When faced with the prospect of teaching online, many are wary and concerned about losing the connection they enjoy from face to face instruction. While online teaching may not be for everyone, there are a multitude of benefits for students and instructors when it comes to this modality. Online teaching provides faculty and students with flexibility, innovative methods that can enhance higher order thinking, and engagement through high quality learning opportunities.
Myths and Misconceptions:
Confusion and misunderstanding abound when it comes to individual perceptions of what online teaching and learning entail. Some of the most common misconceptions revolve around course design, facilitation, and student engagement factors (Li et al., 2005; Liam Drago et al., 2005; Ronkowitz & Ronkowitz, 2021).
Myth #1: Face-to-face course content can simply be moved into an online course
To make the most of the online modality, it is best to design your course to be intentionally delivered online. Face to face and online courses differ in the ways with which information and activities are presented to students for optimal success. Instructional design is a process which draws on research-based best practices to help align curriculum with key goals and objectives and create engaging learning experiences that support the aims of the program or course.
Fortunately, WesternOnline has professionals skilled in the field of instructional design and online learning who can help you make the most of your online teaching experience!
Myth #2: Online courses lack interaction and engagement between students and the instructor
Online course design is actually centered around the need for engagement between students and the instructor as well as the content itself. The methods used in online instruction ensure active participation from both students and instructors. There are a variety of technology mediated options for creating a robust online learning environment and building course community.
Course Design:
This first, most important component of teaching online begins with sound course design. There are multiple instructional design models that are used in the field to aid in creating rich and beneficial learning experiences. In general, you can expect there to be a heavy emphasis on generating a course map/plan that relies on your course’s goals and objectives to guide the materials, assessments, and activities you include in your online course.
WesternOnline has professionals equipped to help you in this process to work with you on refining course goals/objectives, content, activities, and assessments as well as methods for effective delivery of these opportunities.
Course Design
Get started designing your online course with our instructional design staff and resources!
Andragogy:
Online course design is often steeped in principles of andragogy. Andragogy is adult learning theory. While andragogy may not play a role in every activity or choice in course design, it is helpful to draw upon the assumptions of adult learners to foster better, more meaningful students engagement. Your audience, course goals, and objectives will help determine where and when you draw upon these principles, but we strongly urge online educators to familiarize themselves with Malcolm Knowles’ (2005) six basic assumptions of adult learners:
- The need to know: Adults require explanation of why they need to know the material being presented or the activities being asked of them.
- The learners’ self-concept: Adults are more oriented to seeing themselves as decision makers on their educational journey and prefer being thought of as autonomous or self-directed.
- The role of learners’ experiences: Adult learners have more lived experiences than children and can, therefore, draw upon those as potential learning opportunities. As adults have a range of experiences, there may be great differences in learner characteristics.
- Readiness to learn: Adults require knowledge and skills at the time they are most needed.
- Orientation to learning: Adults are not necessarily in need of content knowledge, but rather how to apply skills and content to real-life circumstances.
- Motivation: Adults are more intrinsically motivated to learn.
Taking these factors into account when you consider designing your online course may help in identifying learning opportunities that align with your students which can lead to better engagement, satisfaction, and applicability of your course content and activities. While we often think of traditional college-aged undergrads as requiring mostly content-knowledge, using andragogy as a basis for some decision making can help you build assessments and projects that will still connect your students with one another, their worlds, and your subject matter.
Format/Modality Considerations:
In addition to taking in account general principles of andragogy and course design, you will need to consider your course modality. Generally, there are two main modalities for online courses. Synchronous and asynchronous. When thinking about our traditional face to face courses, we would consider those to be synchronous because they have a set meeting time where all students assemble together for instruction and learning activities. Online synchronous courses typically rely heavily upon video conferencing/meeting tools to facilitate being together in a single environment, whereas asynchronous means that it is not tied to a specific meeting time and students often work independently on course readings and some assignments, however, that does not mean that there aren’t some group work activities that require them to coordinate a time that works for their team to complete a project. Despite being labeled as synchronous, courses that meet at a specific time (like their face to face counterparts) still have asynchronous work that is done outside of class, however, that is always a part of any online or face to face course.
