There is that moment of
anticipation right before your lecture starts and you realize that your
students will form their opinion of you based on the first set of words that
come out of your mouth. Actually, you realize that many of the students have
already made up their minds about you based on your previous students’
comments, ratings, and/or reviews on Rate
My Professors. Then comes that next sweet moment when you remember that you
are teaching an online class and your lecture can be prerecorded, cross
referenced, and perfected…and your students will love every minute of it…if you
can get them to watch it at all…
Wait a second; isn’t an
online class supposed to be easier for the instructor and a walk in the park
for students? Isn’t all that you have to worry about copying and pasting the
assignment guidelines and due dates into the learning management system and
then you can kick back and wait for all of their eagerly prepared assignments
to come dropping into your box like presents at a holiday party? Of course, if
it was that easy, wouldn’t everyone being doing it?
It is not that easy and an
online class does not pilot itself. In fact, in some ways, creating the sense
of community that one finds in a face-to-face environment is more difficult
online than people assume. The asynchronous postings and geographical
separation that occurs in many online environments makes the crafting of
assignments and community building more important, arguably, than in a
traditional brick and mortar classroom. In addition, cultural and linguistic
differences can influence interactions in ways different from a physical
classroom. That is why these kinds of classroom interactions need to be
structured, clear, and personalized.
To make students feel a
sense of belonging in the course, it is important to make them feel included by
reaching out, inviting them to participate, constructing experiences that are
engaging, reference them by name, and make them feel valued as individuals by
taking an interest in their stories while providing them opportunities to have
fun in the first few weeks of the course according to Dr. Rena Palloff and Dr. Keith
Pratt, authors of at least three books on online teaching methods and
strategies. While these are important elements to make students feel like their
participation in online courses is valued, they also need to get to know their
professor through a variety of text based and multimedia elements. This helps
to personalize the professor and humanize the learning environment.
None of this is possible
without the instructor having a clear set of instructional objectives,
knowledge of the tools at his/her disposal, and clarity of communication for
student behavior. An intimate knowledge of how to operate the technology that
is available for the online classroom and how to select the appropriate
technological tool for the instructional job at hand is important to make sure
that all instructional tools are aligned with the instructional tasks required
of students. It is also important to make sure that the instructor understands
how much experience the students have with the new technologies being required
of them so that the instructor keeps students from feeling cognitive overload
during tasks.
If the instructor is not
careful and cognizant of the ways that students feel in the beginning of the
course and sets up the course in a way that the students feel overwhelmed or
devalued, their participation and continued presence in the course will
diminish and they may drop from the course. Introducing students to an online
course and building community is more important than in face-to-face
environments. The separation of the students from the instructor and from one
another can be a barrier, but when effectively planed for by an instructor, an
online class can be as meaningful as a traditional class.
