On Line Teaching
After reviewing this material. I feel there is a higher level of maintenance required for teaching an on-line as opposed to the traditional classroom.
Thanks for your response Beth. Can you explain why you think there is a higher level of maintenance for online learning versus residential?
In my experience, I have found a lower level of maintenance required in my online classes. The classroom is already set up, all assignments and due dates are planned from Day 1, class materials are simply a click away, linked online to each module.
For me, this seems to call for less maintenance on my part, but does require the instructor to be more adaptable. She must be able to teach material and grade assignments that were originally designed by someone else.
You bring up some great points Kelly. I think it really depends on the school that you are teaching for though. Some online schools expect faculty to create the entire curriculum for the online class, other schools have that created by others so that the instructor is really a facilitator. It sounds like that is the experience that you have had in teaching online. Thanks for your comments.
That depends on the format of the class materials. If they are PDFs, I would want to rewrite them in something like HTML so that students could browse them more easily. Reading PDFs on an iphone isn't much fun.
Great point Colin--it certainly depends on the format of the class materials. Thanks for your comments.
I am teaching the use of basic applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and graphical presentation programs. Although the curriculum has been prepared for me and suggestions are made as to what should be included in each of my live chats, I still find it much harder to teach these in an online environment than were I with them face to face. In my live discussions, I do pause frequently to ask if there are questions and I solicit answers from each person that is present. That is still not the same as "seeing the light go on" in someone's eyes when you are face to face. In addition, it is very hard to know where someone has made a mistake on a spreadsheet, for example. They claim to be doing everything that I have explained and yet get a different result. I resort to having them send me the document and I can then easily see where the error occurred. As an online instructor, I view it as my job to try to visualize what the student is doing and cannot give up until they and I have found the answer.
Some subjects can be more challenging than others to teach online. Although, it sounds like you have found ways to cope with the challenge by having students send you their spreadsheets to find the error--great idea!
It depends on what is meant by maintenance. Though the classroom is set up, due dates and tasks are posted....it is the job of the instructor to keep all said tasks going. You have to constantly maintain the email and classroom-- even during weekends, holidays and other out-of-normal-school hours. In essence you have no true 'non teaching' time. You are always on call!
Now this isn't a 'bad thing' -- just a different level of maintenance. When you leave the traditional classroom, you are off the clock. You still have papers to grade granted, but you don't have to monitor you email or your classroom after class is over.
There are of course pros and cons to both sides of the maintenance of the traditional classroom versus the online classroom and truly it just comes down to personal preference!
Thanks for your time!
I would agree with on line methods. there would be alot of back and forth. to keep all students timely informed.
Thanks for your post Billy. I agree that there is a contant need for communication to online students.
Tina I agree with you totally.There is just a different level of maintenance when you are working with the online environment. Although classes are set up for the instructor, this does not mean instructors have no additional work to do. Instructors online are busy setting up a welcoming environment for the class, posting announcements as needed, answering email on-time, grading, and working with students who are needing extra help daily. This, along with the tasks mentioned in the earlier posting is considered a high level of maintenance for some.
Kim
I agree with you Tina. I also feel that an effort should be made to get to know your online students. The instructor sets the tone from the very beginning. There are ways to be approachable and unapproachable as a online instructor. A quick response time is a big deal if you need to reach an instructor and they are offline at that time. I had a problem with an assignment in one of my online classes and I e-mailed my instructor. She never responded. She also was the only instructor that term that did not send our class a welcome letter
Currenlty I'm completing on line clasess my self, and as instructor and a student I understand both sides of the fence. So far I've had many great instructors but yet as of late i've been stumbeling into some interesting teaching methods. I've found instructor that just log on to just answer quetions and nothing else. So it literally feels like at teach yoru self class. Some people dont mind but others like my self feels like it's a total waste of my money. am I the only one to feel this way?
Beth,
You mention that after reviewing this material, you feel there is a higher level of maintenance required for teaching an on-line as opposed to the traditional classroom. Can you please explain why you feel that there is a higher level of maintenance required for an on-line course versus a traditional classroom? Examples of why you feel this way would be great!
Thank you!
Cristy
