Reflecting on Being an Online/Blended Instructor

WOW! While the past 8 weeks seem to have flown by, when I look back at all the work we did I’m not exactly sure how I did it! This is the first time that I have truly been an online student. I’ve done a few projects here and there, but this was complete immersion of the online community for me. What an eye-opening experience. And to self-evaluate? I don’t even know where to begin.

When I look at myself as a learner, I would say I’m not cut out for 100% online learning. I’m so glad I took this course, but I want some interaction with people, I want some face to face conversations. Versions of this communication can take place in the online environment, but I’m not sure it would be enough for me. And I find myself teaching that way. I find it easier to verbally explain things to a student, then type up separate instructions to have them decipher. If I were to teach an online course, i definitely would incorporate videos of myself explaining work, assignments, expectations. Some students comprehend better (myself included) by hearing and listening. Skype and Hangouts activities to get to know one another would be a must. These “fun” sessions could be simply playing a game, telling about stories about ourselves, sharing with one another. This is what I felt was lacking in the class (not that there was a lot of extra time for it) and I would want to include it in my own courses. I know I would find myself going overboard making sure students felt the connection with each other and myself.

Using technology is a strength of mine. I’m comfortable trying new things and encouraging students to try new things. Because I have not taught a true online course, I don’t know what the requirements are for a student in regards to technology. What are they required to have? Do I get to determine that? Is it determined by the online school or school district hosting the course? As wonderful as technology can be, and how much it can add to a course, it can also be a hinderance if it’s not working or compatible. For the immediate future, I plan to implement many of my learned skills into my hybrid course in the hopes of converting it into a blended and/or flipped class. Small steps, but do each step well, that’s my motto.

As an instructor, this experience have been invaluable. I saw a quote that said “if YOUR job is to tell me how to do MY job, you have to have done my job at one point”. The same is true for online instructors. Had I not been a student myself, I would have a harder time relating to frustrations, time management skills needed, online collaboration, discussion techniques, etc. Experiencing it all first hand gives me insight into questions or concerns my students may have. I’ll be able to help advise and coach them as they complete work, relating back to my own course experience.

As I review the iNACOL standards for online teaching, I feel my strength lies in Standard B: The online teacher understands and is able to use a range of technologies, both existing and emerging, that effectively support student learning and engagement in the online environment. Technology is at the core of most of what I teach, I comfortable with it, excited about it, and encouraging of my students to try new ones. I am most unsure about Standard I: The online teacher demonstrates competency is using data from assessments and other data sources to modify content and to guide student learning. I understand what this entails, but I worry I will not do justice to my students because of the lack of face to face interaction. This fear may be derivative of my lack of experience in this area, but it is also not an area where "trial and error" will be an acceptable learning tool. I need to have some solid techniques and proven strategies to use so I can appropriately guide student learning. I'm going to have to work extremely hard to develop relationships with other online instructors so I can collaborate and improve my own teaching.

Just like technology, online instructions will continue to change. To stay current I am going to have to find other instructors to collaborate with, continue seeking out courses when I can learn new and emerging technologies, and keep on top of changes in the laws. Like a traditional instructor, my education in continual, but won't happen in the traditional ways. I hope to encourage some of my colleagues to take this course and start venturing into the online teaching world. The more the merrier! Any Fairmont Cardinals reading this? Want to jump in with me?

The Roles of an Online Facilitator

As I have been progressing through my online course (teaching me to be an online facilitator) I'm developing a greater appreciation and respect for those instructors doing this full-time, and to the extent we are learning about. This week we were asked to look at 4 roles an online facilitator has and evaluate them. Below is what I've come up with:

