the idea of the Mission Essential Task List. [I believe this was a requirement of the military during wartime missions]. This was a to-do list of the tasks that members of the team would do regularly to achieve their desired future state [Vision] that would be directly aligned with their Mission and that of the larger organization.

Today, I am wondering if an exercise in Problem Statement creation might be beneficial to smaller groups that have been created inside of larger organizations.

Problem statements are very similar to Mission Statements but are tied directly to a reality of something that needs to be fixed or changed. Fixing or changing some product, service or process is what motivates people. Problem statements don’t have to describe a problem, just something that can be solved. It is possible to arrive at the correct answer.

Finding the correct answer is especially motivating to those individuals that work in technology.  Here are a few things that will make a problem statement more motivating:

  • Learning – individuals that work in technology would love to learn new things and master them
  • Value – individuals that work in technology would love to work on something that makes a difference
  • Competition – individuals that work in technology would love to compete and prove their intelligence and hold bragging rights
  • Difficulty – individuals that work in technology would love to solve a problem that initially seems to be unsolvable

The problem statement mentioned at the beginning of this post was:
“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. “ – John F. Kennedy in May 1961.

-RG