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By Neil Hollands, Project Director
North Carolina Virtual Learning Community
- On-site
learners know the drill. Online learners may not.
We all have many years of training in how to behave in a classroom. The social
rules, class procedures, and expectations for online learning are less clear.
The instructor must make sure that students are completely aware of what is
expected. Spell instructions out completely! Every item that you take the time
to make clear in advance will save a dozen email messages later.
- Online learners will quit more quickly.
In a classroom, most learners are comfortable enough to wait things out if the
first week or two of instruction is unclear. There is no such social pressure
to stay at a computer if an online course isn't meeting expectations. Online
learners will walk away. They will assume that online learning is a bad form
of education or that they just don't have the skills or personal style to
handle it. Begin personal interaction with online students immediately. Get
them talking with the rest of the class. Build preparatory assignments that
give students experience with the course site and the technical skills they
will need. Provide on-going praise, encouragement, and other incentives for
them to keep working.
- Online
learners require more interaction with an instructor.
This principle might be a surprise, but it's true. On-site learners
designate one or two of their members to be the implicit
"participators." These students ask most of the questions and give
the instructor feedback while the others learn more quietly. Because online
students can't pass this role to others, be prepared to answer plenty of
email. To keep your burden as instructor reasonable, pre-empt questions by
answering them in support materials before they need to be asked. Encourage
interaction between students so that they can get help from classmates in
addition to the instructor. Provide links to online resources in technology
and the subject you are teaching.
- Online
learning can lack feedback for both students and instructors.
Poorly designed online learning fails to provide feedback for everyone
involved. Instructors do not know if students understand the material or if
their teaching methods are working. Students aren't sure if they are working
enough or if they are catching all of the concepts. To compensate, use
communication tools frequently and provide a variety of assignments. Ask more
confirming questions and review more often.
- Online
instructors must take some technical responsibility.
Whether you like it or not, participants will look to you for technical help
when taking online courses. Prepare yourself. If you know your skills are a
little "iffy," collect a set of resources to which you can send students.
- Online learning is frequently more participant-driven.
Online learners are
usually a self-motivated breed. As an instructor, listen to what they want to
learn. Give them content choices. Use telecommunications to get them to teach
each other. A good online instructor is a facilitator, not the only source of
information
- Online
learning should be broken into manageable pieces.
Because online learners quit quickly and because our attention span for a
computer screen is limited, online content should be broken into chunks that
take twenty minutes or less to complete. Students can always do more than one
piece if their attention span holds.
- All learners are media critics.
We have all been trained by television, movies, and Internet to be harsh media
critics. If presentation, content, or design is mediocre, we seek out other
sources. Information is plentiful and we have to be good critics or we just
don't have enough time to get what we need. Quality design becomes critical
in this atmosphere.
- Finally . . .
After
all is said and done, there are still more similarities than differences between
online and on-site learning. A
good test for any online material is to first ask, "Would this work if I were presenting it as a live, on-site course?" If the answer is no, then start over.
© Neil Hollands, May 8, 2000
By permission: North Carolina Virtual Learning Community
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