Each of these course modalities has benefits and drawbacks, depending on the goal of your program or course and the needs of your learners and it is important to consider your audience when selecting your course delivery modality.
For tips on using technology to facilitate synchronous online learning, see our TIPS FOR SYNCHRONOUS ENGAGEMENT.
Asynchronous 7-Day Course Delivery and Assignment Model
Design suggestions from Barbara Farrand, WWU
Creating your online course around a 7-day week (beginning Monday at 12:00 AM and ending Sunday at 11:59 PM) affords both students and faculty with a degree of flexibility in scheduling their weeks to better accommodate everyone’s complex needs and life circumstances. Advantages are consistent throughout the quarter and over various assignments.
Instructor benefits include:
- Faculty’s ability to schedule specific days of the week that can be dedicated to activities related to Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), such as:
- Providing feedback on assignments within a reasonable time
- Answering emails
- Meeting with students during office hours or by appointment
- Other assistance with their research or coursework
- Setting aside days of the week to grade
- Preparing and reviewing the following week’s content to ensure it is accurate, operational, and ready to be published prior to the next weekly cycle.
- Crafting weekly announcements to remind students of important course information and/or using the “delay posting” options in Canvas Announcements for release on the appropriate future dates/times related to the announcement.
Benefits of a 7-day structure for students include:
- Predictability around expectations for due dates and course flow for each week (see Late or Make Up Work Policies and Procedures below)
- Flexibility in how much time they need, individually, to spend on an activity related to their learning preferences and/or ability
- Opportunity for students with accommodations to engage in a course that focuses on a more equitable approach to the amount of time it can take to complete assignments (e.g. over the course of a week versus the length of a class period)
- Ability to schedule coursework around work, family, commitments or other potential time conflicts
- Time to predict whether or not they may require an extension and to be able to communicate with the faculty around those needs in advance (often used alongside specific course requirements related to contacting the faculty to avoid missing an assignment, dependent on the course policies)
Late or Make Up Work Policies and Procedures: Instructors can choose how to plan for and address late work at their discretion, however, clearly communicating these policies and procedures to students in advance is important to their success in your asynchronous course.
Barbara Farrand’s approach to managing late work is to request that students contact her within the 7-day period before the due-date and final hour deadline at the end of the week for a full credit extension. Otherwise, make up work receives half credit if they miss the deadline without contacting the faculty.
Community of Inquiry
Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (1999) address student engagement in online courses by introducing the Community of Inquiry Framework (CoI). This framework, if implemented effectively, can help facilitate active knowledge creation, communication, and connection.
The CoI encompasses three presences: teacher, cognitive, and social. The “Teacher Presence” is exemplified by the actions the instructor takes to build an environment that is conducive to discourse, explains and models effective communication, and designs the learning opportunities. Social Presence is the act of being one’s self. By leveraging the elements in the Teacher Presence, social presence can be formed and gives way to the Cognitive Presence. Cognitive Presence is the meaning-making students create in these social environments, using the learning opportunities, environment, and thoughtful design of the instructor. Each presence coalesces into the overall learning environment, which in the online medium serves the co-construction of knowledge in a supportive and structured course.
Works Cited
Garrison, D. Randy, Anderson, Terry, & Archer, Walter. (1999). Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2), 87-105.
Knowles, Malcolm S, Holton III, Elwood F, & Swanson, Richard A. (2005). The Adult Learner. Burlington: Taylor & Francis Group.
Li, Qing, & Akins, Melina. (2005). Sixteen myths about online teaching and learning in higher education: Don’t believe everything you hear. TechTrends, 49(4), 51-60.
Liam Drago, Wil, Peltier, James W, Hay, Amanda, & Hodgkinson, Myra. (2005). Dispelling the Myths of Online Education: Learning via the Information Superhighway. Management Research News, 28(7), 1-17.
Ronkowitz, Kenneth, & Ronkowitz, Lynnette Condro. (2021). Choosing Transformation Over Tradition: The Changing Perception of Online Education. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 80(1), 205-229.