Four Roles of an Online Teacher

Social Director, Program Manager, Technician, Instructor

List the Four Roles of an Online Teacher from Your Weakest to Strongest	What Skills Do I Need to Gain or Strengthen?	How I Will Gain The Skills?
Social Director	Collaboration with other online instructors to get ideas/projects for successful community building Continually implement new projects into the course to develop community throughout the course Encourage interactivity and participation among students	Start with a welcoming, introductory activity Encourage interactions among students throughout the course by providing opportunities to work together and collaborate
Instructor	Facilitate learning without giving students a direct route to get there, allow students to find their way Provide timely/personal feedback to students	Establish a realistic “turn around time” for grading work or providing feedback. This needs to be soon enough to give adequate feedback to students while at the same time not overwhelm me with work
Program Manager	Develop a well designed course with a smooth flow from one unit to the next Establish a workable/doable time frame for assignments to be due and allow enough time for students to complete work and not feel overwhelmed Provide time management tips to help students with large projects	Work through some of the projects (simulations) I will have my students do so I have a better understanding of the time it will take Provide due date steps to break up work for units, not everything due on one day
Technician	Use common technologies that students and myself are used to Use a variety of text tools to provide information (video, audio, text, etc.) Do not always try to introduce new things (required new things) when something is working well, use new technologies sporadically Allow students to use the technologies they are comfortable with, even though I may not be familiar with, as long as the ultimate learning goal is met Provide basic FAQ’s or How-To’s for students to address basic needs	Continue my own technical learning so I can stay on top of new programs/Web 2.0 tools Continue to develop my PLN on Twitter and elsewhere to have some "go-to" people for questions or ideas

My idea of online instruction before taking this class and now are so drastically different! It's not that I didn't think online teaching was easy, but I did not realize all the requirements and laws that are now affecting it. I have a few blended courses I had looked on as being a pretty good start to moving to online. Boy, do I have some work to do this summer!

Assessment and Web 2.0

Education and a teacher's work, is broken down into what a student learns or doesn't learn. How do we know what was learned? Well, there has to be some sort of test right? A paper & pencil, multiple choice test run through a Scantron machine, any student taking your class should be able to take to prove they learned something.

Well break out of the dark ages, there's more to learning than that. I studied Howard Gardner in college, I know there are multiple intelligences and everyone processes information differently. I learned about Maslow and his hierarchy of needs and their effect on student learning. I also learned Skinner's Behaviorism. And by now you're probably thinking, so what? So you learned about these philosophers (and more), where are you going with this? Every one of these people thought differently about learning, had something different to say, something different about how learning occurs, and guess what, they are all right. Why? Because learning happens differently for everyone. And if we all learn differently, then how can we be assessed in the same way and be expected to show learning?

There's a novel idea, different assessments for different students! WOW! Why has no one come up with this before (yes, I do sound sarcastic).  As they used to say, there's more than one way to skin a cat (at least where I come from, although I've never seen it actually done except in Advanced Biology), well there's more than one way to assess a student for knowledge learned. And educating 21st Century Students, technology is a tool that can provide endless possibilities, particularly in an online course.

For instance, old school book reports. A student read a book, wrote an essay (usually 5 paragraphs, introduction, conclusion, supporting paragraphs, you get the idea) to summarize the story. Advanced English courses might ask for more; character development, the relation of a story to current events, how the point of view would change if told through different character, does the story make a social statement, etc. It's still writing. But what about the student whose passion is film making. Couldn't they create a short video clip in lieu of a written report? Could that show knowledge learned? Absolutely. Or what about the artsy student, could they create an art project, sure. The possibilities are endless. I actually found a report, 50 Alternatives to the Book Report, just by doing a quick Google search.  I even saw a teacher once who had students create fake Facebook pages for the different characters (same project, also in a history class).

For my computer classes, I could envision using Thinglink and having students import a screenshot of the MS Excel screen, for example, and label the parts of the screen to learn essential terminology needed to follow directions in future assignments. For Accounting, I would have students use Screencast-O-Matic to explain how they completed a Google Sheets Income Statement or Balance Sheet, addressing particular standards. In an Advertising class a student might use Smore or Tackk to design an advertisement.

No matter how creative or out of the box you want to get, it comes down to an assessment. How it looks, or what it entails, can be different for each student, or small groups of students, but there are 2 important components for an assessment strategy like this to be successful. First, some sort of rubric describing essential components you'll need to see to establish a student's learning is key. If you are allowing students a variety of options for completed work, this rubric may need to be somewhat broad, or non specific to projects. Second, it is essential there is continual feedback to students as they complete their work. Depending on the project, or length of time to complete it, will determine the number of check ins and how they might look.

Periodic check in points are a good way for a student to share what they have completed and the teacher to provide feedback, ask questions, and guide students in a positive direction. You might need to supply what objectives should be addressed at each checkpoint, or you might say "students should 1/2 done, or 1/4 done with your project" to help students learn time management. The struggle comes when you don't have these students sitting in a classroom with you every day. How you can do a check in will look different depending on the project itself. Regardless of the how, it has to happen. This is essential to a project's success.

So can you look to your own class and find some alternative Web 2.0 assessment tools? I'm sure you can, just take that leap outside of the box and go for it.